ATHENS, Greece — A study by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group has unraveled various impediments that countries around the world encounter in securing access to electricity service.

The study entitled “Getting Electricity” covered 140 countries and focused on electricity connection constraints confronting entrepreneurs, mainly for their newly-constructed buildings. The outcomes have been shared to the participants of the World Forum on Energy Regulation (WFER) here.

The study serves as a benchmark to show the processes involved and the duration that commercial customers in various countries face in securing electricity service for their respective businesses.

In this, the IFC tracked the procedures, length of time and corresponding delays as well as the cost required for a business to obtain new electricity connection.

The pilot study, the IFC noted, “sheds light on the interactions of businesses with distribution utilities,” adding that this also offers information on a number of issues previously non-existent for a number of countries.

Some of these relevant data include efficiency and the corresponding cost of the services provided to commercial customers by the distribution utilities, the complexity of procedures and the financial resources that businesses must spend in obtaining power connection.

As could be gleaned from the study outcome, IFC noted that “the number of interactions customers have with the utility and other agencies is one of the most important determinants of connection delays.” In particular, it was noted that in countries with less procedural requirements, the connection may only take 56 days on average; while those with lengthy procedures normally take 215 days.

“Because connection times are more likely to be long where entrepreneurs must go through many procedures, it is important to understand why particular procedures are needed and how they can delay connections,” the IFC study said.

It added that “connection delays increase where opportunities are missed to streamline approvals with other public agencies.”

Romania, has been cited as an example, given circumstances wherein the private contractor hired to complete the connection works must get a separate construction license for the distribution transformer needed for the connection. Conversely, in Montenegro and Serbia, such construction license has already been integrated with the construction permit obtained from a municipality.

“Connection delays increase where customers face multiple procedures related to the quality and safety of internal wiring,” the multilateral lending firm said. It further noted that “middle-income economies offer the most scope to streamline procedures.”

Additionally, the study indicated that connection delays similarly occur “where utilities do not have the materials needed to connect customers readily available.” Problems of this sort, it was pointed out, are typical in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

“Survey respondents reported additional wait times of up to 150 days when the utility did not have such critical materials as distribution transformers or meters in stock,” it said.

As far as connection costs are concerned, it was established that it is generally higher in poorer countries; though they vary significantly in various jurisdictions depending on the type of infrastructure being utilized.