The brazilian electrical sector: past and future

Abstract

This paper analyzes the possibilities of a long-term strategy in Brazil for the electrical energy policy, which indicate for both the governmen-tal and private agencies the expected procedures, responsibilities and the needs of society. This task resumes the definition of the characteristics and the steps for the development of the national sector of electrical power, presenting the construction of the efficient institutional governmental model, which answered for decades for the economical growth, and the needs of society. Starting from the 70's, it then analyzes the crises, which characterized the sector and the companies and its later development, which ended up in an institutional reform, which favored the operation of prívate enterprises. The last part of the paper analyses the many problems, tendencies and the still open questions that arouse because of the transition period towards a new institutional model and the recent electrical energy crisis. It also underlines the importance of the public administration decisions in this transition and the revision ofthe concepts related to the reform of the State, such as the limits of the minimum state and ofthe competitive markets, when the long-term strategy is elaborated.