Innovative models of power generation: the captive‐collective experience of consumer participation in power development in India

While the need for power increases, and costs of generation are on the rise, developing nations face the particular challenge of developing power systems despite a lack of national and local government funds. In this paper, it is suggested that consumer participation, technical innovation, and managerial flexibility may provide the answers, and the Andhra Pradesh Gas Power Corporation Limited in India is offered as a model venture which successfully responds to the region's power and resource specifications. Through the formation of a ‘captive‐collective’ and ‘capital‐cooperative’ plant, a joint venture of the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board and some bulk industrial consumers, the respective needs of all parties were met with great success. Such large‐scale power projects, set up and managed by consumers with the technical assistance of State Electricity Boards, can substantially reduce costs for consumers while engaging in technologies that reduce environmental pollution and resource degradation. Consumer participation is highlighted as the key element for positive power development, and it is argued that the success of projects such as the one undertaken in Andhra Pradesh illustrate the possibility and necessity for consumer‐initiated and consumer‐managed power ventures.