Publications
Publications
- 2023
The Economic and Environmental Effects of Making Electricity Infrastructure Excludable
By: Husnain Fateh Ahmad, Ayesha Ali, Robyn C. Meeks, Zhenxuan Wang and Javed Younas
Abstract
Electricity theft occurs when individuals cannot be excluded from accessing services. We study the impacts of an infrastructure upgrade in Karachi, Pakistan -- converting bare distribution wires to aerial bundled cables (ABCs) -- that was intended to prevent illegal connections. ABCs reduced unbilled consumption, increasing both the number of formal utility customers and per customer usage. ABC installation also decreased the utility’s annual CO2 emissions via reduced electricity generation. Resulting changes in consumer surplus vary by consumer type (previously informal versus always formal) and depend on reductions in electricity rationing and the cost of prior illegal grid connections.
Keywords
Citation
Ahmad, Husnain Fateh, Ayesha Ali, Robyn C. Meeks, Zhenxuan Wang, and Javed Younas. "The Economic and Environmental Effects of Making Electricity Infrastructure Excludable." SSRN Working Paper Series, July 2023.