target zones and interest rate variability abstract for narrow exchange rate bands and for reasonable parameter values the interest rate differential s asymptotic unconditional variability is increasing in the width of the exchange rate band whereas for wide exchange rate bands it is slowly decreasing in the exchange rate band the interest rate differential s instantaneous conditional variability is decreasing in the width of the exchange rate band a narrow target zone differs from a completely fixed exchange rate regime in that the interest rate differential s instantaneous standard deviation is high and even increases when the zone narrows

institutional determinants of power sector reform in pakistan the electricity supply sector in pakistan has performed poorly in recent years reforms were introduced in the mid 1990s to improve the sector but progressed slowly with no significant impacts on pre reform performance this study uses new institutional economics as a theoretical basis to elucidate reasons for the failure of power sector reforms in pakistan to make improvements interviews with 23 experts using q methodology generated 215 statements that were used as a q concourse of these 51 statements were selected for the q sample and ranked by 34 respondents depending on their importance analysis revealed four important discourses on the determinants of power sector reform failure in pakistan these included weak governance structure country and sectoral endowments inefficient regulator and unspecified political institutions or unfriendly political contexts the study recommends establishment of institutions that support a market based power supply sector and improvements to the contractual arrangements between stakeholders to reduce opportunistic behaviour

energy policy aid and the development of renewable energy resources in small island developing states abstract small island developing states sids have established ambitious renewable energy targets the promotion of renewable energy has been motivated by several factors a desire to lessen dependence on fossil fuels to attract development assistance in the energy sector and to strengthen the position of sids in climate change negotiations here we explore the interplay between the role of aid and energy policy in the development of renewable energy resources in sids we find that the importance of development assistance has implications for the sustainability of renewable energy development given that funding is not always accompanied by necessary energy policy reforms we also identify energy efficiency and access to modern energy services as having received insufficient attention in the establishment and structure of renewable energy targets in sids and argue that this is problematic due to the strong economic case for such investments

investment security of supply and sustainability in the aftermath of three decades of power sector reform the last three decades have witnessed many electricity industry reform processes in more than half of the countries in the world the reforms have aimed inter alia at encouraging private investments in electricity infrastructure enhancing security of electricity supply and making power industry operate in line with the requirements of the sustainable development using an original panel dataset from 55 developed and developing countries covering the period from 1975 to 2010 this study aims at finding out to what extent these objectives have been materialized so far econometric models are used to identify the effects of electricity market liberalization on these variables the research findings suggest that the progress toward the electricity market reform is associated with a decline in private investments in the electricity industries of developing countries higher levels of self sufficiency in electricity supply and lower co2 emissions from electricity generation

liberalisation and r d in network industries the case of the electricity industry abstract electricity sector liberalisation has coincided with a significant decline in r d spending this paper reviews the industrial organisation literature on r d and innovation to explore the likely causes of the decline in r d spending in the electricity sector meanwhile r d productivity and innovative outputs in utilities and equipment suppliers appear to have improved however a lasting decline in r d expenditure can have a negative long term effect on technological progress and innovation in the sector we conclude that the decline in r d could have been predicted from the literature we also discuss the need to reorient the post liberalisation technology policy

marginal analysis of welfare costs of environmental policies the case of pesticide regulation we present a methodology for estimating net social welfare costs and their distribution using only information on price quantities elasticities of supply and demand and estimates of cost and or yield effects of policies provided by natural scientists an application to a case of pesticide regulation demonstrates the importance of equity effects simulations show that redistribution of income among producers becomes the dominant effect of pesticide policies when supply elasticities are higher and demand elasticities are lower with changes in supply elasticity having a greater impact than changes in demand elasticity for crops with significant export markets foreign consumers are shown to bear much of the short run cost many cases now exist of legislation and executive orders mandating the use of benefit cost criteria in policy choice to be useful in policy assessments welfare methodologies must meet certain requirements first they must provide estimates of the efficiency impacts of alternative policies measured by changes in net social surplus second estimates of the

the innovation impact of the eu emission trading system findings of company case studies in the german power sector abstract this paper provides a detailed analysis of how the european emission trading system eu ets as the core climate policy instrument of the european union has impacted innovation towards this end we investigate the impact of the eu ets on research development and demonstration rd d adoption and organizational change in doing so we pay particular attention to the relative influences of context factors policy mix market factors and public acceptance and firm characteristics value chain position technology portfolio size and vision empirically our qualitative analysis is based on multiple case studies with 19 power generators technology providers and project developers in the german power sector which were conducted in 2008 09 we find that the innovation impact of the eu ets has remained limited so far because of the scheme s initial lack of stringency and predictability and the relatively greater importance of context factors additionally the impact varies significantly across technologies firms and innovation dimensions and is most pronounced for rd d on carbon capture technologies and organizational changes our analysis suggests that the eu ets on its own may not provide sufficient incentives for fundamental changes in corporate innovation activities at a level which ensures political long term targets can be achieved

