Electricity, the most refined form of energy, plays a key role in the development of any country and enhancement of socio-economic and human development indicators. Since urban centers are connected to the national grids, it is predominantly a rural issue. It has been held as the government responsibility to provide its citizens with the affordable electricity by any available mechanism. The case of far off rural areas is altogether different. Extending national grid to these areas having sparse population is conomically and technically not a sound idea. So, the solution is off-grid mechanism for electrifying these areas. Community managed MHPs-a new type of commonly owned goods or Commons- are one of the emerging trends of energy provision in far-flung areas having enough drainage network. There is a general optimism that communities can better manage access to energy due to their direct stake. However, this optimism does not realize the fact that community MHPs is a broad category underneath which a general framework can be identified. There are variations in communities. Conceptually speaking, each of these varieties may have different lesson but so far, superficial handling of community MHPs as a concept has failed to provide such insights. Without understanding these differences and their implications for sustainability of community power initiative, it is less likely to imagine the target of sustainable energy future. This research has studied the variations in collective action problems; and social, economic, financial and environmental sustainability in the two models of MHPs: NGOs-built community-operated NBCO and community-built community-operated CBCO on the frameworks of Elinor Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development Framework and Elinor Ostrom’s Design Principles. In each model, there are two units of data collection: managing committee and community members. Three samples from each model are taken purposively. Afterwards, thematic analysis is used to analyze the data collected through twelve focus group discussion. Results speakx highly of the sustainability in terms of finance, operation and environment irrespective of the model of power plants. Elinor Ostrom Institutional Analysis and Development Framework and Ostrom’s Design Principles stand supportive in the sustainability of these community managed power plants. However, in this study, graduated sanctioning and nested enterprises have very little presence. Holistically speaking this study presents a good example of community-led selfgovernance of natural or man-made common owned resources. Supervisor:- Dr. Junaid Alam Memon