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Illustration: Ajaya Kumar Mohanty
The electricity sector was once a domain of stability. For decades, the technology of thermal generation remained static. This technological stagnation allowed for a specific institutional design: Central planning. Officials in state capitals determined capacity, location, and dispatch. The grid buffered the difference between supply and demand, shielding consumers from the physics of the network.
The involvement of private capital in generation was termed “private-sector participation”, but it lacked the features of a market economy. These were arrangements where returns on equity were guaranteed for 25 years. In a functioning capitalism, it is unusual to have a 25-year return locked
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