The way to restructure the Lebanese electric power sector: a challenge for the transitional management

The restructuring of power sectors represents a very complicated process, which faces many obstacles such as public acceptance, economical and political interests of potential groups. This paper illustrates the complexity of an appropriate restructuring model taking into consideration the potential objections during the conceptualisation of the process. The paper emphasises that restructuring plans have to be generated by integrating the socio-economic character of the country and the international experience. Moreover, it presents a set of technical and financial efficiency indicators to evaluate the performance of the concerned entity and to compare it with the international benchmarks. Instead of photocopying a certain model of privatisation and deregulation, the article provides a restructuring design methodology for developing countries, where Lebanon is taken as a case study. The procedure should meet the requirements of a careful change management during the design and implementation phases. The steps of conceptualisation are demonstrated and are turned in an action plan for the Lebanese decision makers: how to turn ideas into reality by developing an appropriate restructuring process. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.