Data envelopment analysis applied to electricity distribution districts

In this paper Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to evaluate efficiency measures for the 45 distribution districts of the Greek Public Power Corporation (PPC). Results are derived under different sets of assumptions and are compared with simple productivity indices used by PPC and with efficiency measures produced by econometric methods. DEA scores appear to be more reliable than simple productivity indices. Comparison of the different cases explains the reason for the low efficiencies, which can be due to the management of controllable inputs, the design of the supply system or other environmental factors.