This paper analyzes power utilities in 15 jurisdictions to understand the determinants of success for reforms aimed at improving financial viability and cost recovery in the power sector and the impacts of these reforms on metrics of sector performance. The analysis finds that electricity...

The need for greater efficiency and accountability in the power sector in the Middle East and North Africa has renewed pressure for reforms. A major new World Bank report, Rethinking Power Sector Reform in the Developing World (Foster and Rana 2020), examines how developing countries have...

Gas-based heating offers a clean, efficient, low-cost heating solution for poor urban households in Armenia, a country with severe winters. But many low-income households cannot afford the cost of connecting to gas networks and heating facilities or the cost of heating equipment. To help these...

This paper develops a classification of investor risks and surveys 51 private investors and financiers in the power sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper aims for a better understanding of what can be done to attract private solutions to fill the investment gap. It finds that the average...

The financial viability of the power sector is a prerequisite for attracting the investment needed to ensure reliable energy supply, meet universal access targets, and hasten the clean energy transition. Adequate pricing of electricity to allow for cost recovery is also important to minimize the...

Private financing and private participation in service delivery will be required if Sub-Saharan Africa is to achieve affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030. To find out how to elicit private interest in power sector investments in the region, we surveyed 51 private...

In the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, Armenia, like other former Soviet republics, began to struggle with the implications of its newfound independence. In the electricity sector, this meant learning how to manage and sustain a fragment of a system that had never been designed to function...

Before the onset of the global financial crisis in late 2008, countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) experienced strong economic growth. Demand for electricity increased steadily with gross domestic product (GDP). GDP grew, on average, 6.5 percent between 2000 and 2007, and...