Alternating Currents

The Indian electricity sector is poised at a critical moment. Implementation of the sweeping Electricity Act, 2003 is under way, even as there is considerable ferment in international thinking about electricity restructuring. This paper introduces a collection of papers written for EPW that review international experience with electricity restructuring in order to inform the Indian debate. The paper also provides a brief recent history of electricity restructuring to set the context for the country and regional papers. The history traces the initial rise of electricity restructuring to the status of "conventional wisdom" in the sector, and the more recent questioning of the model due to a series of setbacks and crises in different parts of the world.