At the end of the 90´s, Research and Development activities in the electric power sector started to be regulated by the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency - ANEEL, and the investment of 1% of the net operating income in R&D projects became mandatory. Ever since, the agents of the sector initiated the organization of R&D programs within the companies, in order to meet the requirements of the regulator and to bring results to the company. Currently, the innovation is a recurring theme in management studies and essentially important to the companies that intend to remain competitive. The main purpose of this dissertation is to identify the perception of executives on how the search for innovation influences the management of R&D investments in companies of the Brazilian Electric Power Sector, as experienced by them on this process. The methodology selected comprised quantitative and qualitative research to achieve the objective proposed. A qualitative research, based on the phenomenological method, was carried out in order to identify the essences of the phenomenon based on the experiences of the R&D managers. The own researcher´s experience of life supported an initial quantitative research, whose purpose was to put into practice the phenomenological reduction allowing the researcher to put himself between brackets during the analysis of the qualitative data. The study gave rise to propositions that aim at indicating: the egative impacts of the lack of internal support within the companies; the non-alignment between universities and agents, the pressure for tangible results in R&D management and the search for innovation, either internally or externally to the company. On the other hand, R&D managers find external support amongst their pairs, suppliers and in discussion forums such as associations and universities.