The Case For International Coordination Of Electricity Regulation

Abstract: A decade long experience shows that monitoring the performance of public and private monopolies in South America is proving to be the hard part of the reform process. The operators who control most of the information needed for regulatory purposes have little interest in volunteering their dissemination unless they have an incentive to do so. Estache, Rossi, and Ruzzier argue that, in spite of, and maybe because of, a much weaker information base and governance structure, South America's electricity sector could pursue an approach that relies on performance rankings based on comparative efficiency measures. The authors show that with the rather modest data currently available publicly, such an approach could yield useful results. They provide estimates of efficiency levels in South America's main distribution companies between 1994 and 2000. Moreover, the authors show how relatively simple tests can be used by regulators to check the robustness of their results and strengthen their position at regulatory hearings. This paper"a joint product of the Governance, Regulation, and Finance Division, World Bank Institute, and the Finance, Private Sector, and Infrastructure Unit, Latin America and the Caribbean Region"is part of a larger effort in the institute to increase understanding of infrastructure regulation.

A decade of experience has shown that monitoring the performance of public and private monopolies is the hardest part of electricity sector reform in South America-because operators control most of the information needed for effective regulation. South American electricity regulators can reduce this information asymmetry by increasing international coordination and relying on comparative measures of efficiency. To make it possible for them to do so, countries should harmonize their regulatory databases and develop methodologies for making comparisons. This paper uses data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis to estimate the efficiency of South America's main electricity distribution companies. Both approaches allow regulators to use relatively simple tests to check the robustness of their findings, strengthening their positions at regulatory hearings.

This volume complements the stocktaking report on International Regulatory Co-operation: Rules for a Global World by providing evidence on regulatory co-operation in the Canada-U.S. Regulatory Cooperation Council, as part of EU energy regulation, under the Global Risk Assessment Dialogue, etc.

Access to modern energy is central in addressing the major global challenges of the 21st century, including poverty, climate change and famine. However large parts of the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have poor or no access to modern energy. Victoria Nalule argues that SSA countries have many common energy challenges which could be tackled with collective efforts through regional cooperation. By means of a legal and comparative analysis and a seven-step framework, the book explores the current regional mechanisms employed in Africa to address the challenge of energy poverty and access and whether they are effective in tackling the challenge of energy access, including regional energy infrastructure and regional energy regulations. Chapters discuss the evolution of regionalism in SSA and the role of regional cooperation in the development of renewable energy as a means of confronting both energy access and climate change. Specifically the nexus between energy access, renewable energy and climate change is covered as well as the potential of fossil fuels in addressing energy poverty. The establishment and development of regional energy infrastructure as one of the mechanisms of addressing energy access challenges in SSA and regional efforts to harmonise energy regulation are explored. Finally a concluding chapter provides recommendations for policy makers and other relevant stakeholders on how best to implement some of the suggestions made in previous chapters. International organisations, regional organisations, government officials, scholars and students with interest in the energy sector will highly benefit from this book.

The past thirty years have witnessed a transformation of government economic intervention in broad segments of industry throughout the world. Many industries historically subject to economic price and entry controls have been largely deregulated, including natural gas, trucking, airlines, and commercial banking. However, recent concerns about market power in restructured electricity markets, airline industry instability amid chronic financial stress, and the challenges created by the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which allowed commercial banks to participate in investment banking, have led to calls for renewed market intervention. Economic Regulation and Its Reform collects research by a group of distinguished scholars who explore these and other issues surrounding government economic intervention. Determining the consequences of such intervention requires a careful assessment of the costs and benefits of imperfect regulation. Moreover, government interventions may take a variety of forms, from relatively nonintrusive performance-based regulations to more aggressive antitrust and competition policies and barriers to entry. This volume introduces the key issues surrounding economic regulation, provides an assessment of the economic effects of regulatory reforms over the past three decades, and examines how these insights bear on some of today’s most significant concerns in regulatory policy.

This publication focuses on the impact of tariff orders (distribution) issued by nine SERCs (state electricity regulatory commissions) in India during 2003/04, 2004/05, and 2005/06. The states covered are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Jharkhand, Kerala,Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal. The analysis has been undertaken based on data and information available up to January 2007. The book assesses whether the orders have resulted in reducing regulatory uncertainty and information asymmetry, and led to better performance of the distribution utilities. Different indicators have been used to assess the impact on consumption and access, efficiency, financial performance, competition, and consumer-related issues in the power sector of these states. In addition, various parameters have been studied to assess whether the regulatory systems follow the principles of good regulation in these nine states. br>The commercial loss (without subsidy) incurred by state power utilities increased from Rs 197 220 million in 2003/04 to Rs 221 290 million in 2004/05. In view of the huge losses being incurred by the utilities, the tariff determination function forms a central part of the reform process. A comprehensive survey of tariff orders issued by these SERCs for the distribution licensees has been undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of regulatory orders in the electricity sector. It assesses whether the orders have resulted in reducing regulatory uncertainty and information asymmetry and better performance of the distribution utilities. However, tariff orders are only one index of effectiveness of the regulatory commissions. It is recognized that there are many other important functions of the SERCs besides tariff-setting, and some of them have also been covered in this study.In addition, other documents available in the public domain, including the Power Sector Rating Report, prepared by the Ministry of Power, Annual Report on the Regulation in practice: impact of tariff orders on the Indian electricity sector Working of State Electricity Boards and Electricity Departments, 1 and the Report on Restructuring of APDRP (Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme),2 were also studied.

This book explores the important role that economic performance measurement is playing in the regulation of network utilities in many countries today. The contributors to the book - researchers from academia, regulatory agencies and consulting firms - address the use of efficiency measures in price regulation and in assessing the effects of past regulatory reforms. Industries examined include electricity supply, water supply, telecommunications and airlines, across a range of countries including the USA, UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.