the philippine electricity sector reform and the urban question how metro manila s utility is tackling urban poverty in the early 2000s the philippine government reformed its electricity sector following neoliberal principles unbundling of the power industry privatisation of assets and commodification of electricity this paper shows that the reform was primarily driven by the need to secure electricity supply and cut down tariffs these national objectives ousted other issues and notably those that find their expression at the urban level among which the question of access to electricity in metro manila s urban poor communities the central state withdrew its attention from the issue of electrification and local actors had to react as they were confronted to social tensions and practices of pilferage as a consequence city governments and local administrations are getting involved in this issue which opens the way to participation of civil society this paper shows how the rolling back of the central state led to new partnerships and arrangements between the distribution utility local governments and community organisations this movement points to an urbanisation of energy issues which could bring positive results for end users provided that it is accompanied by a clearer regulatory framework

target zones and exchange rate dynamics this paper develops a simple model of exchange rate behavior under a target zone regime it shows that the expectation that monetary policy will be adjusted to limit exchange rate variation affects exchange rate behavior even when the exchange rate lies inside the zone and is thus not being defended actively somewhat surprisingly the analysis of target zones turns out to have a strong formal similarity to problems in option pricing and investment under uncertainty

power sector reform in india current issues and prospects power sector reforms in india were initiated at a juncture when the sector was plagued with commercial losses and burgeoning subsidy burden investment in the sector was not able to keep pace with growing demand for electricity this paper takes stock of pre reform situation in indian power sector and identifies key concerns that led to initiation of the process of reform the paper discusses major policy and regulatory changes undertaken since the early 1990s the paper also illustrates changes in the market structure as we move along the reform process we also discuss some of the major provisions of the recently enacted electricity act 2003 that aims to replace the prevailing acts which govern the functioning of the power sector in the country in this context we discuss two issues arising out of it namely open access and multi year tariff that we think would have a significant bearing on the performance of the sector in the near future the paper also evaluates the reform process in the light of some of the regulatory changes undertaken finally the paper briefly discusses the issues involved in introduction of competition in the power sector primarily through development of a market for bulk power

how to achieve full electrification lessons from latin america electricity coverage in latin america has increased substantially in recent decades rising from 50 of the population in 1970 to more than 95 in 2015 growth however slowed in the 1990s as many countries experienced difficulties in extending their networks further in particular to serve those living in isolated and rural areas in spite of this the process of electrification was not interrupted and at the beginning of the 2010s decade most countries in the region were able to provide access to electricity to almost all of their populations in this paper we examine the main strategies used in latin america to increase coverage and argue that only a combination of policy efforts has made it possible to achieve the current situation we also examine the remaining obstacles at policy and institutional levels to achieving full coverage

how long do unilateral target zones last abstract we examine the expected survival time of a unilateral exchange rate target zone when constraints on monetary policy prevent the central bank from exclusively focusing on defending the target zone generally the width of the target zone has a negligible effect on the expected survival time and the dominant determinants are reserve levels and the degree of real and monetary divergence between the country in question and the rest of the world for seemingly realistic parameters the expected survival time is fairly long a few decades rather than a few years

powering africa meeting the financing and reform challenges africa faces chronic power problems including insufficient generation capacity low connectivity poor reliability and high costs all of which constrain development power capacity additions in sub saharan africa excl sa since the 1990 s were minuscule historically investments in the power sector in africa have come mostly from governments or public utilities with foreign aid support in recent years these sources of funding have been flat the fastest new sources of funding are from independent power producers ipps and from china to understand the determinant of the new sources the paper analyses the effect of several key factor and find non expected results such as there is no obvious correlation between unbundling or the presence of an independent regulator and the level of private investment through ipps or that there is no correlation between chinese investment in generation and resource rich countries dispelling the myth that chinese firms are only interested in africa s resources the paper delivers several recommendations that indicate that more attention needs to be given to issues related to planning procurement and contracting as well as securing revenue flows jel classification o13 o25 l94

forward rate target zones and exchange rate dynamics abstract a target zone for the forward exchange rate is developed using a log linear monetary model exchange rates are driven by a wiener process a central bank purchases or sells foreign exchange forward to keep the target forward rate in a specified band defending such a target zone does not require regulated wiener process for the central bank s forward exchange intervention can avoid disturbing the money supply a forward rate target zone can stabilize the spot rate against a free float and its stabilizing effects become more significant if the delivery term applying to the target forward rate is shorter

lost in transition comparing strategies of electricity companies in delhi this paper examines the notion of energy transition when implemented by private utilities in 2000 the delhi government privatized electricity distribution to three private distribution companies most research was concerned with the impact of privatization on energy reliability tariff settings and regulation issues this paper looks at two under researched themes the expansion of services to poorer neighborhoods and the rollout of clean energy policies this focus allows to unpack the materiality of socio technical systems to analyze how energy infrastructures are being technically deployed on the ground and to identify which social approach is used to detail the specific practices of each company provides a more nuanced and accurate understanding of the reform in depth analysis of the three private utilities show that they interpret the reform mandate differently they use a varied range of technical tools they respond differently to social concerns in poorer neighborhoods and they have distinctive internal management choices and corporate cultures all these four factors can strengthen or undermine the transition towards increased access and clean energy

broken dreams unmet expectations of investors in the philippine electricity restructuring and privatization abstract over the last three decades privatization and restructuring of electricity sectors has been a hot topic the expectation was that prices would fall due to increased competition and that generators would become more innovative and efficient however the enthusiasm for deregulation wavered after events such as the debacle in california the fall of enron and the setbacks of ontario in the philippines comprehensive legislation was passed in 2001 but the implementation has been rather slow and controversial this paper looked at the allegation of politicizing power rates and found a logical alternative to the perceived conspiracy angle based on market data it is highly probable that depressed market rates was a result of coping mechanisms of new players trying to adjust to the restructured industry

