Public utilities are a natural monopoly. It is impractical to allow the consumer to choose the wire that connects electricity to his house. That’s why even private utility companies like TEC and BSES enjoy virtual monopolies. Consumers are somewhat well off in private power companies’ domains. But most consumers have to put up with shoddy service from the SEBs.
That is why privatisation of distribution is so welcome. But it will not serve any objective if the distributor is to be just another monopoly. And since existing transmission set-ups are not to be privatised, he would still have to deal with bureaucrats.
The ideal model is multiple generators supplying to multiple distributors with multiple transmitters connecting the generators to the distributors. If that creates the problem of stranded costs, so be it. That can be dealt with.
Anyway, isn't that the risk entr-epreneurs take in any industry?