Performance Evaluation of Electric Supply Utilities in India
Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Indian Electricity Sector: a critical review of organizational structure, reforms and their impact assessment. 3. Distribution sector reforms in India. 4. Efficiency evaluation framework: a study of literature and methodology employed in the analysis. 5. Productivity and benchmarking studies for the Indian electric utilities in the Pre-"Electricity Act 2003" Era. 6. Efficiency and conclusions benchmarking studies for the Indian electric utilities in the Post-Electricity Act 2003 Era. 7. Summary and conclusions. References.
"The Report focuses on evaluation of the performances of the Electric utilities in India. The work is particularly significant in the context of the ongoing reforms in the Indian Electricity Sector. Unfortunately, the concept of efficiency in the delivery of power services has been historically alien in the Indian context (even outside India, efficiency measurement studies have been relatively scarce in developing countries), and it is now being realized that efficiency evaluation is an integral component of any comprehensive reforms program (The success of a reforms program ultimately has to be measured and quantified).
The efficiency evaluation is also necessary for generating competition in the sector and for sector regulation and scientific tariff setting. Hence, it is vital for the success of any reforms program to review the performance of existing utilities. Based on the productivity and efficiency analysis, benchmarks can be set, and targets for improvement may be identified.
The report is coming at a crucial time when the Indian Government has initiated measures that promise to revamp the sector. The work presented in the Report is a pioneer study on evaluation of performances in the Indian power sector, as so far no known study has attempted such comprehensive sector measurement by employing advanced benchmarking technique such as the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) employed in the present analysis.
The work will be particularly useful to various stakeholders in the power industry including the government and the public bodies, regulatory authorities, funding institutions, development institutions and the consumers. The results of the study can provide a common basis for informed policy debate and decisions, and can facilitate in initiating a dialogue between stakeholders."
