IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aen/journl/ej36-4-malik.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Electricity Sector Restructuring on Coal-fired Power Plants in India

Author

Listed:
  • Kabir Malik, Maureen Cropper, Alexander Limonov and Anoop Singh

Abstract

We examine whether the unbundling of generation from transmission and distribution services at state-owned power plants in India improved operating efficiency at these power plants. Between 1995 and 2009, 85 percent of coal-based generation capacity owned by state governments was unbundled from vertically integrated State Electricity Boards into state generating companies. We find that generating units in states that unbundled before the Electricity Act of 2003 experienced reductions in forced outages of about 25% and improvements in availability of about 10%, with the largest results occurring 3-5 years after unbundling. We find no evidence of improvements in thermal efficiency at state-owned power plants due to unbundling.

Suggested Citation

  • Kabir Malik, Maureen Cropper, Alexander Limonov and Anoop Singh, 2015. "The Impact of Electricity Sector Restructuring on Coal-fired Power Plants in India," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    • Handle: RePEc:aen:journl:ej36-4-malik
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.iaee.org/en/publications/ejarticle.aspx?id=2654
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to IAEE members and subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jamasb, T. & Mota, R. & Newbery, D. & Pollitt, M., 2004. "‘Electricity Sector Reform in Developing Countries: A Survey of Empirical Evidence on Determinants and Performance’," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0439, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Chan, H. Ron & Fell, Harrison & Lange, Ian & Li, Shanjun, 2017. "Efficiency and environmental impacts of electricity restructuring on coal-fired power plants," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1-18.
    3. Carlos Pombo & Manuel Ramirez, 2002. "Privatization in Colombia: a plant performance analysis," Borradores de Investigación 3377, Universidad del Rosario.
    4. Thillai Rajan, A., 2000. "Power sector reform in Orissa: an ex-post analysis of the causal factors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(10), pages 657-669, August.
    5. Arocena, Pablo & Waddams Price, Catherine, 2002. "Generating efficiency: economic and environmental regulation of public and private electricity generators in Spain," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 41-69, January.
    6. Chikkatur, Ananth P. & Sagar, Ambuj D. & Abhyankar, Nikit & Sreekumar, N., 2007. "Tariff-based incentives for improving coal-power-plant efficiencies in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3744-3758, July.
    7. Magali Delmas & Yesim Tokat, 2005. "Deregulation, governance structures, and efficiency: the U.S. electric utility sector," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 441-460, May.
    8. Erdogdu, Erkan, 2013. "A cross-country analysis of electricity market reforms: Potential contribution of New Institutional Economics," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 239-251.
    9. Justin Wolfers, 2006. "Did Unilateral Divorce Laws Raise Divorce Rates? A Reconciliation and New Results," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1802-1820, December.
    10. Anupama Sen and Tooraj Jamasb, 2012. "Diversity in Unity: An Empirical Analysis of Electricity Deregulation in Indian States," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    11. Hei Sing (Ron) Chan & Maureen L. Cropper & Kabir Malik, 2014. "Why Are Power Plants in India Less Efficient Than Power Plants in the United States?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 586-590, May.
    12. Joga Singh, 1991. "Plant size and Technical Efficiency in the Indian Thermal Power Industry," Indian Economic Review, Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 239-252, July.
    13. Joskow, Paul L & Schmalensee, Richard, 1987. "The Performance of Coal-Burning Electric Generating Units in the United States: 1960-1980," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 2(2), pages 85-109, April.
    14. Singh, Anoop, 2006. "Power sector reform in India: current issues and prospects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(16), pages 2480-2490, November.
    15. Kira R. Fabrizio & Nancy L. Rose & Catherine D. Wolfram, 2007. "Do Markets Reduce Costs? Assessing the Impact of Regulatory Restructuring on US Electric Generation Efficiency," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(4), pages 1250-1277, September.
    16. L. Dean Hiebert, 2002. "The Determinants of the Cost Efficiency of Electric Generating Plants: A Stochastic Frontier Approach," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(4), pages 935-946, April.
    17. Thakur, Tripta & Deshmukh, S. G. & Kaushik, S. C. & Kulshrestha, Mukul, 2005. "Impact assessment of the Electricity Act 2003 on the Indian power sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1187-1198, June.
    18. Plane, Patrick, 1999. "Privatization, Technical Efficiency and Welfare Consequences: The Case of the Cote d'Ivoire Electricity Company (CIE)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 343-360, February.
    19. Madhu Khanna & Narasimha D. Rao, 2009. "Supply and Demand of Electricity in the Developing World," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 567-596, September.
    20. Madhu Khanna & David Zilberman, 1999. "Barriers to Energy-Efficiency in Electricity Generation in India," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 25-41.
    21. K.R. Shanmugam & Praveen Kulshreshtha, 2005. "Efficiency analysis of coal-based thermal power generation in India during post-reform era," International Journal of Global Energy Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 23(1), pages 15-28.
    22. Christopher R. Knittel, 2002. "Alternative Regulatory Methods And Firm Efficiency: Stochastic Frontier Evidence From The U.S. Electricity Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(3), pages 530-540, August.
    23. Thakur, Tripta & Deshmukh, S.G. & Kaushik, S.C., 2006. "Efficiency evaluation of the state owned electric utilities in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 2788-2804, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bensch, Gunther, 2019. "The effects of market-based reforms on access to electricity in developing countries: a systematic review," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 11(2), pages 165-188.
    2. Nepal, Rabindra & Phoumin, Han & Musibau, Hammed & Jamasb, Tooraj, 2022. "The socio-economic impacts of energy policy reform through the lens of the power sector – Does cross-sectional dependence matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    3. Das Gupta, Supratim, 2018. "Using real options to study the impact of capacity additions and investment expenditures in renewable energies in India," MPRA Paper 90441, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Jain, Ritika & Nandan, Amit, 2020. "Electricity prices and firms' decisions and outcomes: The case of India after a decade of the Electricity Act," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    5. Abhinav Jindal & Rahul Nilakantan, 2022. "Regulatory independence and thermal power plant performance: evidence from India," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 32-47, February.
    6. Sudhir Mahadeo Bobde & Makoto Tanaka, 2020. "Structural Reforms and Technical Efficiency in the Indian Electricity Distribution Sector," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 37(02), pages 1-36, March.
    7. Wang, Chang & Guo, Yue & Yang, Yu & Chen, Shiyi, 2022. "The environmental benefits of electricity industry restructuring in China: Ownership mixing vs. vertical unbundling," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    8. Renjie Yu & Peng Yuan & Fandi Yang & Gongxiong Jiang, 2023. "Effects of Vertical Unbundling on the Operational and Environmental Efficiency of Chinese Thermal Power Firms," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-22, October.
    9. Tooraj Jamasb & Rabindra Nepal & Govinda R. Timilsina, 2017. "A Quarter Century Effort Yet to Come of Age: A Survey of Electricity Sector Reform in Developing Countries," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    10. Jamasb,Tooraj & Nepal,Rabindra & Timilsina,Govinda R., 2015. "A quarter century effort yet to come of age : a survey of power sector reforms in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7330, The World Bank.

