The inadequate supply of electricity in Pakistan disrupts everyday life and hampers industry and business; in this it is an emblematic indicator of the poor quality of urban governance pervasive in much of the Global South. We focus on the governance of Karachi’s electricity distribution system, and its spatial unevenness across this sprawling metropolis of 15 million residents which encompasses huge informal settlements alongside upscale housing and commercial plazas. Using a dataset with granular, neighborhood-level electricity data, we apply spatial and statistical modeling techniques to understand how transmission and distribution losses, i.e., the utility’s ability to bill for the electricity it supplies, vary across the city. These electricity losses provide a useful lens on the unevenness of urban governance in the city, especially where other sources of detailed socio-economic data are scarce. Our models link losses to higher proportions of residential consumers rather than commercial or industrial. Moreover, based on an analysis of model residuals, we can start to specify the degree to which urban governance is driven by the underlying characteristics of the neighborhood and bring some precision to understanding the spatial distribution of urban governance. Our findings reinforce the importance for governance reforms to be locally situated and informed, while also opening up new possibilities for visualizing electricity governance at a very local level and thus promoting democratic transparency.

巴基斯坦电力供应不足扰乱了日常生活，阻碍了工业和商业；在这方面，它是全球南方大部分地区普遍存在的城市治理质量低下的标志性指标。我们专注于卡拉奇配电系统的治理，以及它在这个拥有 1500 万居民的庞大大都市中的空间不均匀性，其中包括巨大的非正式住区以及高档住宅和商业广场。使用包含细粒度、邻里级电力数据的数据集，我们应用空间和统计建模技术来了解输电和配电损失，即公用事业公司为其供应的电力计费的能力，在整个城市中是如何变化的。这些电力损失为城市治理的不平衡提供了一个有用的视角，特别是在其他详细社会经济数据来源稀缺的情况下。我们的模型将损失与更高比例的住宅消费者联系起来，而不是商业或工业消费者。此外，基于对模型残差的分析，我们可以开始具体说明城市治理受邻里潜在特征驱动的程度，并为理解城市治理的空间分布带来一定的精度。我们的研究结果强调了治理改革在当地定位和知情的重要性，同时也为在非常地方层面可视化电力治理开辟了新的可能性，从而促进了民主透明度。此外，基于对模型残差的分析，我们可以开始具体说明城市治理受邻里潜在特征驱动的程度，并为理解城市治理的空间分布带来一定的精度。我们的研究结果强调了治理改革在当地定位和知情的重要性，同时也为在非常地方层面可视化电力治理开辟了新的可能性，从而促进了民主透明度。此外，基于对模型残差的分析，我们可以开始明确城市治理受邻里潜在特征驱动的程度，并为理解城市治理的空间分布带来一定的精度。我们的研究结果强调了治理改革在当地定位和知情的重要性，同时也为在非常地方层面可视化电力治理开辟了新的可能性，从而促进了民主透明度。