Electricity sector in the Palestinian territories: Which priorities for development and peace?

The infrastructure of a country is a principal factor for its development, welfare and prosperity. Electricity is considered nowadays to be one of the most important components of a country's infrastructure and a key indicator of the standard of living of the population. This study consists of two parts; in the first we try to shed light on the current situation of the electrical sector in the Palestinian territories (PT): production, consumption, the electric power transmission grid and the role of political shocks on electricity consumption. In the second part we try to construct a framework to estimate the recovery period after shock (in particular, war events) and the investment needs. It is vital to provide the decision makers with adequate tools for optimal management of the electrical sectors suffering from fragility and vulnerability caused by political shocks. Our approach for exploring the Palestinian electrical sector consists of an historical retrospective study with a limited-time data series. We made comparisons between the PT and the neighbouring countries in the region in order to highlight the electricity consumption gap. Finally, we used an econometrical and mathematical model for the analyses of the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth and for recovery period calculation. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.