This paper is concerned with the estimation of total factor productivity (TFP) growth for the Iranian electric utilities during the period 1980-1993 on the basis of panel data. A translog cost function is used which accommodates firm - specific variability through a one - way error component model. The results show that the Iranian electricity supply industry experienced increasing returns to s...

With deregulation, utilities in the electric power sector face a much more urgent imperative to emphasize cost efficiencies as compared to the days of regulation. One major opportunity for cost savings is through reductions in spare parts inventory. Most utilities are used to carrying large volumes of expensive, relatively slow-moving units because of a high degree of risk-averseness. In this p...

Currently, the electric industry is undergoing a complete transformation and restructuring due to the concurrent convergence of deregulation and the advent of Distributed Generation (DG). Some years ago, electricity was produced in some big power plants and a few vertically integrated electric utilities covered all the steps in the electricity supply: generation, transmission, distribution and ...

Deregulation of the electric power industry is proceeding rapidly, forcing utilities to compete on price at both the retail and wholesale level. To ease the transition to competition, most states will compensate utilities for the difference between costs incurred on past capital investments under regulation and the profits they can expect to earn on these assets under competition. This differen...

During the past few years, the scope and nature of resource planning at electric utilities has changed dramatically. The scope ofplanning has expanded to consider energy efficiency and load management programmes as resources, the en vironmental costs of electricity production, and a variety of resource-selection criteria beyond elec tricity price. The nature of planning has ex panded to include...

In today’ s competitive electric utility marketplace, real-time information becomes the key factor for reliable delivery of power to the end-users, profitability of the electric utility and customer satisfaction. The operational and commercial demands of electric utilities require a high-performance data communication network that supports both existing functionalities and future operational re...