in addition in a large group of countries electricity is in state hands apart from the bolivarian republic of venezuela which renationalized the private firms the public sector tends to dominate in the smaller economies where monopoly situations are also more likely to exist owing to the difficulty of introducing competition between participating agents in ecuador and paraguay state domination is complete whereas in the case of uruguay the public enterprise administration nacional de usinas y trasmisiones electricas ute controls transmission distribution and all generation except that using biomass and wind power although no new privatizations or nationalizations of electricity firms are foreseen in many economies of the region private investment has increased in the markets that were open to receive this encouraged by promising sector growth prospects and stable regulatory frameworks that are attractive for investors moreover the emergence of new renewable energy sources has also opened up new opportunities for private participation see section e