independent power projects in sub saharan africa investment trends and policy lessons abstract sub saharan africa is in urgent need of more power private sector investment is key to achieving this along with chinese funded projects independent power projects ipp represent the fastest growing sources of power investment in sub saharan africa ipp investment flows show little concern for electricity market structures but are more likely to gravitate to countries with strong planning procurement and contracting capacity as well as good regulatory quality data from the continent also shows a variety of ownership and financing structures for ipps but generally development financing institutions dfis play an important part in mitigating risk and bringing in private financiers we also see renewable energy breaking through on the continent both in scale and price this breakthrough is in part being facilitated by competitive procurement or auctions which deliver lower prices and increased transparency when compared with renewable energy feed in tariffs or directly negotiated contracts these developments have important policy implications highlighting the need for dynamic least cost planning linked to the timely initiation of the competitive procurement of new generation capacity the building of effective regulatory capacity and appropriate risk mitigation mechanisms such efforts promise to promote sustainable economic and social development across the continent

post neoliberal electricity market re reforms in argentina diverging from market prescriptions this paper focuses upon the policy and institutional change that has taken place within the argentine electricity market since the country s economic and social crisis of 2001 2 as one of the first less developed countries ldcs to liberalise and privatise its electricity industry argentina has since moved away from the orthodox market model after consumer prices were frozen by the government in early 2002 when the national currency was devalued by 70 although its reforms were widely praised during the 1990s the electricity market has undergone a number of interventions ostensibly to keep consumer prices low and to avert the much discussed energy crisis caused by a dearth of new investment combined with rising demand levels this paper explores how the economic crisis and its consequences have both enabled and legitimised these policy and institutional amendments while drawing upon the specifics of the post neoliberal market re reforms to consider the extent to which the government appears to be moving away from market based prescriptions in addition this paper contributes to sector specific understandings of how despite these changes neoliberal ideas and assumptions continue to dominate argentine public policy well beyond the postcrisis era

r d investment of electricity generating firms following industry restructuring abstract since electricity market restructuring questions over adequate levels of r d investments persisted using an unbalanced panel data of 70 electricity generating firms across 15 organisations of economic co operation and development countries from 1990 to 2008 this paper empirically examines the impacts of entry liberalization allowing third party access establishing a wholesale market and deregulating a retail market vertical unbundling privatization and firm size on r d investments entry liberalization is associated with a decline in r d investment establishing a wholesale market exhibits the greatest negative effects on r d investment regulated tpa and retail market deregulation also decrease r d the effect of privatization is not independently salient but interacts with a wholesale pool to lower r d investments large firms spend more on r d investment than small firms results indicate that the restructuring of the electricity industry reduces r d investment which may be detrimental to the reliability and the efficiency of the electricity system as well as to the creation and maintenance of the innovation capabilities necessary to address demand and environmental concerns

soft exchange rate bands and speculative attacks theory and evidence from the erm since august 1993 we present a model of a soft exchange rate target zone and interpret it as a stylized description of the post august 1993 erm our central bank targets a moving average of the current and past exchange rates rather than the exchange rate s current level thus allowing the rate to move within wide margins in the short run but within narrow margins in the long run for realistic parameters soft target zones are significantly less vulnerable to speculative attacks than hard target zones these predictions are consistent with the erm s experience and the abatement of speculative pressure in european markets since the bands widening in 1993

sustainability assessment of electricity market models in selected developed world countries abstract the paper focuses on the impact of electricity market opening on sustainability of electricity market models the paper aims to identify what electricity market organization models are the best ones based on the established sustainability criteria the sustainability criteria include the main sustainability aspects of power sector economic social and environmental the methodology has been designed to evaluate organisational models of electricity market which allows performing an extensive evaluation encompassing all aspects of sustainable development the evaluation methodology which has been designed for the evaluation of energy market organisation model provides the basis for the identification of indicators that have the most significant impact on sustainability also it lays down the premise for the establishment of critical values and possible changes and the analysis of reasons for the changes in sustainability the paper applies developed model for sustainability assessment of electricity market models in several world countries having different electricity market organisation structures the selection of 12 developed world countries 11 of them are oecd countries from various continents was made based on availability of fully liberalized electricity markets in these countries the proposed assessment allows to review and compare electricity market models in terms of achieving main targets of sustainable power sector development

unintended consequences energy r d in a deregulated energy market abstract many advanced industrialized nations are substantially reducing their national public and private investments in energy research and development r d driven in part by changes occurring as a result of the deregulation of these nations energy sectors in particular funding for strategic energy r d aimed at developing future energy supply options eg fusion fission clean fossil energy renewable energy has been decreased substantially in both the public and private sectors in many of these nations these trends are now starting to be seen in the united states as it moves towards the deregulation of the nation s utilities the magnitude of the reductions in support for energy r d in the public and private sectors and the shift towards decidedly shorter term r d has profound implications for nations approaching deregulation though utility customers may be short term winners from the deregulation of utilities by paying less for energy a national failure to invest in energy r d is very likely to have long term negative impacts on national energy sectors the economies and environmental wellbeing

