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Historically all over the world the electricity grid started as a State-owned monopoly, because only the State Government has proved to have the capability of of mobilizing the massive resources required to build an electricity grid spanning the whole country, including power generating plants, transmission and distribution networks, capable of supplying all customers regardless of economic factors, i.e. including customers/users which are not economically viable.
Once the infrastructure is in place, however, what typically happens is that the State “steps back”, privatizing (at least partially) the generation companies (gencos), while retaining all or part of the T&D (transmission and distribution) network to operate as a market-place that enables demand to meet supply.
This allows for IPP (independent power producers) to enter the picture, which not only drives the efficiency of the power generation process – old and inefficient power plants are pushed out to be replaced by new, more efficient technologies – but also allows for the introduction of renewable energy generation plants in the mix, and for IPP to contract directly with corporate customers to cater specifically for their sustainability requirements.
In Asia Pacific, this privatization process has already taken place in a limited number of countries (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore), while in the other countries the grid operator still manages directly also the power generating facilities.
Without this process, onsite PPAs are the only possible option for corporate customer to source renewable energy.