| Summary: | In both the UK and the USA, throughout the 1980s, governments committed to neo-liberalist ideals brought dramatic changes to the real and perceived relationships between the public and private sector. At the heart of this ideology was an opposition in principle to both public sector organisation of the provision of all public goods and government configuration and regulation of the economy. Instead, competition between producers to benefit customers should define the public interest and ensure that it is served. It was precisely this mode of thinking, together with changing economics of electricity generation, technological innovation and, especially in the case of the USA, power industry management problems that led to change. Vertically integrated utility companies supplying power to a captive franchise area became a thing of the past. The Electricity Supply Industry (ESI) became characteriseed by competition in generation, customer choice, market versus regulated rates and separation of ownership and control of generation, transmission and system operation.
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