getting reforms done in inhospitable institutional environments untying a gordian knot in india s power distribution sector when grand institutional reforms based on idealized models are stalled by the poor institutional environments and difficult politics which often surround large infrastructure systems in developing countries partial reforms whose design and implementation take into account the different interests of the key stakeholders can provide valuable and immediate benefits while moving these systems from low towards higher level equilibria strategically negotiated experimentally partial and purposefully hybrid these reforms are based on careful stakeholder analysis and strategic coalition building that avoid rigid positions based on idealized models our findings are based on a study of power sector reforms in india where we performed a micro level and in depth analysis of a partial and innovative experiment which has allowed private sector participation in electricity distribution within a hostile institutional environment

private sector development policies practices and problems private sector development psd has become a central concern of most donors development cooperation efforts during the last decade this paper is a critical review of policies in the area donors work with concepts of psd which are highly abstract treat developing countries private sectors as tabula rasa and focus mainly on macro level preconditions in practice however concrete psd policies are mostly micro level ones the paper argues that they are shaped mostly by the nature and interests of private sectors in donor country themselves incorporate a high proportion of tied aid and fail basic tests of coherence

power sector reform in small island developing states what role for renewable energy technologies abstract due to various pressures and desires more and more developing countries embark on power sector reform programmes yet there are a wide range of reform options and at present insufficient evidence is available as to which path will deliver best the desired objectives presently most small island developing states sids are dependent on high cost fossil fuel imports for power generation in spite of evidence that harnessing abundant domestic renewable sources of energy can deliver environmental social and economic benefits however depending on the type of power sector reform the transition towards renewable energy technologies rets can be either undermined or facilitated the specific focus on sids is justified because they have inherent characteristics that limit the degree to which the power sector can be transformed in comparison to larger continental developing countries with specific reference to sids this manuscript reviews the drivers and desires for power sector reform as well as presenting the available reform options and their implications on the up take of rets in addition to elaborating aspects of market governance other barriers to the consideration of rets such as financial bias in investment human capacity and environmental policy are discussed in view of this discussion which is based on evidence from recent reform programmes and theoretical academic literature recommendations are formulated that discourage full privatisation of the power sector as well as proposing less dogmatic lending conditions by international assistance bodies

power sector reform in developing countries mismatched agendas power sector reform is rapidly spreading across all corners of the developing world at an alarmingly rapid pace while the rationales for reform seem to have gained acceptance among the stakeholders the reform model and process are contested this paper examines the impacts of reform using the promised outcomes as a basis for analysis the ability of reform to meet the developmental challenges facing the reformers is explored it concludes that reform has had some achievements if conventional performance indicators are used but also questions the validity of some of these indicators reform has however not fulfilled many of its goals and the prevailing recipes are likely to leave developing countries socially and economically worse off than in the pre reform period progressive government intervention is needed to shift reform process towards a more responsible development path

electricity demand supply analysis current status and future prospects for maharashtra india abstract the growth potential of any state is linked with infrastructure and electricity infrastructure is the most important parameter for economic growth maharashtra a prominent state in india consumes 12 per cent of india s electricity maharashtra s power sector is facing the electricity deficit and shortage since early 2005 on the other hand industrial and service sectors are rising in the state the present paper discusses electricity situational analysis of the state electricity demand analysis has been presented and comparison of state electricity demand vis a vis mumbai s demand state capital has been carried out for two years variation for monthly average demand for two years and load shedding have also been analyzed power supply situation analysis and analysis of major power suppliers have been carried out the state load distribution center data is used to depict the load variation for a typical day interventions needed to sustainably meet the growing demands are also discussed

the impact of power market reforms on electricity price cost margins and cross subsidy levels a cross country panel data analysis abstract one of the main expectations from power market reform has been a reduction in both price cost margins and cross subsidy levels between industrial and residential consumers this paper focuses on this issue by looking at the impact of the electricity industry reforms on residential and industrial electricity price cost margins and their effect on cross subsidy levels between consumer groups using panel data for 63 developed and developing countries covering the period 1982 2009 empirical models are developed and analyzed the research findings suggest that there is no uniform pattern for the impact of reform process as a whole on price cost margins and cross subsidy levels each individual reform step has different impact on price cost margins and cross subsidy levels for each consumer and country group our findings imply that reform steps have different impacts in different countries which supports the idea reform prescription for a specific country cannot easily and successfully be transferred to another one so transferring the formal and economic structure of a successful power market in a developed country to developing countries is not a sufficient condition for good economic performance of the electricity industries in developing countries furthermore the study suggests that power consumption income level and country specific features constitute other important determinants of electricity price cost margins and cross subsidy levels

privatization technical efficiency and welfare consequences the case of the cote d ivoire electricity company cie abstract in 1990 cote d ivoire privatized the management of its electric power company lease contracting in this paper we are interested in identifying the economic effect of this institutional change by estimating a stochastic production frontier we have found that productive efficiency improved after privatization thanks to organizational innovations total factor productivity gains have been closely associated with a cost reduction strategy the way these gains have been distributed in a monopoly context suggests that consumers have been the main beneficiaries through a significant decrease of the relative price of electricity

