The correct market design can render electricity very much like other commodities, as far as trading and retailing are concerned. However, social and political concerns, rather than engineering or economics, make electricity unique. The book addresses a wide set of issues arising when competition is introduced in to the electricity industry, ranging from alternative wholesale market designs to competition policy in electricity markets; from the benefits and cost of retail competition, to the emerging politicization of generation investment as a way to pursue sustainability targets.