US – India Seek Improved Energy Regulation to Improve Efficiency

June 08, 2005

New Delhi -- The opening session of the regional transmission meeting of the Forum of Indian Regulators (FOIR) met at the Habitat Center today to discuss best practices and continued cooperation between U.S. and Indian electricity regulators. One of the forum's goals is to improve the regulation of energy distribution.

Speaking at the session, Deputy Mission Director, USAID, Bill Martin, said that the meeting comes at an opportune time in U.S.-India bilateral energy cooperation because the two countries had just launched a new U.S.-India Energy Dialogue in Washington on May 31. The Energy Dialogue will build upon the broad range of existing energy cooperation between the two countries as well as develop new avenues of collaboration. The first meetings of the Energy Dialogue are expected to take place prior to the visit of Prime Minister Singh.

USAID – through the US Energy Association (USEA) India Partnership Program – funded the participation of numerous US energy experts in this forum, including experts from the Pennsylvania Commission, the PJM Interconnection. Other speakers included Chairman A.K. Basu of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, Chairman Wendell Holland of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Manager John Gdowik of the PJM Interconnection and Sridhar Samudrala, Deputy Program Manager, USEA.

Martin observed that India has launched a very progressive program to increase its generation capacity by 100,000 MW by 2012, and that in order to achieve this goal, India will require investment in the energy sector and a strong regulatory system to ensure that investors receive adequate rates of return that will encourage additional investment and growth. He noted that the U.S. experience in implementing open access in transmission may prove helpful to India as the country opens up transmission and distribution systems to competition.