reforming israel s electricity sector abstract this paper analyzes the regulatory structure of the electricity sector in israel which is currently dominated by the government owned integrated utility israel electric corporation iec the current structure of a price cap with a mandatory rate reduction of 2 per year and a target return on equity roe of 6 5 is not sustainable because of iec s deteriorating financial health caused by the substantial investments it made to meet the 7 2 per year electricity demand growth in the past decade which has led to an exceptionally low realized roe of 3 4 for that period the investment trend will continue thanks to the 4 5 per year gdp growth projected for the next 10 20 years part of our proposed remedy is performance based regulation pbr implemented via a a price cap formula that will restore iec s financial health and offer iec downward pricing flexibility b changes in how iec compensates its workers and c a sliding scale plan that provides incentives for iec to become more efficient and to share risk with its customers we augment the pbr proposal by recommending changes in iec s tariffs and resource procurement procedures that aim to promote the development of a competitive power industry in the next 10 15 years

understanding the political economy and key drivers of energy access in addressing national energy access priorities and policies abstract globally 1 5 billion people lack access to electricity and nearly 3 billion lack access to modern cooking energy options of the world s energy poor 95 are in asia and sub saharan africa within asia almost 80 of electricity deprived and 86 of biomass dependent populations are in the big 5 countries bangladesh china india indonesia and pakistan in this paper we discuss the broad contours of the political economy of energy access in these countries the political economy is assessed through an examination of three sustainability objectives accessibility of physical infrastructure energy service delivery and conformance to social goals the key areas of concern include emphasis on supply driven grid electricity vested power dynamics favouring affluent and urban areas unreliability of energy service provision and misdirected and misappropriated subsidies the above mentioned issues are responsible for limiting accelerated achievement of universal energy access in the big 5 countries and need to be addressed through innovative approaches the paper emphasizes the need for firm commitments policy convergence and the implementation of pro poor equitable energy policies through a broad based energy framework of bench marked technology neutral energy provisioning that ensures reliability and equity it highlights the need for reorienting of the subsidy regime and incorporating energy service delivery indicators in monitoring and reporting mechanisms

what is the value of agricultural economics research the output of agricultural economics research is information much of it aimed at designing or improving institutions bayesian decision theory and economic surplus analysis have been suggested as possible approaches to evaluate that information this article takes a critical look at the strengths and weaknesses of combining those approaches for empirical evaluation of agricultural economics research it presents three case studies utilizing prior and posterior probabilities elicited from key decision makers direct application of the probabilities to a simple set of states and actions is best suited to situations involving a single policy making center or a consensus decision making process most economists feel their work has value but few can say how much economists have made significant contributions to our understanding of the value of technology oriented research but have devoted little attention to assessing the benefits of social science research ssr including agricultural economics research aer as accountability concerns have increased federal and state officials increasingly ask for evidence of research impacts many professional associations in the production sciences have drawn on quantitative estimates provided by economists to bolster their claims that research in their areas is a good investment social sciences make do with anecdotal evidence a nascent literature on evaluating social science research including agricultural economics includes studies by gardner

the role of distribution network operators in promoting cost effective distributed generation lessons from the united states of america for europe abstract this paper explores the different competitive mechanisms applied by electric utilities from the us in promoting cost effective distributed energy resources der with a focus on distributed generation dg and the challenges that electric utilities are facing due to the increase in dg connections cases studies from california oregon colorado and new york have been selected the case studies refer to two kinds of competitive mechanisms request for proposals rfp and auctions renewable auction mechanism a similar behaviour is observed across electric utilities in the way in which competitive auction mechanisms are being managed however the more sophisticated auction designs are observed in the rfps the study proposes a set of auction design elements with a focus on the uk context and examines the role of energy regulators in the design of well structured auction mechanisms we think that the experience cited in the four case studies can be replicated by distribution system operators dsos from europe however unbundling rules established in the european commission third energy package need to be taken into consideration

the need for improved financial reporting of a developing country energy utility abstract some consideration has been given to regulatory and institutional reforms to facilitate sustainable development in electricity usage in papua new guinea but little attention has been paid to bringing about full compliance of financial reporting expectations of the country s main energy utility examining documentary evidence of the audit reports of the auditor general s office of papua new guinea this study considers the financial reporting compliance of png power for the period 2007 2013 and the means by which compliant reporting may be improved the results of the study reveal that the financial statements of png power are late and receive disclaimers of opinion from the auditor general s office which suggest that png power s stakeholders are not receiving accurate and reliable financial information to make informed decisions about sustainable development of electricity usage and planning in papua new guinea the study reveals that it would take little resources to improve png power s reporting which in turn could enhance national energy policy decision making and energy utility accountability

risk management and the stated investment costs by independent power producers abstract evidence presented in this article suggests that in less developed countries the independent power producers ipps have an incentive to overstate the investment cost as an instrument to mitigate the country risk in greenfield electricity generation projects this technique is an effective risk mitigation strategy under the conventional financing and contractual arrangements in such markets it however promotes the use of less efficient power plants the distortion in the choice of technology results in economic losses over the life of the plants the findings of this research have important policy implications that can assist regulatory bodies governments and international financing agencies to adopt a more informed approach to the integration of private investment into the electricity generation capacity of developing countries

