The federal government is the nation's largest producer of
electric power, via the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the
five power marketing administrations (PMAs). These electricity
businesses, along with the numerous federally subsidized
cooperatives and municipal utilities, are poorly managed,
inefficient, and at considerable risk in the emerging
environment of electricity competition. Two dozen other
countries recognizing similar problems with government
electricity provision have launched ambitious electricity
privatization programs. Participating countries include highly
developed nations such as Australia, Britain, Canada, and
Germany; developing nations such as Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan,
and Thailand; and former communist countries such as Hungary and
Poland. In 1995 electricity was the largest category of
privatization worldwide, with $13 billion in sales volume. Over
the past decade over $35 billion of government electricity
corporations have been privatized worldwide. Other countries
have priva