The Israeli government has agreed to open its domestic power sector to competition for private electricity producers and will break up the monopoly held by the state-run power utility Israel Electric Corporation (IEC). In May 2018, IEC, the government and the main trade union Histadrut agreed to launch the process but the move still requires a new law to be drafted in the Parliament, which is expected to take place before the end of summer 2018.
IEC has been managing the domestic power supply chain for decades but has agreed to sell five of its power plants over the next five years and will set up a new subsidiary for the development of two new power stations projects, which are yet to be built. IEC's system management and planning unit will be sold to another government-owned company, but the state power utility will retain its power distribution monopoly. However supply will be gradually opened to competition.
In recent years, the power generation market has been open to competition and independent power producers (IPPs), such as Edeltech, IC Power or Dalia Power Energies, operate more than 3 GW, i.e. more than 20% of the total installed capacity.