The loss of electricity from grids due to heat, theft and non-paying users is a serious problem in many countries. According to the World Bank, in 2023, more than half of the countries tracking this data lost at least 10% of their electricity; losses exceeded 20% in 24 countries, while in two countries, more than half of the electricity generated was lost. Reducing these losses could help meet rising demand without building new power plants and contribute to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. However, this requires infrastructure investments, regulations, coordination among public institutions and efforts to combat electricity theft. Wars, natural disasters and weak governance conditions are exacerbating the problem.
Delhi set an example by reducing electricity losses from approximately 50% to 5% over 25 years. Mini Shaji Thomas, an electrical engineer at Jamia Millia Islamia, examined this transformation in her study titled “The Epic Comeback of Delhi’s Power Grid.” In Georgia, losses fell from more than 16% in 2002 to approximately 8% in 2023, while in Singapore they declined from 6.6% to 0.2%. In Jamaica, losses remained in the 21%-28% range for years. In Argentina, they rose from approximately 12% to nearly 24% between 2015 and 2023; insufficient investment and delays in smart meter deployment were among the main causes.
Why it matters
Electricity losses are emerging not merely as an efficiency problem for distribution companies, but as an infrastructure and management issue that determines how much of the existing generation can reach consumers. For this reason, for countries seeking to meet rising demand, the operation of the grid, metering, oversight, and collection capacity are becoming just as decisive as investments in new power plants. While the declines in Delhi, Georgia, and Singapore show that losses are not an immutable structural outcome, the examples of Jamaica and Argentina indicate that the same problem can become entrenched through a lack of investment and delays in implementation. However, which measures are effective under which conditions—particularly amid war, disasters, and weak governance—remains an open question that must be assessed together with countries’ institutional capacity and regulations.
Background
Delhi is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we published a news article mentioning the name in the last 90 days; that article is dated September 13, 2026.