IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/7275.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Transforming electricity governance in India : has India?s power sector regulation enabled consumers? power ?

Author

Listed:
  • Khanna,Ashish
  • Singh,Daljit
  • Swain,Ashwini K
  • Narain,Mudit

Abstract

Consumers? participation in regulatory decision-making in infrastructure sectors can be critical to ensure effective regulatory governance. Providing avenues for enabling consumers? voice in the regulatory process expands the information base available to regulators in their decision-making, and is critical for ensuring sustainability of policy and regulatory decisions. However, in the reform process of many developing countries? power sectors, the primary focus has been on the sector?s technical aspects, with inadequate effort to improve the experience of consumers, whether through better quality of service or by ensuring their participation in the regulatory process. This shortfall has often undermined the public?s understanding of and demand for reforms, often reflected in political reversal of key policy decisions. This paper examines the level and quality of consumer participation and protection in five states in India through a review of documents, surveys of consumers, and detailed interviews with key stakeholders. As mandated by law, all states have established standards of performance regulations and set up grievance redressal mechanisms; however, these bodies have not reached the desired level of effectiveness. Similarly, although provisions for consumer participation in regulatory proceedings exist, their adoption is often symbolic and without substantive and deliberative participation. Drawing on analysis of the Indian experience and international best practices, the paper recommends a paradigm shift in pursuing enhanced consumer satisfaction and voice in regulatory decision-making as a central objective of power reforms.

Suggested Citation

  • Khanna,Ashish & Singh,Daljit & Swain,Ashwini K & Narain,Mudit, 2015. "Transforming electricity governance in India : has India?s power sector regulation enabled consumers? power ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7275, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7275
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2015/05/22/090224b082eba3f4/1_0/Rendered/PDF/Transforming0e0d0consumers00power00.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elisa Muzzini, 2005. "Consumer Participation in Infrastructure Regulation : Evidence from the East Asia and Pacific Region," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7383.
    2. Sheoli Pargal & Sudeshna Ghosh Banerjee, 2014. "More Power to India : The Challenge of Electricity Distribution," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 18726.
    3. Michael A. Crew & David Parker (ed.), 2006. "International Handbook on Economic Regulation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3330.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mountain, Bruce R., 2019. "Ownership, regulation, and financial disparity: The case of electricity distribution in Australia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Valentiny, Pál, 2019. "Közgazdaságtan a jogalkalmazásban [Forensic economics]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 134-162.
    3. Robin Burgess & Michael Greenstone & Nicholas Ryan & Anant Sudarshan, 2020. "The Consequences of Treating Electricity as a Right," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 145-169, Winter.
    4. Brian Mitchell & David Chambers & Nick Crafts, 2011. "How good was the profitability of British railways, 1870–1912?," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(3), pages 798-831, August.
    5. Ronita Bardhan & Ramit Debnath & Arnab Jana, 2019. "Evolution of sustainable energy policies in India since 1947: A review," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(5), September.
    6. Asproudis, Elias & Weyman-Jones, Tom, 2011. "Third parties �participation in tradable permits market. Do we need them?," MPRA Paper 28766, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Maegli, Martin & Jaag, Christian, 2009. "Regulatory Governance Costs in Network Industries: Implicatins for postal Regulation," MPRA Paper 15309, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Agrawal, Atul & Tripathi, Gireesh Chandra, 2019. "Amendments in Electricity Act 2003: Where the Gap Lies?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 797-802.
    9. Jamasb, Tooraj & Thakur, Tripta & Bag, Baidyanath, 2018. "Smart electricity distribution networks, business models, and application for developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 22-29.
    10. Kamaljit Singh & Simmi Vashishtha, 2021. "Liquidity infusion under Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme: A strategy to revive Indian power discoms," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 5, pages 79-89.
    11. Singh, Anoop & Jamasb, Tooraj & Nepal, Rabindra & Toman, Michael, 2018. "Electricity cooperation in South Asia: Barriers to cross-border trade," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 741-748.
    12. Iskandar, Deden Dinar & Wuenscher, Tobias & Badhuri, Anik, 2012. "The Determinants of Compliance on Environmental Tax: The Insights of Theoretical and Experimental Approaches Motivated by the Case of Indonesia," 86th Annual Conference, April 16-18, 2012, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 134977, Agricultural Economics Society.
    13. Criqui, Laure & Zérah, Marie-Hélène, 2015. "Lost in transition? Comparing strategies of electricity companies in Delhi," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 179-188.
    14. Raffaele Fiocco, 2012. "Competition and regulation with product differentiation," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 287-307, December.
    15. Christine Brandstätt & Gert Brunekreeft & Nele Friedrichsen, 2013. "The Need for More Flexibility in the Regulation of Smart Grids – Stakeholder Involvement," Bremen Energy Working Papers 0013, Bremen Energy Research.
    16. Sedai, Ashish Kumar & Vasudevan, Ramaa & Pena, Anita Alves & Miller, Ray, 2021. "Does reliable electrification reduce gender differences? Evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 580-601.
    17. Alexander, Ian, 2014. "Developing countries experience and outlook: Getting the framework right," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 184-187.
    18. M. Maegli & C. Jaag & M. Finger, 2010. "Regulatory Governance Costs in Network Industries: Observations in Postal Regulation," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, Intersentia, vol. 11(2), pages 207-238, June.
    19. Suryadeepto Nag & David I. Stern, 2023. "Are the benefits of electrification realized only in the long run? Evidence from rural India," Departmental Working Papers 2023-08, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    20. Guerrini, A. & Romano, G., 2017. "Contract renegotiation by an Italian wastewater utility: Action research to promote effective tariff revision," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 176-183.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Contract Law; Social Accountability; Energy Production and Transportation; Marketing; Infrastructure Regulation;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7275. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.