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

The restructuring of power sectors represents a very complicated process, w hich faces many obstacles such as public acceptance, economical and politic al 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 emphasise s that restructuring plans have to be generated by integrating the socio-ec onomic character of the country and the international experience. Moreover, it presents a set of technical and financial efficiency indicators to eval uate the performance of the concerned entity and to compare it with the int ernational benchmarks. Instead of photocopying a certain model of privatisa tion and deregulation, the article provides a restructuring design methodol ogy for developing countries, where Lebanon is taken as a case study. The p rocedure should meet the requirements of a careful change management during the design and implementation phases. The steps of conceptualisation are d emonstrated and are turned in an action plan for the Lebanese decision make rs: how to turn ideas into reality by developing an appropriate restructuri ng process. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.