Nowadays subsidy payments on electrical energy have to be managed and controlled to prevent any side effect particularly in developing countries. Effects of some external factors on Energy consumption and electricity distribution indices are analyzed in this paper. External factors are classified into three categories of social behavior, governance and urban planning. MC (Marginal Cost) of electricity in distribution is considered as the main index to be analyzed. Also, ANN (Artificial Neural Network) is applied to simulate effect of the mentioned factors on MC of distribution sector. Numerical investigation on the indices for a sample DISCO (Distribution Company) in Iran is made, results indicate that the more subsidies are allocated to consumers the more MC is increased. AGA (Asset Governance Assessment), which is proposed as a kind of governance decision, could improve the performance efficiency and avoid lose of activities done by DISCOs through subsidy management. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.