Learning from Power Sector Reform : The Case of Pakistan
Pakistan's power sector underwent a substantial, if protracted, reform process. Beginning with an independent power producer program in 1994, the full unbundling of the national vertically integrated power and water utility, the Water and Powe...
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/403611557151850485/Learning-from-Power-Sector-Reform-The-Case-of-Pakistan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31667 |
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okr-10986-316672022-09-20T00:12:59Z Learning from Power Sector Reform : The Case of Pakistan Bacon, Robert POWER SECTOR REFORM ELECTRIC UTILITIES POWER GENERATION ACCESS TO ENERGY STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES ENERGY REGULATION ELECTRICITY PRICING Pakistan's power sector underwent a substantial, if protracted, reform process. Beginning with an independent power producer program in 1994, the full unbundling of the national vertically integrated power and water utility, the Water and Power Development Authority, and the establishment of a regulatory entity, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, followed in 1997, paving the way for the eventual privatization of one major distribution utility, Karachi Electric, in 2005. Plans to privatize the remaining distribution utilities were shelved following the controversy surrounding the Karachi Electric transaction. A single buyer model has been in operation since the sector restructuring, with the Central Power Purchasing Agency fully separated from transmission and dispatch (the National Transmission and Dispatch Company) in June 2015. Despite these major steps, Pakistan has continued to suffer from inadequate capacity and other constraints, leading to large and frequent blackouts. At the heart of the impasse is the so-called "circular debt" crisis, whereby distribution utilities struggling to collect revenues and meet regulatory targets for transmission and distribution losses default on their payments to generators, and the sector is periodically bailed out by the government once losses accumulate to intolerable levels, at high cost to the exchequer. This dynamic has undermined incentives for utilities to improve their efficiency, while discouraging generators from investing in new capacity to address supply shortages. In the meantime, little has been done to accelerate access to electricity to the significant share of unserved population in rural areas. 2019-05-10T14:12:35Z 2019-05-10T14:12:35Z 2019-05 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/403611557151850485/Learning-from-Power-Sector-Reform-The-Case-of-Pakistan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31667 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8842 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper South Asia Pakistan |
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Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
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Digital Repositories |
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World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
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World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
POWER SECTOR REFORM ELECTRIC UTILITIES POWER GENERATION ACCESS TO ENERGY STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES ENERGY REGULATION ELECTRICITY PRICING |
| spellingShingle |
POWER SECTOR REFORM ELECTRIC UTILITIES POWER GENERATION ACCESS TO ENERGY STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES ENERGY REGULATION ELECTRICITY PRICING Bacon, Robert Learning from Power Sector Reform : The Case of Pakistan |
| geographic_facet |
South Asia Pakistan |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8842 |
| description |
Pakistan's power sector underwent a
substantial, if protracted, reform process. Beginning with
an independent power producer program in 1994, the full
unbundling of the national vertically integrated power and
water utility, the Water and Power Development Authority,
and the establishment of a regulatory entity, the National
Electric Power Regulatory Authority, followed in 1997,
paving the way for the eventual privatization of one major
distribution utility, Karachi Electric, in 2005. Plans to
privatize the remaining distribution utilities were shelved
following the controversy surrounding the Karachi Electric
transaction. A single buyer model has been in operation
since the sector restructuring, with the Central Power
Purchasing Agency fully separated from transmission and
dispatch (the National Transmission and Dispatch Company) in
June 2015. Despite these major steps, Pakistan has continued
to suffer from inadequate capacity and other constraints,
leading to large and frequent blackouts. At the heart of the
impasse is the so-called "circular debt" crisis,
whereby distribution utilities struggling to collect
revenues and meet regulatory targets for transmission and
distribution losses default on their payments to generators,
and the sector is periodically bailed out by the government
once losses accumulate to intolerable levels, at high cost
to the exchequer. This dynamic has undermined incentives for
utilities to improve their efficiency, while discouraging
generators from investing in new capacity to address supply
shortages. In the meantime, little has been done to
accelerate access to electricity to the significant share of
unserved population in rural areas. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Bacon, Robert |
| author_facet |
Bacon, Robert |
| author_sort |
Bacon, Robert |
| title |
Learning from Power Sector Reform : The Case of Pakistan |
| title_short |
Learning from Power Sector Reform : The Case of Pakistan |
| title_full |
Learning from Power Sector Reform : The Case of Pakistan |
| title_fullStr |
Learning from Power Sector Reform : The Case of Pakistan |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Learning from Power Sector Reform : The Case of Pakistan |
| title_sort |
learning from power sector reform : the case of pakistan |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/403611557151850485/Learning-from-Power-Sector-Reform-The-Case-of-Pakistan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31667 |
| _version_ |
1764474861419233280 |