This research platform examines the interaction of the political, legal and economic forces that affect how countries restructure their electricity systems away from SOE-domination and toward greater use of markets to allocate resources.

The Program is sponsoring a comparison of the political economy of power market restructuring in five major developing countries: Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. PESD held its first conference on the Political Economy of Power Market Reform at IIS on 19-20 February 2003. Close to ninety of the top minds in the field attended.

In addition, the Program is conducting a joint study on the role of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in the restructuring of power markets with the Bechtel Initiative for Global Growth and Change (BIGGC).

The Program is also participating in in-depth studies on power market reform in China and India. In China the Program is sponsoring studies on scenarios for power market reform in Shanghai and Guangdong provinces. In India the Program is working with the India Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (IIM-A) on a USAID-funded study that examines the impact of market restructuring on the efficiency and dispatch of power plants in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

The Program's newest research in this area will investigate how institutional structures affect the development and deployment of distributed generation technologies.

The Program is also supporting a new project that will investigate the impact of a federal regulatory structure on private participation in infrastructure.

Contact
Rose Kontak