IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2021 - 31

ing economy platforms. Hong and Lee (2018) [30]
argue that political competition results in adaptive
governance practices that might benefit the sharing
economy. These practices shall encourage entrepreneurial
politics where benefits are widely distributed
among people and costs are narrowly concentrated
among the entrepreneurs. This approach is directly
opposite to client politics where benefits accumulate
only for few businesses.
Conclusion
The potential positive impact of adopting the sharing
economy in the electricity sector outweighs the
negatives. The existing players in the electricity sector
might face losses due to their massive investment
in the physical infrastructure and opportunity costs
incurred due to regulatory restrictions. The energy
sharing economy in India cannot exist as an alternative
to the existing setup like the Ola/Uber case and
has to take place with the cooperation of incumbent
DISCOMs, which would otherwise stall the process
of adoption. However, new models of electricity
production and distribution will solve the gaps in
demand and supply, and consumers are likely to
benefit from better delivery. The state needs to be
cautious and revamp the safety-related regulations
while permitting private producers and distributors.
The investment for technology upgradation related
to safety and smart meters needs to be facilitated.
The management of power generation, T&D
networks, has always been complicated. With the
improvement in information technology, there have
been various initiatives taken by the government
including the adoption of the Internet of Things
(IoT) and establishing National Transmission Asset
Management Centre (NTAMC) for better asset management
and implementation of data acquisition systems
(SCADA). However, significant developments
are lacking in the case of the distribution space.
For the sharing economy to become a reality there
has to be a large number of prosumers in the market
to participate. The government is actively promoting
renewable energy by offering a 30% capital subsidy
for residential consumers [23] and a 40% accelerated
depreciation for commercial and industrial
consumers. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
(MNRE) is thinking of empowering and incentivizing
the DISCOMs in enabling 35,000 MW of rooftop
June 2021
solar installations.6 The DISCOMs have to act as market
facilitators by managing the distribution system
efficiently, measuring the energy produced and consumed,
and managing the congestion [38], [58].
Since sharing economy provides the freedom
to the customers to choose their suppliers,
there shall be a dominance of short-term electricity
trading. Currently, only 10% of the power
is traded in the short-term market in the power
exchanges [24]. The new platforms should be
encouraged to cater to this space. The platforms
can go beyond merely matching demand and
supply and can offer customized services like differential
tariff plans, alerts on electricity usage,
and managing the consumers' smart appliances
[54]. On the supplier side also, the platform can
play a unique role. Energy trading through cooperation
will result in cost savings to the suppliers
[12] (Jogunola et al., 2017).
the wIdespread usage of sharing the economy
concept in the electricity sector shall be significantly
determined by the regulatory environment
and needs the participation of the existing players.
The future will see electricity is sourced near to the
place of consumption ably aided by the sharing
economy platforms.

 References
[1] A. Acquier, T. Daudigeos, and J. Pinkse, " Promises
and paradoxes of the sharing economy: An organizing
framework,'' Technol. Forecasting Social Change,
vol. 125, pp. 1-10, Dec. 2017.
[2] F. Ahmad and M. S. Alam, " Assessment of power
exchange based electricity market in India,'' Energy
Strategy Rev., vol. 23, pp. 163-177, Jan. 2019.
[3] A. Akhmedova, M. Mas-Machuca, and F. Marimon,
" Value co-creation in the sharing economy: The role
of quality of service provided by peer,'' J. Cleaner
Prod., 266, Sep. 2020, Art. no. 121736, doi: 10.1016/j.
jclepro.2020.121736.
[4] A. Andreotti et al., " Recommendations for the sharing
economy: Increasing participation,'' SSRN Electron. J.,
Jan. 2018, doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3107584.
[5] K. Arunachalam, V. S. Pedinti, and S. Goel,
" Decentralized distributed generation in India:
A review,'' J. Renew. Sustain. Energy, vol. 8, no. 2,
2016, Art. no. 025904.
6https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/green-power-govt-proposes23450crore-roof-top-solar-scheme/article9998955.ece.
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2021

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