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VOICE OF
ELECTRICITY WORKERS
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM
The shared view at the WSF Bombay, in
the Seminar on “Energy for all” on dated 17.1.04 organized by Right to Energy
Association and CITU was that :
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Power liberalisation is creating a
public outcry around the world. Some time it is
over increased electricity rates and
un-reliable services, and other times it is about the anti-labour and anti-poor
bias of privatised electricity companies. The ideology of power liberalisation
is increasingly being challenged by the examples of its failures to deliver
affordable, reliable and sustainable power. Number of studies now conclude that
interests of global private capital and the agenda of multilateral financial
institutions are the main driving forces of power liberalisation which in most
cases sideline social and environmental concerns.
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The underlying assumption of power
liberalisation is that the private sector and competitive market mechanism are
more effective and efficient than regulated monopoly regimes. The experience
of the last few years however proves that it is hard to create a truly
competitive market in the electricity sector. Power liberalisation tends to
simply replace regulated public monopoly with unregularised private oligarchy.
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The major
ramification is that the whole electricity sector could be turned into a
profit –generating machine for private interests at serious public cost. It
puts the world’s poor, who cannot afford to pay high prices for electricity,
in greater danger of being permanently unconnected or practically
disconnected. The manipulation of electricity system for greater profit can
also cause serious instability in the electricity systems at the risk of
throwing the whole society in disarray.
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