Electricity Governance Initiative

Background

Electricity lights our homes and powers industry. In many developing countries service quality remains unreliable — even for those who can afford to pay high prices. Expanding access to the 1.6 billion people worldwide who live without electricity, and improving the quality and reliability of electricity supply are urgent socio-economic priorities. With the power sector in desperate need of capital — more than $6.5 trillion is required in developing countries by 2030 — governments and international actors have focused on attracting private investment. But investment has in fact declined. Politically unacceptable reforms and ineffective regulatory regimes have not made for a favorable investment climate.

At the same time, the power sector is associated with serious environmental problems, from local air pollution to the disruption of water ecosystems. Mitigating carbon emissions from electricity generation is central to addressing global climate change. Citizens and consumers are increasingly vocal about their dissatisfaction with the results of sector reform, which has largely been implemented without public input or accountability. To create a sustainable energy future, governments and the international community must reach out to civil society and empower people to be effective participants in electricity governance.

Strategy

The Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI) is a unique collaboration of civil society, policymakers, regulators, and other electricity sector actors to assess policy and regulation using a common framework to define “good governance.” Prayas-Pune, the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), and the World Resources Institute (WRI) have engaged with EGI in a collaborative undertaking to promote better governance in the electricity sector. Assessments have been completed in Thailand, India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Transparent, accountable and participatory decision-making processes are necessary to facilitate good outcomes in the electricity sector. The EGI provides a toolkit (PDF) to help civil society understand and influence decision-making in this technically complex sector. This toolkit consists of more than 60 research questions that generate indicators of relative strength and weakness in electricity decision-making processes, evaluating policy and regulatory processes, with an emphasis on environmental and social issues.

Updates

EGI has released a new version of the toolkit, which addresses lessons learned from the pilot assessments in Asia, and emphasizes the tenants of good governance in the sector. The emphasis on good governance is timely, and is also the subject of our latest report: “Empowering People: A Governance Analysis of Electricity”, which makes the case for greater public involvement and scrutiny in the way electricity sector decisions are made.