Why did we start with electricity markets in Europe?

In the first chapter of this book, we explore the political, technical and economic drivers behind electricity market development in Europe. We answer three questions. First, what was the political process that led to electricity markets in Europe? We show that the integration process of European electricity markets has so far followed three main steps with increasing levels of detail. Second, what were the technical drivers to create a European power system? We show how system operators had cooperated technically across borders before market integration even started and how such cooperation has evolved since then. Third, what do we know about the benefits of integrating electricity markets in Europe? We look at the economic reasons for integration and the few quantitative studies that exist on the benefits of European market integration. The chapter ends with a conclusion in which we summarize our main points.