monetary contracting between central banks and the design of sustainable exchange rate zones abstract an exchange rate system is a contract which commits central banks to intervene in the foreign exchange market the design features of the system include the rules of intervention the limits placed on exchange rates and the crisis scenario describing possible transitions to new regimes this paper considers the various trade offs one faces in designing an exchange rate system one of these pertains to the amount of reserves which the central banks must have on hand in order to forestall a speculative attack and make the system sustainable the amount of reserves needed depends crucially on the assumed crisis scenario

impacts on investments and transmission distribution loss through power sector reforms abstract this study analyses original panel data from 86 countries between 1985 and 2006 econometric methods were used to identify the effects of different policy devices of power sector reforms on performance indicators installed capacity per capita transmission and distribution loss in the countries analyzed the research findings suggest that reform variables such as the entry of independent power producers ipps unbundling of generation and transmission establishment of regulatory agencies and the introduction of a wholesale spot market are the driving forces of increasing generation capacity as well as reducing transmission and distribution loss in the respective regions in this study we can assume that firstly different electric industry s reform policies measures have different impacts on geographically and economically diverse countries secondly a country s state of economic development has a different impact on policy effects of reforms thirdly coexistent with independent regulatory agencies reform policy becomes more powerful in realizing sector performances

access to electricity in small island developing states of the pacific issues and challenges abstract energy poverty is widespread in small island developing states sids of the pacific it is estimated that 70 percent of pacific islander households do not have access to electricity which is equivalent to access rates in sub saharan africa and slightly below the average for low income countries pacific sids face unique challenges in expanding access to electricity given that their populations are spread across tens of thousands of islands governments and development partners in pacific sids continue to prioritise development of electricity grids as is evident in ongoing subsidisation of grid based power consumption and the establishment of ambitious grid based renewable energy targets this paper argues that traditional approaches to rural electrification which prioritise grid extension are not suited to the pacific islands region increased funding should be directed by both governments and development partners towards rural electrification especially in off grid areas where isolated systems are more appropriate institutional reform is also important regulatory reform is needed for power utilities to extend electricity grids into rural areas institutional arrangements that facilitate the sustainable operation and maintenance of off grid systems also need to be established past donor and government funded off grid rural electrification projects have rarely been sustainable alternative approaches involving payment of output based subsidies to energy service companies are worth exploring although will only succeed where sound regulatory arrangements are in place

current status and analysis of renewable promotional policies in indian restructured power sector a review restructuring has changed the traditional mission and mandates of power utilities in complex ways and had large impacts on environmental social and political conditions for any particular country at the same time new regulatory approaches are being found for reducing environmental impacts in restructured power sectors india has a vast supply of renewable energy resources and it has one of the largest programs in the world for deploying renewable energy based products and systems so this paper attempts to review the various policies and measures undertaken by indian government for promotion of renewable energy the aim of this paper is also to review the current policy mechanisms especially investment or generation based price driven and capacity driven mechanisms ranging from investment incentives for the development of renewable energy projects feed in tariffs production tax incentives tradable green certificates and their effects upon the prospects of encouraging as well as expanding the development of renewable energy in indian restructured power sector this will make renewable more attractive in the indian future electricity market

the value of economic research economic research generates a wide array of benefits these include information technological change and improved policy there are few quantitative studies of the benefits of economic research and some benefits may be misattributed to biological and physical research to be productive economic research must be transmitted and the user must be able to use it therefore investment in extension outreach and economic literacy are important to improve its impact even casual observation suggests that economic research is valuable but noneconomists must be convinced of this since benefits are likely to be concentrated in a small number of successful projects a useful approach to the assessment of the benefits of research is to identify these projects and their results the analysis must recognize that the accuracy of any estimates of benefits is uncertain in addition the argument behind the estimates should be transparent relying on documentation and testimony from users policymakers and noneconomists assessments of the benefits of economic research provide information that can be used both to justify support for economic research and to allocate monies among lines of research this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

a viable gold standard requires flexible monetary and fiscal policy national domestic credit expansion dce policies which offset the effect of money demand shocks on international gold reserves the gold standard collapses with certainty in finite time through a speculative selling attack against one of the currencies various policies for postponing a collapse are considered when a responsive dce policy eliminates the danger of a run on a country s reserves the exogenous shocks disturbing the system which previously were reflected in reserve flows now show up in the behaviour of the public debt unless the primary non interest government deficit is permitted to respond to these shocks the public debt is likely to rise or fall to unsustainable levels for the idealized gold standard analysed in the paper viability can be achieved only through the active and flexible use of monetary and fiscal policy

electricity use and economic development abstract a study of the relationship between electricity use and economic development in over one hundred countries constituting over 99 of the global economy has been undertaken correlations between electricity consumption capita and gdp capita have been analysed and compared with those between total primary energy supply capita and gdp capita a supporting analysis has correlated the proportion of energy used in the form electricity the e e ratio with gdp capita the general conclusions of this research are that wealthy countries have a stronger correlation between electricity use and wealth creation than do poor countries and that for the global economy as a whole there is a stronger correlation between electricity use and wealth creation than there is between total energy use and wealth the study also shows that in wealthy countries the increase in wealth over time correlates with an increase in the e e ratio the results imply that the energy ratio toe should be replaced by the electricity ratio kwh as a development indicator and more precisely by the e e ratio kwh toe

