The cases we have examined here all point to the importance of distributive patterns of politics in supporting the reverse adaptation of electric utilities and the significance of regulatory policies and agencies in bringing about reform. We shall shortly examine this conclusion in greater detail, but an immediate question that comes to mind is whether we can safely make such generalisations – whether our cases here are typical of other utilities. While space does not permit us to probe other cases too deeply, we can both confirm that the cases studied in depth here are not atypical and briefly survey some other comparable utilities. At the same time, this will allow us to examine some issues relating to demand-side management before moving on to consider in some detail the nature of reverse adaptation and some issues in institutional reform.

In the Canadian context we can point to similar patterns in distributive politics driving electricity planning in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The starkest example of an unreconstructed utility persisting in its distributive form is probably Hydro Quebec, where the enormous hydroelectric potential of James Bay has been developed largely for markets in the United States. Concern in the United States over the impact of these developments on the environment and on indigenous peoples has helped to transform the distributive regime somewhat, and Hydro Quebec is moving to make public consultation a permanent part of its planning process after finding that consultation improved its 1993 development plan considerably.