R‌ead the background note

  28 November 2022  Paris

Energy prices have soared since the 2021. Households and business face higher prices for fuel, electricity and heating. Supply problems, especially in Europe, further aggravate the situation. This has led to intensive discussions on how to limit the negative impact of high prices and how to ensure the security of supply.

In November 2022, the OECD held a roundtable to explore the reasons behind the energy price increases in 2021-2022 and present public policy discussions on how to react to it. The roundtable discussed the short and long-term challenges faced by energy markets. High energy prices and supply problems triggered a wide range of policy measures, ranging from temporarily freezing prices to taxing windfall profits.

Discussions showed that the majority of competition authorities is actively involved in identifying measures to bringing down energy prices and that there is a general wariness of reduced competition in the energy markets due to the crisis. Decarbonisation of electricity generation poses questions about the functioning of electricity markets and the role of competition in the future.

This page contains all related documentation. 

Read the background note

See the full list of best practice roundtables on competition.

Mary Starks Bio  
Partner, Flint Global

Frank A. Wolak Bio  
Director, Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, Standford University

Georg Zachmann Bio  
Senior fellow, Bruegel

Background Note

Detailed summary of the discussion

Executive summary with key findings

Contributions from delegations

Mary Starks

Georg Zachmann

Energy Security and Competition Policy (2007)

Radical Innovation in the Electricity Sector (2017)

Electricity: Renewables and Smart Grids (2010)

Competition Issues in the Electricity Sector (2002)

Energy Security and Competition Policy (2007)

OECD best practice roundtables on competition

More OECD work on competition