Electric utility privatization: What we can learn from the British experience
The most famous privatization effort, that of the Thatcher government, put the concept on the front pages. It embraced privatization with zeal. The government raked in billions of pounds. Millions of new investors bought shares in dozens of companies. But the privatizations left a legacy of problems. One can learn from them. Privatizations shook up complacent enterprises, increasing their efficiency and decreasing the prices that customers paid (with the exception of water consumers). The efforts helped to revitalize London as a financial center, and launched enterprises that have now ventured forth from England`s green and pleasant land into the rest of the world. The UK also made sure that the British remained in control of all the new companies upon privatization. On the other side of the balance, the British government, on occasion, acted in haste, with meeting a politically imposed deadline more important than getting the structure right. It left a great deal of money on the table after each sale. It confused the appearance of competition with effective competition. It created a string of regulatory agencies that lacked the tools to effectively control the utilities absent the effective competition that was supposed to supplement light regulation. And the privatizations put a lot of people out of work in the regulated industries and the businesses that supplied them.
- OSTI ID:
- 532994
- Journal Information:
- Cogeneration and Competitive Power Journal, Journal Name: Cogeneration and Competitive Power Journal Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 12; ISSN CCPJE8; ISSN 1066-8683
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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