Electricity supply industry privatization

Steve Thomas (1996), The Privatization of the Electricity Supply Industry, in The British Electricity Experiment—Privatisation The Record, the Issues, the Lessons (John Surrey, editor), London, Earthscan Publications. 

I do not know to what extent your Lordships are familiar with the electricity supply industry, but perhaps I may put it this way. The private sector of the electricity supply industry is dealing, in effect, in single articles costing millions of pounds. 

Careful consideration must be given to the source, cost, and reliability of the primary electric-power supply. Power can be either purchased from a public or private utility, produced at the plant site by steam-driven turbogenerators or natural gas-driven engines, or purchased from an adjacent industrial plant as a by-product. An economic study is necessary to select the type or types of power supply to be specified. Important factors which are considered in such a study include ... 

The main nationalized industries are represented by the British Airports Authority, British Airways, the National Bus Company, British Coal, the electricity generating and supply boards (central and regional), the Post Office, British Rail, British Shipbuilders and British Steel. They employ about 6 per cent of all British employees. British Aerospace, the National Freight Corporation, Britoil, British Telecom, Associated British Ports and parts of British Rail are among the units formerly in the public sector which have been privatized since 1979. Steps have been taken to encourage competition in energy... 

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