Editorial

Citation

Bhattacharya, S.C. and Dey, P.K. (2007), "Editorial", International Journal of Energy Sector Management, Vol. 1 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijesm.2007.32801caa.001

Editorial

The third issue of the first volume contains four papers, one short note and a book review. In the short note Peter Cameron discusses the recently published White Paper on Energy Policy of the United Kingdom. Although the impressive 300-page long document sketches the new direction of the UK energy policy, Prof. Cameron wonders whether the required investments would be forthcoming and whether the changed circumstances would promote a better integration with the European policies as opposed to its present status of a disinterested partner.

In the first research article of this issue, Jonathan Stern questions the rationale of continued reliance on oil-indexed pricing system in the European long-term gas contracts. His paper explains the evolution of the oil-indexed gas pricing in the 1970s when the need to ensure competitiveness of gas at the end-user level was of paramount importance. However, his analysis shows that at present there is limited possibility of switching back to oil products in the power sector (which is the dominant consumer of gas in Europe) and in other end-uses of gas. This limits the relevance of oil-indexed gas pricing. He then suggests the alternatives to oil-indexed pricing and asks whether to remain oil-linked or move to a new pricing system.

In the second paper Qudrat-Ullah and Karakul present an assessment of the long-term electricity policy of Pakistan using a model that relies on the system dynamics approach. The paper investigates whether the policies followed by the government are encouraging the utilization of locally available resources like hydropower or promoting an import dependent of fuels for power supply and the implications of the policy in terms of carbon emissions. The authors find that the present policies are discouraging investment in hydropower and encouraged the development of a thermal dominated power system which has adverse impacts in terms of fuel import dependence and CO₂ emissions.

In the third paper, Dimitrios Georgakellos quantifies the external cost of air pollution from power generation in Greece. He analyses the air pollution from the lignite-dominated power system of the country and uses the Eco-SenseLE online tool to determine the external costs for 2004 and projects the costs for various years up to 2030. He finds that there is significant variation in external costs across plants due to the quality of fuel use as well as data quality. Although the external costs are expected to increase in the future, they grow slowly due to increased reliance on natural gas for power generation.

In the last paper, Piotr Zientara analyses the policies related to the coal industry in Poland over the past 15 years and suggests that despite pursuing the process of restructuring and reform of the industry, the economic viability of the industry has not yet been ensured. He identifies the inability of the successive governments in reforming the unionized labour market and the prevalence of corruption and fraud as the main factors affecting the performance of the industry. He suggests removal of special union privileges and putting an end to fraudulent practices pervading the sector to improve the situation of the Polish coal industry.

Subhes C. Bhattacharya and Prasanta K. Dey