Discussion on regulatory capacity and performance in the power sector

TrustBridge is hosting a discussion on regulatory capacity and performance in the power sector on 14 September 4-6PM IST at our office in the VHAI building, Qutub Institutional Area, New Delhi. 

The Electricity Act 2003 provides the legal framework within which the Indian states must operate and regulate their power sectors. Most states have evolved similar models, which involved the unbundling of the erstwhile state electricity boards and the creation of state level Electricity Regulatory Commissions and state-level regulations. 20 years on, it will be instructive to consider a broad based critical evaluation of the performance of the states, in terms of both regulation-making and the performance of the regulators. In particular, we seek to ask the following questions:

• Do the Electricity Act provisions on the structure and functioning of the regulator stand up to scrutiny of best practices of regulation?
• Have the states generally followed the mandate of the Electricity Act in building the regulatory framework for their power sectors?
• The Electricity Act offers a degree of flexibility to the states in designing their regulatory frameworks. Did the states take advantage of this flexibility to fashion regulatory frameworks that suited their particular circumstances?
• Significant knowledge on regulatory best practices that has been built in India and overseas over the past 2 decades. In this context, how can the states use the regulatory flexibility afforded by the Electricity Act to reform their regulatory frameworks to better suit the needs of their states, particularly taking into account the needs of the energy transition.