Auditing the efficiency of regulated companies through the use of data envelopment analysis: an application to electric cooperatives

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5347021

Thomas, D L

This study was concerned with advancing the technology of management audits performed or ordered by regulatory commissions. The study applied Data Envelope Analysis (as developed by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes) to the seventy-five electric cooperatives regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas in an effort to measure relative efficiency. Efficiency was defined around the concepts that inputs produce outputs and that an efficiency electric cooperative would produce more outputs given the same inputs. The study centered on technical efficiency and excluded scale and allocative efficiency. The study considered the efficiency of electrical distribution and excluded generation and transmission. Data Envelopment Analysis was tested for ability to select audit candidates, to target management audits to specific areas of inefficiency, and to identify a reference set of efficient organizations for comparison. Results indicate that DEA can be utilized to develop a single, overall measure of efficiency and can at the same time provide individual efficiency rating for each of the inputs and outputs that go into the overall measure.

• Research Organization: Texas Univ., Austin (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5347021
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
COOPERATIVES
REGULATIONS
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
TEXAS
AUDITS
EFFICIENCY
MANAGEMENT
POWER DISTRIBUTION
FEDERAL REGION VI
NORTH AMERICA
PUBLIC UTILITIES
USA
296000* - Energy Planning & Policy- Electric Power
293000 - Energy Planning & Policy- Policy
Legislation
& Regulation