Electricity distribution utilities drive the expansion of energy access and the transition to clean energy. With the COVID-19 pandemic deteriorating the financial health of utilities, measures at operational, institutional, financial, and commercial levels should be initiated to make utilities economically sound and future-ready.
Utilities must strive to become decarbonised, decentralised, and digitalised with a paradigm shift in their operations, particularly in planning, load forecasting, and energy utilisation in the grid. This can be accomplished by creating smaller profit and loss units within the distribution utilities to make operational-level officials more commercially inclined to the overall goal.