"FROM MONOPOLY TO EFFECTIVE COMPETITION IN THE REGULATED CONTRACTING ENVIRONMENT OF ELECTRIC ENERGY IN BRAZIL: LEGAL AND REGULATORY FEASIBILITY OF THE COMPETITIVE MARKET IN THE LIGHT OF THE ASSUMPTIONS OF THE REGULATORY STATE".
Regulation. Regulatory State. Brazilian Electric Sector. Electricity.
Captive Market. Monopoly. Competitive Market.
Recognizing freedom of choice as a basic right of the Brazilian electricity consumer, as well as free competition as one of the general principles of the economic order established by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, the research reported in this thesis aims to suggest the legal feasibility of the extinction of the monopoly regime established in the captive electricity market in Brazil ― currently, consisting of around 89.95 million captive consumer units, which reach around 208.5 million people served by 105 distribution companies ―, in favor of the emergence of a competitive market in the provision of commercial services existing in the consumer relations established when contracting access and use of the distribution network, simultaneously with the granting of free access to current captive consumers to the Free Contracting Environment for purchase of electric energy directly from commercialization and generation agents, in competitive regime. In other words, it is suggested to enable current captive consumers to separate the purchase of energy and the contracting of the “wire”, in a competitive commercial regime. Therefore, the study highlights the need for legal-regulatory, contractual and business segregation between commercial services provided in distribution and maintenance, operation and expansion of medium and low voltage distribution networks. From a theoretical point of view, the legal-regulatory feasibility of replacing the current monopolistic captive electricity market with a competitive market was analyzed in the light of the Regulatory State's assumptions