Electricity Governance in India

Electricity governance and planning ought to have been two important areas of administration in India right since Independence, but unabated growth in demand, chronic power cuts, nature’s limits and global warming implications all have now made them critical to the all-round development of our communities on a sustainable basis. A rational analysis at how the Electricity sector in the country has performed since independence provides a disappointing picture: there is indifference to the consumers’ needs, inequity of access, financial mismanagement, lack of professionalism and frequent non-compliance with relevant laws. These conditions indicate the need for a paradigm shift in the way the sector is governed. Electricity planning seems to be based on archaic principles, insensitive to changing customer needs and the global warming context. This article recommends that both in governance and planning, effective stakeholder participation and regular consultations with the domain experts will help to address the major issues. System-wide measures such as efficiency improvement, demand side management (DSM), energy conservation and effective use of distributed renewable energy sources (REs), supported by micro grids and smart grids, should be the way forward. A number of national and international reports focusing on Power sector reforms have advocated this approach.