collapsing exchange rate regimes some linear examples abstract we construct a pair of linear examples to study the collapse time of a fixed exchange rate regime the first example is a perfect foresight continuous time model which allows calculation of the exact collapse time and the tracking of reserves the second example is a discrete time stochastic model which yields an endogenous probability distribution over the collapse time and produces a forward discount of the exchange rate

the lifetime of a unilateral target zone some extended results abstract in dumas and svensson journal of international economics 36 1994 467 the lifetime of a krugman quarterly journal of economics 106 1991 669 682 type target zone model is found to be extremely long this paper shows that the lifetime of the identical target zone regime can be much lower when real disturbances occur in particular the mean lifetime is found to be very low when real disturbances occur and the real exchange rate elasticity of the demand for domestic goods is very low it is also shown that allowing for monetary disturbances to have real effects has very little effect on the lifetime the results indicate the conditions under which real disturbances might trigger currency crises

review of proposals for practical power sector restructuring and reforms in a dynamic electricity supply industry abstract south africa s electricity supply industry esi remains a vertically integrated monopoly despite global trends towards restructuring the monopolistic nature of the esi could hinder the development of distributed power systems as penetration of renewable electricity increases the research aims to rationalise south africa s esi evolution propose practical power sector restructuring in the short to medium term and to determine their potential impact the research methodology included a single case study instrument with embedded sub units of analysis primary research data was gathered using semi structured interviews with industry experts in addition to which secondary data from government documents and archival records were used for triangulation research results conclude that south africa s esi grew due to techno economic industrialisation factors while apartheid era policies influenced the esi in only some specific respects the vertically integrated status quo was sustained in the post transformation period due to government s focus on social imperatives lack of regulatory policy certainty and conflicts in political ideology south africa did not experience the pre conditions that triggered global power sector reforms in the late 20 th century but these pre conditions are now becoming evident privatisation of eskom generation and introduction of wholesale and retail competition are not practical in the short to medium term proving the infeasibility of the standard model of reform locally the introduction of an independent system and market operator ismo using a single buyer model is seen as the most favourable and practical option with the ismo owning transmission infrastructure the research suggests that esi changes will increase system efficiencies economic performance and private sector involvement but will not reduce electricity tariffs the scenarios challenges and proposals identified in this research are also applicable to other countries in africa and other developing regions of the world that have similar social and political backgrounds ensuring sustainable supply of electricity

the arguments for and against ownership unbundling of energy transmission networks abstract the question this paper addresses is what is the evidence for the superiority of the ownership unbundled transmission models i e uk or nord pool hybrid over other models we assess the theoretical costs and benefits of ownership unbundling and judge these to be generally positive though these may be potentially offset by the actual reorganisation costs of the ownership unbundling process next we assess the empirical evidence this is in two forms econometric evidence from samples of countries and case studies of reforms in particular jurisdictions the econometric evidence is weak due to problems with simultaneity of reform steps and a lack of studies but the case study evidence is compelling we conclude with a discussion of the issues faced by countries considering implementing ownership unbundling we conclude that evidence seems to be that ownership unbundling of transmission is a key part of energy market reform in the most successful reform jurisdictions

reform despite politics the political economy of power sector reform in fiji 1996 2013 abstract attempts to reform the electricity sector in developing countries have achieved mixed results despite the implementation of similar reforms in many developed countries and concerted effort by donors to transfer reform models in many cases political obstacles have prevented full and effective implementation of donor promoted reforms this paper examines the political economy of power sector reform in fiji from 1996 to 2013 reform has been pursued with political motives in a context of clientelism policy inconsistency and reversal is explained by the political instability of ethnic based politics in fiji modest success has been achieved in recent years despite these challenges with fiji now considered a model of power sector reform for other small islands developing states sids in the pacific the experience demonstrates that reform is possible within difficult political environments but it is challenging takes time and is not guaranteed the way in which political motives have driven and shaped reform efforts also highlights the need for studies of power sector reform to direct greater attention toward political drivers behind reform

implications of liberalization policies on government support to r d lessons from electricity markets since the early 1980s electricity industry reforms have been initiated in more than half of the countries in the world among the primary targets of these reform schemes there has been an increase in efficiency of the sector and it is implicitly assumed that government support to energy technology r d will progress in line with the reform process as the former is required to sustain improved efficiency in the middle and long run the paper reviews the relation between reform process in electricity markets and government support to energy r d using panel data from 27 countries covering the period from 1974 to 2008 this study aims at finding out to what extent the expected correlation between reform process and government support to energy r d has in practice been materialized so far the findings suggest that contrary to expectations the progress toward electricity market reform is associated with reduced government support to a variety of energy r d activities which threatens sustainable efficiency improvements in the power industry

a 100 year review of electricity policy in ireland 1916 2015 abstract over the past century ireland s electricity sector has undergone a significant transformation this paper documents the nation s struggle to build an electricity system to improve security of electricity supply through portfolio diversification and to promote indigenous energy sources this was a challenge for an electrically isolated island with little natural resources the paper also identifies the ineffective policy decisions that left ireland exposed to the 1970s energy crises the crises did however provide a clear impetus for focusing irish energy policy going forward the successful deployment and integration of large scale wind power was due to strong national and supranational policy decisions in 2015 ireland had the third highest wind energy share of national electricity demand 22 8 of all iea wind member countries the paper also traces ireland s transition through market reform regional fragmentation and looks onwards to the eu internal market for electricity in essence this paper provides a holistic view of the implications of various policy decisions on the electricity sector along with the stresses of external factors on the electricity market and should be useful for policy makers elsewhere faced with similar decisions

