Restructuring Power Industry in India

Abstract

Since the beginning of the nineties decade, many nations have undergone a change in the method of operations of the power network. The power sector was switched to open access market from vertically integrated market. The reasons for this change are many and they differ from nation to nation. The developing countries faced the problem of high demand growth along with irrational tariff policies and lack of efficiency in managing the power system. On the contrary, the developed countries restructured the power sector to provide electricity at lower prices and give the customers a number of operators to choose from. In short, the goal of restructuring is to encourage competition in the market along with providing consumers with more choices in purchasing economic energy and economic benefits. This might seem to be less complex but involves several issues which are discussed further. This chapter describes this restructuring of power sector with special reference to Indian scenario.