Liberalisation of electricity market: the case of Slovenia

weights for variables in the electricity enterprise references, long-term cooperation,relations with suppliers, and local patriotism. The second common factor is identified asrecognition, with higher weights for the variables of e-communications, commercialconditions, and development of new products and services, and those still to be known.The maximum likelihood method with Oblimin with Kaiser normalisation strengthenedtwo common factors. For the first one, the important weights for variables has notchanged. The second one has the highest weights for the variables of commercialconditions, e-communications, development of new products and services, andrecognition. The maximum likelihood method with Varimax with Kaiser normalisationhas given similar results. Development recognition and business trust are found as thetwo common factor components, which are important for improving wholesale-to-retailsalesupply chain management within the existing Slovenian wholesale-to-retail-saleelectricity distribution market.Conclusion and policy implicationsThe demand for electrical energy has increased and has largely been driven by economicgrowth in the economy and real income increases of households. Due to this, during themost recent recession period, there has been a slight decline in demand and consumptionof electrical energy.As electrical energy is a crucial input into intermediary and final consumption, its realprice and quality of supply are also crucial for production costs, competitiveness of theeconomy, and living standard of the population. As the electricity energy markets in thepast were traditionally monopolized by the local suppliers, the objective of thederegulation and liberalization of the electricity energy markets in Europe and inSlovenia is to induce and to encourage market forces and restructuring towards moredynamic market transactions with the abolishment of critical inefficiencies, and toestablish competitive supply of electrical energy to industrial users and to other finalelectricity consumers such as for public lighting and for final household consumption.19