a review of fiji s energy situation challenges and strategies as a small island developing state abstract fiji is an island country with just over 300 small islands and approximately 853 000 people it is a small island developing state sids that is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuel for its energy needs the paper attempts to determine the past and current energy situation in fiji challenges faced and strategizes to overcome these challenges in 2014 fiji generated 859 gw h of grid electricity from 259 8 mw of power plants here 45 4 of grid electricity was produced by hydro 50 9 by diesel generators and the remaining by biomass however fiji s transport sector is completely dependent on fossil fuels with fuel import bill equivalent to an average 58 of export earnings and taking up 21 of total import bill the smallness of fiji and dispersed islands within fiji group leads to many challenges to have accessible affordable and sustainable energy supply these challenges are comprehensively discussed in this paper strategies such as increasing private public partnership in renewable energy projects changing customer behavior setting up a credible feed in tariff structure developing locally owned business in renewable energy and energy efficiency setting up of risk mitigation facilities and strengthening institutions supporting energy sector are discussed to overcome or minimize challenges

does economic liberalisation endanger indigenous technological developments an analysis of the indian experience abstract india s recent economic liberalisation measures have raised concerns that enterprises will begin to neglect the development of indigenous technologies and will make increasing use of imported technologies and or of standardised technologies this paper argues that the comparative advantages of the different types of technologies will depend on certain enterprise level characteristics including age and size and consequently enterprises that use the technologies based on their in house r d efforts may perform well even under a liberalised regime empirical tests using data of enterprises in three major industry groups gave results consistent with these arguments over the period 1991 1998 the growth performance of enterprises that make products based on their in house r d efforts have compared favourably with those of other enterprises in two of the industries moreover the share of the r d based products in enterprises overall sales has been maintained in both the industries for which this test could be undertaken

demise of the standard model for power sector reform and the emergence of hybrid power markets following earlier reforms in the power sectors of industrialized countries and emerging markets e g chile developing countries were encouraged to unbundle their electricity industries and to introduce competition and private sector participation this paper highlights the developments that led to how power sector reform came to be defined as a standard model and theoretical framework in its own right and how the model was used prescriptively in many developing countries however we also show that after more than 15 years of reform efforts this new industry model has not fully taken root in most developing countries finally we identify and characterize the emergence of new hybrid power markets which pose fresh performance and investment challenges

allocating the economic benefits of renewable energy between stakeholders on small island developing states sids arguments for a balanced approach abstract for many small island developing states sids the cost of producing electricity from imported fossil fuels is so high and the cost of renewable energy technology has fallen so significantly that transitioning towards renewable energy is likely to produce cost savings a recent workshop at nyu school of law which brought together sids utility representatives with a leading renewable energy developer and other stakeholders provided strong support for this prediction utilities are likely to own the majority of renewable energy assets in sids and will therefore be the initial custodians of any cost savings renewable energy provides this raises a key policy question to what extent should sids utilities pass on these savings to consumers by lowering electricity rates we analyze this overlooked element of energy policy and highlight undesirable consequences that complete disbursement of the savings to consumers could cause

electricity distribution industry restructuring in south africa a case study for 20 years there has been vigorous debate about restructuring the large developed electricity industry in south africa but the plans have not been implemented the justification of the proposed restructuring illustrates the different expectations of the participants in the electricity industry the case study reviews what has occurred against a background of some theories about organisations and identifies six key issues some lessons include the need to adopt an industry structure compatible with the objectives of electricity distribution in developing countries the unsuitability of orthodox approaches to organisations that no industry structure appears to be significantly better than others industry restructuring of public sector utilities has a significant political dimension restructuring can fail even if there is support from a high level of government and indecision and uncertainty have serious negative consequences the experience should be helpful for other developing countries considering structural change of their electricity industry

assessing the sustainability challenges for electricity industries in asean newly industrialising countries abstract rapid social and economic progress in fast developing countries such that among the countries in the association of southeast asian nations asean have driven substantial growth in electricity consumption in this region whilst this represents significant societal and economic development it has potentially growing adverse environmental impacts this raises a concern on sustainable development in the electricity sector in this region this study evaluates key sustainability challenges in the electricity industries in the five largest energy consumers in asean indonesia thailand malaysia the philippines and vietnam the 3a s energy sustainability objectives accessibility availability and acceptability are used as the sustainability analytical framework this study also draws together a set of associated indicators and criteria within the analytical framework to analyse the status of the electricity industries in these countries the analysis shows that key sustainability challenges in the asean 5 are attributable to satisfying rapid demand growth enhancing security of electricity supply and mitigating the increase in co2 emissions from electricity generation given the promising resource and technical potential in this region renewable energy emerges as a favourable option to address these challenges however increasing the share of renewable energy in electricity generation requires considerable policy support this study suggests that there is an opportunity for the asean countries to strengthen regional collaborations through experience and resource sharing to enhance sustainability in the electricity industries this study also highlights some of the key issues facing the electricity industry and the need for new generation investment decision support tools which can address these issues