    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. Kabir Malik & Maureen Cropper & Alexander Limonov & Anoop Singh, 2011. "Estimating the Impact of Restructuring on Electricity Generation Efficiency: The Case of the Indian Thermal Power Sector," NBER Working Papers 17383, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Sugathan, Anish & Malghan, Deepak & Chandrashekar, S. & Sinha, Deepak K., 2019. "Downstream electric utility restructuring and upstream generation efficiency: Productivity dynamics of Indian coal and gas based electricity generators," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 832-852.
    3. Ghosh, Ranjan & Kathuria, Vinish, 2016. "The effect of regulatory governance on efficiency of thermal power generation in India: A stochastic frontier analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 11-24.
    4. Shrivastava, Naveen & Sharma, Seema & Chauhan, Kavita, 2012. "Efficiency assessment and benchmarking of thermal power plants in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 159-176.
    5. Jindal, Abhinav & Nilakantan, Rahul, 2021. "Falling efficiency levels of Indian coal-fired power plants: A slacks-based analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Seifert, Stefan & Cullmann, Astrid & von Hirschhausen, Christian, 2016. "Technical efficiency and CO2 reduction potentials — An analysis of the German electricity and heat generating sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 9-19.
    7. Triebs, Thomas P. & Pollitt, Michael G., 2019. "Objectives and incentives: Evidence from the privatization of Great Britain’s power plants," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 1-29.
    8. Stefan Seifert & Astrid Cullmann & Christian von Hirschhausen, 2014. "Technical Efficiency and CO2 Reduction Potentials: An Analysis of the German Electricity Generating Sector," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1426, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Sudhir Mahadeo Bobde & Makoto Tanaka, 2020. "Structural Reforms and Technical Efficiency in the Indian Electricity Distribution Sector," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 37(02), pages 1-36, March.
    10. See, Kok Fong & Coelli, Tim, 2012. "An analysis of factors that influence the technical efficiency of Malaysian thermal power plants," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 677-685.
    11. Tooraj Jamasb & Rabindra Nepal & Govinda Timilsina & Michael Toman, 2014. "Energy Sector Reform, Economic Efficiency and Poverty Reduction," Discussion Papers Series 529, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    12. Barros, Carlos Pestana, 2008. "Efficiency analysis of hydroelectric generating plants: A case study for Portugal," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 59-75, January.
    13. Jamasb,Tooraj & Nepal,Rabindra & Timilsina,Govinda R., 2015. "A quarter century effort yet to come of age : a survey of power sector reforms in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7330, The World Bank.
    14. Jain, Ritika & Nandan, Amit, 2020. "Electricity prices and firms' decisions and outcomes: The case of India after a decade of the Electricity Act," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    15. Tooraj Jamasb & Rabindra Nepal & Govinda R. Timilsina, 2017. "A Quarter Century Effort Yet to Come of Age: A Survey of Electricity Sector Reform in Developing Countries," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    16. Ajayi, Victor & Weyman-Jones, Tom, 2021. "State-level electricity generation efficiency: Do restructuring and regulatory institutions matter in the US?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    17. Tin Cheuk Leung & Kwok Ping Ping & Kevin K. Tsui, 2019. "What can deregulators deregulate? The case of electricity," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 1-32, August.
    18. Abhinav Jindal & Rahul Nilakantan, 2022. "Regulatory independence and thermal power plant performance: evidence from India," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 32-47, February.
    19. Joshua Linn & Erin Mastrangelo & Dallas Burtraw, 2014. "Regulating Greenhouse Gases from Coal Power Plants under the Clean Air Act," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 97-134.
    20. Sahba Fatima, 2016. "Performance Evaluation of Thermal Power Generation: Non-Parametric Frontier Approach," Bulletin of Energy Economics (BEE), The Economics and Social Development Organization (TESDO), vol. 4(1), pages 81-92, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F0 - International Economics - - General

    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:aen:journl:ej36-4-malik. 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: David Williams (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaeeeea.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.