Person:
Pargal, Sheoli
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Infrastructure economics; infrastructure regulation; energy policy; public-private partnerships; India; Bangladesh
Degrees
ORCID
Departments
South Asia Sustainable Development
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Sheoli Pargal is an Economic Adviser in the World Bank’s department for Sustainable Development for South Asia. She has worked across infrastructure sectors on a range of topics including regulation and governance, private sector participation, public-private partnerships, and industrial pollution, with a focus on analytical and technical advisory work. In twenty years at the World Bank she has had assignments in the research department; Latin America, Eastern Europe and South Asia; and corporate policy and operations units. She has also worked in the Planning Commission in India. Ms. Pargal has a Ph.D in Economics from Northwestern University and B.A. and M.A. degrees in economics from St. Stephen’s College and the Delhi School of Economics at Delhi University.
Publication Search Results
1 - 3 of 3
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Publication
Governance of Indian State Power Utilities : An Ongoing Journey
(Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2014-09-25)By the late 1990s, the technical and financial performance of the power sector in India had deteriorated to the point where the Government of India had to step in to bail out the state utilities, almost all of which were vertically integrated state electricity boards (SEBs). Considering that the dismal performance of state utilities reflected internal and external shortfalls in governance, the new Electricity Act of 2003 (EA 2003) mandated the unbundling and corporatization of the SEBs, along with the establishment of independent regulators. This was expected to bring about a more accountable and commercial performance culture, with concomitant results in improved utility performance. The rest of this review is organized as follows. Chapter two summarizes the institutional context and relevant developments over the past two decades. Chapter three focuses on the corporate governance agenda adopted by the government and its implementation, specifically relating to the structure and functioning of utility boards of directors. Chapter four reviews SERC regulatory governance. Chapter five analyzes the correlation between key indicators of the quality of regulatory and corporate governance and utility financial performance. And chapter six concludes. -
Publication
Lighting the Way: Achievements, Opportunities, and Challenges in Bangladesh's Power Sector
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-12)The report surveys the challenges facing Bangladesh's power sector today and makes recommendations for consideration by national policy makers. Its starting point is the Government's goal of universal access to electricity by 2021, when Bangladesh completes 50 years of independence. Bangladesh can justly be proud of its progress in providing power to its people over the past decade. Generation capacity has steadily grown from 5.5 GW in 2009 to more than 13 GW in 2017—an increase of 140 percent. Starting from levels of access to electricity below 50 percent, today access is around 80 percent, with a globally recognized off-grid rural Solar Home System (SHS) program contributing almost 14 percent of that total. Sector performance is better than that of larger countries in the South Asia Region on key dimensions—distribution and transmission losses (together around 14 percent) and collection efficiency (above 90 percent). Bangladesh was an early mover in initiating private power generation in the late 1990s. The independent power producer (IPP) contracts awarded at that time through a transparent competitive process brought it what remains even today some of the lowest cost power in South Asia. Power imports from India commenced in 2013 and are set to grow—they are a critical element of the Government's strategy to supplement domestic generation with other sources of supply. The country has also demonstrated impressive mobilization and institutional capacity in selected agencies, which it can leverage in its quest to rapidly achieve middle-income status. -
Publication
Demand-Side Energy Efficiency Opportunities in Bangladesh
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017)Enhancement of energy efficiency (EE) can help bridge the gap between supply and demand for energy. This paper assesses the energy efficiency and conservation (EE and C) potential of sixteen EE end-use technologies and subsectors (for both primary energy (oil, gas and coal) and electricity) in Bangladesh vis a vis “business-as-usual”. Further, it prioritizes among them on the bases of their potential for generating energy savings, their costs, and the benefits of deployment on a large scale. The end-use EE improvement technologies/measures analyzed range from lights, fans, and refrigerators to motors, boilers, and chillers. Sectors covered include garments, textile dyeing and weaving, steel and cement. They were chosen for analysis because they represent the most promising prospective candidates for demand side energy efficiency improvement in the country. The analysis indicates that a total of 400 petajoule (PJ) can be saved in the year 2030 when the projected total primary energy requirement is likely to be approximately 2800 PJ, i.e., a savings of 14.3 percent of the total primary energy requirement in 2030 can be achieved by implementing EE measures alone. A back-of-the-envelope calculation of the relative cost effectiveness of the different options analyzed provides a measure of the costs and benefits of these EE options. Despite domestic electricity and gas prices being fairly low in comparison with international market prices, the cost of saved energy for most options is either low or negative: in other words, these EE investments have a favorable rate of return and should be a key part of energy sector development in Bangladesh. Higher electricity or gas prices would increase the cost-effectiveness of all options because the monetized value of energy saved would be higher.