Brazil Eletric Sector: Impacts Of Desregulation And Private Control Utilities On The Consumers

This study came from the significant change that has been implemented inthe Brazilian electric sector. Reformulation on organizational structures andlegislation, operation systems and recruiting of energy among several invol-ved agents are factors of great turbulence in the national energy scenery. Thissector was characterized by the almost totality of state companies. These oneswere regulated by a rigid model based on area monopoly had changed dueto a strongly competitive environment developed among companies. Simul-taneously a vigorous process of privatization has grown, especially in the areaof electricity distribution. The purposes of this work are to verify if: 1. electricity companies of distribution acting in the market have conditionsto be competitive under the new conditions and rules and 2. the consumers are satisfied with them. Taking these issues into consideration, two questions could be formulated:a) Do distribution companies have skills and human resources to negotiatethe energy they need to attend their request? b) Will consumer have better responses from the new situation, in terms ofprice, quality and electricity supply? The elaboration of the study involves bibliographical research and also ofqualitative field research along with specialists to evaluate how the newmodel and the private operation of the sector impact their consumers. Theresults show that companies are only acting to reduce costs and recover thecapital invested and the consumers didn’t obtain any benefits from the deve-lopment of the new model and/or the private companies operation.