Operational efficiency and service quality of Indian electricity distribution utilities: A three-stage DEA and Malmquist Index analysis

IF 3.8 3区经济学 Q3 ENERGY & FUELS

Utilities Policy Pub Date : 2025-06-30 DOI:10.1016/j.jup.2025.102001

Sufia, Anoop Singh, Shambhavi Mishra

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The Indian power sector has progressed through distinct phases of reform and restructuring to attract private investment and enhance both operational and financial performance. Despite two decades of reforms, the sector's financial stability remains closely tied to the performance of electricity distribution utilities. The tariff-setting framework for distribution utilities largely relies on cost-of-service regulation, incorporating performance improvement targets. However, the prudence checks for approving distribution utilities' costs often lack a benchmarking approach. Distribution utilities exhibit variability in costs, service quality, and operational efficiency. Previous studies on Indian distribution utilities have focused on operational and financial parameters while neglecting the service quality dimensions of utilities. This paper considers service quality in the form of reliability indices of Indian distribution utilities for the first time, in addition to traditional parameters. This study employs a novel three-stage data envelopment analysis (3S-DEA) approach to evaluate operational efficiency, while the Malmquist Index is implemented to analyse efficiency and technological change from 2016–17 to 2019–20. Significant differences in the performance of distribution utilities within the same state were observed. Improvements in efficiency scores are observed for the distribution utilities after considering service quality parameters. The findings highlight the importance of considering service quality parameters when evaluating the operational efficiency of distribution utilities. The results obtained from this study will be helpful for policymakers, regulators, and utility management in identifying inefficiency determinants and designing effective strategies to improve operational performance. Furthermore, such periodical benchmarking exercises could be incorporated into the review process by Indian state regulators to better incentivise or penalise utilities based on their performance.

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印度配电公司的运营效率与服务质量：一个三阶段DEA和Malmquist指数分析

印度电力部门经历了不同的改革和重组阶段，以吸引私人投资，提高运营和财务绩效。尽管进行了20年的改革，但该行业的财务稳定性仍与配电公司的业绩密切相关。配电公用事业的电价设定框架在很大程度上依赖于服务成本监管，并纳入绩效改进目标。然而，批准配电公司成本的审慎检查往往缺乏基准方法。配电设施在成本、服务质量和运营效率方面表现出可变性。以往对印度配电公用事业的研究主要集中在运营和财务参数上，而忽略了公用事业的服务质量维度。本文首次在传统参数之外，以可靠性指标的形式考虑印度配电设施的服务质量。本研究采用了一种新颖的三阶段数据包络分析（3S-DEA）方法来评估运营效率，并采用Malmquist指数来分析2016-17年至2019-20年期间的效率和技术变革。在同一州内，配电公司的表现存在显著差异。在考虑了服务质量参数后，观察到配电公用事业公司的效率得分有所提高。研究结果强调了在评估配电设施的运营效率时考虑服务质量参数的重要性。本研究的结果将有助于决策者、监管者和公用事业管理者识别低效率的决定因素，并设计有效的策略来提高运营绩效。此外，印度国家监管机构可以将这种定期基准测试纳入审查过程，以便根据公用事业的表现更好地激励或惩罚它们。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Utilities Policy ENERGY & FUELS-ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

CiteScore

6.80

自引率

10.00%

发文量

审稿时长

66 days

期刊介绍： Utilities Policy is deliberately international, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral. Articles address utility trends and issues in both developed and developing economies. Authors and reviewers come from various disciplines, including economics, political science, sociology, law, finance, accounting, management, and engineering. Areas of focus include the utility and network industries providing essential electricity, natural gas, water and wastewater, solid waste, communications, broadband, postal, and public transportation services. Utilities Policy invites submissions that apply various quantitative and qualitative methods. Contributions are welcome from both established and emerging scholars as well as accomplished practitioners. Interdisciplinary, comparative, and applied works are encouraged. Submissions to the journal should have a clear focus on governance, performance, and/or analysis of public utilities with an aim toward informing the policymaking process and providing recommendations as appropriate. Relevant topics and issues include but are not limited to industry structures and ownership, market design and dynamics, economic development, resource planning, system modeling, accounting and finance, infrastructure investment, supply and demand efficiency, strategic management and productivity, network operations and integration, supply chains, adaptation and flexibility, service-quality standards, benchmarking and metrics, benefit-cost analysis, behavior and incentives, pricing and demand response, economic and environmental regulation, regulatory performance and impact, restructuring and deregulation, and policy institutions.