Regulatory Effect on Efficiency and Efficiency Measurements of Power Generating Companies: A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Application

Deregulation of the U.S. electric power industry has forced the electric utility companies to generate electricity in a more efficient way in order to survive in a more competitive market. With this respect, we measure the efficiency levels and growths of 74 large U.S. electric power companies to investigate if any significant changes have occured between regulated and deregulated time periods. We use Data Envelopment Analisys (DEA) to measure the efficiency levels of the companies. We also investigate if there is an efficiency differences between the utility companies in states which accepted competition in electric power supply and the ones which are still regulated.