Abstract
Foreword
We began to work on this special issue on the regulation of network industries in Brazil in the first half of 2021. One year had already passed since the COVID19 outbreak. Network industries have a critical role in the provision of public services as well as in the recovery from the pandemics. The transformations these industries are going through because of their digitalization are challenging traditional business models and are requiring the adaptation of policies and regulations.
Our main goal in the special issue is to present the recent developments in Brazil’s network industries. The discussion is timely. Since 2016 the country has experienced a new wave of restructuring reforms, as illustrated in the four articles about the electricity, the gas, the water, and the transportation sectors.
In the first article, Romeiro and Amorim discuss the successive waves of reforms to liberalize the Brazilian natural gas sector.
The natural gas industry in Brazil is marked by the prevalence of offshore natural gas production associated with oil exploration. Despite the sector’s opening as of the 1990s, Petrobras – the national oil company – continues to completely dominate the entire value chain from production to consumption.
The successive waves of regulatory, legal, and institutional reforms were aimed at reducing the market power of the incumbent, impose vertical separation, and create a competitive market. However, the sector continues to face vertical integration.
The reform is further challenged because of the shared competencies between federal and state jurisdictions. While the upstream gas market along with transport are regulated at the federal level, the states regulate distribution. Since gas distribution and trading have not been unbundled, the successive attempts to reform the industry have met fierce opposition from the states with a significant stake in gas distribution companies. Even gas companies from the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where the gas companies are privately owned, have opposed liberalization so far.
The article assesses possible scenarios for the industry’s evolution in the coming years. The prospect for liberalization and market opening in the Brazilian gas industry after the latest wave of reform is indeed promising. Petrobras’ divestment in the network segment and the regulatory instruments for third-party access to essential infrastructure may favor the entry of new players.
The analysis also sheds light on the future role of natural gas in the energy mix. The high proportion of renewables in the energy (48%) and power (85%) mixes and the promising perspectives for a competitive renewable expansion (wind, solar, and biofuels) compromise the role of natural gas as a bridge fuel in Brazil’s energy transition.
The second article of this special issue approaches the sustainability of the water and sanitation sector in Brazil through the lenses of the 26 state-owned companies (SOC). In their article, the authors build a global sustainability index that applies a MACBETH multicriteria analysis methodology to assess the quality of the provision of water and sanitation.
The analysis is both relevant and timely. Among the major network industries, water was lagging in universal access. In a country with approximately 213 million people, 33 million still do not have access to drinking water, and 94 million are not yet connected to wastewater collection systems.
In 2020 a new legislation was approved to reform the water sector. The reform aims to close this gap by 2033 but would require massive investments. At the time of the reform, SOCs serve more than 70% of the country’s urban population. A new wave of private sector participation is underway, but at a pace that will require the coexistence of private and public capital for the decades to come. Therefore, benchmarking the provision of water and sanitation is instrumental to the success of the reform. Two companies are considered sustainable according to the three dimensions included in the index. Interestingly, these two companies are also known for high standards of corporate governance.
Dutra and Menezes review the evolution of market and regulatory arrangements that govern the electricity sector in Brazil over three decades of restructuring reforms. This experience may be relevant to other emerging countries aiming to promote universal access to electricity. Relying heavily on renewables, the increased access to electricity – which now reaches more than 99.8% of the population – has not come at the expense of significant carbon emissions, in contrast to the experience of other emerging countries such as China, India and Turkey.
The Brazilian experience over the past three decades can certainly be seen as successful from an engineering perspective. The reform enacted in 2003 spurred investments and attracted private capital that led to establishing an integrated electricity system, including over 170,000 km of transmission lines that connect the country. Even though the hydropower share of the electricity production mix decreased from more than 90% in 2000 to 77% in 2020, investments in variable renewable energy (VRE) have kept up with demand.
However, the market design and the regulatory framework have not kept up with investments and technology. The authors claim that the current overall regulatory and market design is unsuitable for addressing and responding to emerging technological trends, such as increasing the penetration of renewables as well as the impacts of climate change on hydrological patterns.
The last article by Camacho and Cruz provides an overview of the changes in the regulatory framework and concession models for roads in Brazil. In the authors’ view, the critical success factors are the adaptation of the regulatory framework, transparency, procurement rules and the risk-sharing mechanisms.
The analysis focuses on a novel regulatory model adopted for road concessions in the state of Sao Paulo, the most developed state. Contractual changes include a novel mechanism to adjust tariffs, a bankability package aimed at improving allocation and early termination clauses.
Private sector participation has increased significantly in the road industry over the past three decades. However, developing a sound business environment is critical to attracting investments in the years to come. The authors conclude with recommendations to advance regulation in the road sector. In this sense, the innovative experience from the State of Sao Paulo can indicate a way forward.