Banerjee, Sudeshna

Person:
Banerjee, Sudeshna

Energy Unit, Sustainable Energy Department, World Bank

Fields of Specialization

Infrastructure economics; energy access; monitoring and evaluation

ORCID

0000-0002-8679-0554

Departments

Energy Unit, Sustainable Energy Department, World Bank

Last updated: January 31, 2023

Biography

Sudeshna Banerjee is a Senior Economist in the Sustainable Energy Department of the World Bank. She has worked on energy and infrastructure issues in the South Asia and Africa departments in both operations and analytic assignments. She focuses on project economics, monitoring and evaluation, and on a broad range of energy sector issues including energy access, energy subsidies, renewable energy, and sector assessments. Ms. Banerjee holds a Ph.D in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and M.A. and B.A. degrees in Economics from Delhi University.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 28

Tracking Access to Nonsolid Fuel for Cooking
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-05-15) Ghosh Banerjee, Sudeshna; Adair-Rohani, Heather; Bonjour, Sophie
The World Health Organization estimates that in 2012 about 4.3 million deaths occurred because of exposure to household air pollution caused by smoke from the incomplete combustion of fuels such as wood, coal, and kerosene. Inefficient energy use in the home also poses substantial risks to safety, causing burns and injuries across the developing world. To support the achievement of these goals, a starting point must be set, indicators developed, and a framework established to track those indicators until 2030. The World Bank and International Energy Agency have led a consortium of 15 international agencies to produce data on access to nonsolid fuel for the SE4ALL Global Tracking Framework. Launched in 2013, the framework defines access to modern cooking solutions is as the use of nonsolid fuels for the primary method of cooking. Nonsolid fuels include (i) liquid fuels (for example, kerosene, ethanol, or other biofuels), (ii) gaseous fuels (such as natural gas, LPG, and biogas), and (iii) electricity. These are in contrast to solid fuels such as (i) traditional biomass (wood, charcoal, agricultural residues, and dung), (ii) processed biomass (pellets, briquettes); and (iii) other solid fuels (such as coal and lignite).
The Power of the Mine : A Transformative Opportunity for Sub-Saharan Africa
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015-02-05) Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh; Romo, Zayra; McMahon, Gary; Toledano, Perrine; Pérez Arroyo, Inés
Africa needs power - to grow its economies and enhance the welfare of its people. Power for all is still a long distance away - two thirds of the population remains without electricity and enterprises rank electricity as a top constraint to doing business. This sub-optimal situation coexists while vast energy resources remain untapped. One solution to harness these resources could be to tap into the concept of anchor load. Mining industry lends itself to the concept of anchor load as it needs power in large quantity and reliable quality to run its processes. Underpinned by a comprehensive database of mining projects between 2000 and 2020, this report explores the potential and challenges of using mining demand for power as anchor load for national power system development and expansion of electrification. This report finds that mining demand can indeed be a game-changer - an opportunity where policymakers and international community can make a difference in tapping the enormous mineral wealth of Africa for the benefit of so many people. The utilities would benefit from having mining companies as creditworthy consumers that facilitate generation and transmission investments producing economies of scale needed for large infrastructure projects, benefiting all consumers in the system. The mines would benefit from grid supply - typically priced much lower than self-supply - which allows them to focus on their core business, greatly enhancing their competitiveness. The country would benefit from more exports and tax revenues from mines, more job opportunities in local firms selling goods and services to the mines, and a higher GDP. The report estimates that mining demand for power can triple since 2000 going upto 23 GW in 2030. While South Africa will continue to be the dominant presence in mining landscape, its importance will reduce and other countries, primarily in Southern African region, will emerge as important contributers of mining demand for power. Simulations in countries with minimal power-mining interface suggests that bringing this demand explicitly into the power planning process can ensure more investments in both grid and off-grid power systems and potentially superior service delivery outcomes for mines as well as communities. These opportunities can also be attractive investment destinations for private sector. However, there are also risks and institutional roadblocks in power-mining integration - addressing many of them and employing risk mitigation mechanism are within the control of policymakers.
Double Dividend: Power and Agriculture Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017) Malik, Kabir; Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh; Tipping, Andrew; Besnard, Juliette; Nash, John
Increasing access to modern electricity services in Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the main development challenges facing the world over the next two decades. The rural economies are overwhelmingly dependent on agriculture; in fact, agriculture and agribusiness comprise nearly half of Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP). These enterprises require electricity to grow to their potential, while the expansion of rural energy services needs consumers with consistent power needs to serve as a reliable revenue source. Can agriculture and energy come together in Sub-Saharan Africa to offer a double dividend with benefits to enterprises, households, utilities, and private-sector service providers? This is the central question of this study. Combining agricultural load with other household and commercial power demand can increase the feasibility of extending the grid or creating opportunities for independent power producers and mini-grid operators. Drawing on a suite of case studies, this study offers insights on what it will take to operationalize the opportunities and address the challenges for power-agriculture integration in Africa.
Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy: A Global Scorecard for Policy Makers
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-01) Moreno, Francisco Alejandro; Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh; Sinton, Jonathan; Primiani, Tanya; Seong, Joonkyung
Energy is at the forefront of the development agenda. Recognizing energy's vital role in development and prosperity, the world has committed to Sustainable Development Goal 7 to "Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all" as one of 17 goals for 2030, as well as to dramatically increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy. The historic climate change agreement in Paris in 2015 also draws attention to the essential scale-up of clean energy to attain a 2 degrees C world, with energy featuring prominently in many countries' Nationally Determined Contributions. Achieving these global energy goals calls for more than a trillion dollars of investment annually. Reaching the 2030 targets set by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) - universal access to electricity and clean cooking fuels, doubling the rate of improvement of energy efficiency, and doubling the share of renewable energy - requires an unprecedented scale-up of both public and private finance. Investment in sustainable energy is affected by many factors, including market size, country risk, and financial markets, to name but a few. But a country's policies and regulations also matter, and they are directly under the control of government. This report—based on a new and comprehensive global policy scorecard called Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) - answers two important questions. Are policymakers around the world truly rising to the challenge posed by the new global sustainable energy agenda? Where is further action most critically needed?
More Power to India : The Challenge of Electricity Distribution
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014-06-18) Pargal, Sheoli; Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh
This report assesses progress in implementing the government of India's power sector reform agenda and examines the performance of the sector along different dimensions. India has emphasized that an efficient, resilient, and financially robust power sector is essential for growth and poverty reduction. Almost all investment-climate surveys point to poor availability and quality of power as critical constraints to commercial and manufacturing activity and national competitiveness. Further, more than 300 million Indians live without electricity, and those with power must cope with unreliable supply, pointing to huge unsatisfied demand and restricted consumer welfare. This report reviews the evolution of the Indian power sector since the landmark Electricity Act of 2003, with a focus on distribution as key to the performance and viability of the sector. While all three segments of the power sector (generation, transmission, and distribution) are important, revenues originate with the customer at distribution, so subpar performance there hurts the entire value chain. Persistent operational and financial shortcomings in distribution have repeatedly led to central bailouts for the whole sector, even though power is a concurrent subject under the Indian constitution and distribution is almost entirely under state control. Ominously, the recent sharp increase in private investment and market borrowing means power sector difficulties are more likely to spill over to lenders and affect the broader financial sector. Government-initiated reform efforts first focused on the generation and transmission segments, reflecting the urgent need for adding capacity and evacuating it and the complexity of issues to be addressed at the consumer interface. Consequently, distribution improvements have lagged, but it is now clear that they need to be a priority. This report thus analyzes the multiple sources of weakness in distribution and identifies the key challenges to improving performance in the short and medium term. The report is aimed at policy makers and government officials, academics, and civil society in the fields of energy, governance, and infrastructure economics and finance, as well as private investors and lenders in the energy arena.
Cost Recovery and Financial Viability of the Power Sector in Developing Countries: A Literature Review
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-12) Huenteler, Joern; Dobozi, Istvan; Balabanyan, Ani; Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh
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 power sector’s negative macroeconomic, fiscal, environmental, and social impacts. This paper takes stock of the empirical and conceptual literature on the financial viability and cost recovery of the power sector in developing countries. Time-series data across countries are relatively scarce, but comparing the findings from 21 studies suggests that under-recovery of costs remains pervasive despite decades of efforts by governments and development institutions. Large electricity subsidies continue to burden governments, especially in the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Reviews by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on outcomes of their own engagement also conclude that progress on cost recovery in supported countries has been limited. Although the aggregated view obscures fluctuation within individual countries over time, the available evidence suggests that countries progressing toward cost recovery may find themselves backsliding within a few years. As for understanding the circumstances under which progress can be made, a handful of studies point toward a correlation between sector reforms and cost recovery, although few of the studies address obvious endogeneity problems. To provide more solid guidance for future efforts to improve cost recovery, more research is needed on: (i) the determinants and enabling conditions of progress on cost recovery; (ii) tariff reform sequencing; and (iii) institutional arrangements, policies, and regulations that enable countries to sustain cost recovery once it is reached.
Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reforms across the Developing World
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-11) Witte, Samantha; Foster, Vivien; Moreno, Alejandro; Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh
Some 25 years have elapsed since international financial institutions espoused a package of power sector reform measures that became known as the Washington Consensus. This package encompassed the establishment of autonomous regulatory entities, the vertical and horizontal unbundling of integrated national monopoly utilities, private sector participation in generation and distribution, and eventually the introduction of competition into power generation and even retail services. Exploiting a unique new data set on the timing and scope of power sector reforms adopted by 88 countries across the developing world over 25 years, this paper seeks to improve understanding of the uptake, diffusion, packaging, and sequencing of power sector reforms, and the extent to which they were affected by the economic and political characteristics of the countries concerned. The analysis focuses on describing the patterns of reform without judging their desirability or evaluating their impact. The paper finds that following rapid diffusion during 1995-2005, the spread of power sector reforms slowed significantly in 2005-15. Only a small minority of developing countries fully implemented the reform model as originally conceived. For the majority, reforms were only selectively adopted according to ease of implementation, often stagnated at an intermediate stage, and were sometimes packaged and sequenced in ways unrelated to the original logic. Country characteristics such as geography, income group, power system size, and political economy all had a significant influence on the uptake of reform. Moreover, a significant number of countries experienced reversals of private sector participation, or were unable to follow through with reform plans that were officially announced. Overall, power sector reform in the developing world lags far behind what was achieved in the developed world during the same time period. Yet, even in the developed world, the full package of reforms does not seem to have been universally adopted.
Measuring the Results of World Bank Lending in the Energy Sector
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-02-27) Soni, Ruchi; Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh; Portale, Elisa
This note is the first report of energy-sector results indicators reflecting the World Bank's broad lending patterns during FY2000-13. To compile it, energy projects back to FY2000 were manually screened for results data comparable with the standardized indicators now used in the Bank's corporate scorecard. In the future, automation will make it easier to collect, aggregate, and analyze data on project outcomes.
Tracking Access to Electricity
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-05-15) Ghosh Banerjee, Sudeshna
Access to electricity in flexible, reliable, and sustainable forms brings a range of social and economic benefits, enabling people to leap from poverty to a better future, enhancing the quality of household life, and stimulating the broader economy. Modern energy is essential for the provision of health care; clean water and sanitation; and reliable and efficient lighting, heating, cooking, mechanical power, transportation, and telecommunications. To support the achievement of these goals, a starting point must be set, indicators developed, and a framework established to track those indicators until 2030. The World Bank and International Energy Agency have led a consortium of 15 international agencies to produce data on access to electricity for the SE4ALL Global Tracking Framework. Launched in 2013, the framework defines electricity access as the presence of an electricity connection in the household as typically reported through household surveys.
Cost Recovery, Equity, and Efficiency in Water Tariffs : Evidence from African Utilities
(2010-07-01) Ying, Yvonne; Banerjee, Sudeshna; Skilling, Heather; Foster, Vivien; Wodon, Quentin
Water and sanitation utilities in Africa operate in a high-cost environment. They also have a mandate to at least partially recover their costs of operations and maintenance (O&M). As a result, water tariffs are higher than in other regions of the world. The increasing block tariff (IBT) is the most common tariff structure in Africa. Most African utilities are able to achieve O&M cost recovery at the highest block tariffs, but not at the first-block tariffs, which are designed to provide affordable water to low-volume consumers, who are often poor. At the same time, few utilities can recover even a small part of their capital costs, even in the highest tariff blocks. Unfortunately, the equity objectives of the IBT structure are not met in many countries. The subsidy to the lowest tariff-block does not benefit the poor exclusively, and the minimum consumption charge is often burdensome for the poorest customers. Many poor households cannot even afford a connection to the piped water network. This can be a significant barrier to expansion for utilities. Therefore, many countries have begun to subsidize household connections. For many households, standposts managed by utilities, donors, or private operators have emerged as an alternative to piped water. Those managed by utilities or that supply utility water are expected to use the formal utility tariffs, which are kept low to make water affordable for low-income households. The price for water that is resold through informal channels, however, is much more expensive than piped water.