But there have been wide differences between his expectations and what the power-generating companies have said they could provide.

Development has increased demand in some neighborhoods, but power-generating companies have had a hard time obtaining the permits for new plants and substations in the affected areas.

The industry restructuring, which proposes the freeing of prices and introducing competition among power-generating companies, will eliminate such political battles in the future, Mr. Chubais said.

But experts said the other proposals might be easily thwarted by power-generating companies seeking top dollar.

Southern said it would wait to see whether the British Government would allow combinations of power-generating companies and regional utilities that distribute power.

The smart metering programs are not new, but their continued rarity speaks in part to the success of power-generating companies in protecting their profit models.

This would further shake the confidence of power-generating companies that are already threatening not to sell them electricity, fearing that they will not be paid.

Already, power-generating companies are threatening to force the utilities into bankruptcy, hoping that they will have more luck appealing to a bankruptcy judge than to politicians.

She said that the power-generating companies would have to be forced to reduce emissions from power stations.

Being a power-generating company has become a high-risk business in one of the least forgiving environments of all: Wall Street.