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2 Lessons from the Global Review of Electrification Experience 7
Lessons from the
Global Review of
Electrification Experience
The project has undertaken an extensive review of literature on rural electrification
experience from around the world. This review has also allowed the research team
to look into issues, such as electrification—development linkages, regulatory issues,
financing and investment challenges, and delivery options. This section presents a
summary of the lessons from this review.
2.1 South Asian Experience
South Asia accounts for around 33 per cent of the global population without access to
electricity (WEO 2014). Such a situation continues to exist despite several initiatives
and policies to support electrification efforts by the respective country governments.
The challenges to enhance electricity access are manifold including technical, financial,
institutional, and governance barriers.
The current level of household electrification in the rural areas of the region is
around 50 per cent, leaving some 479 million people without electricity in 2012
(WEO 2014). There also exists a wide disparity in Rural Electrification (RE) in South
Asia. Sri Lanka has a RE rate of 88 per cent, which is higher than the global average
(68 per cent), while only 22 per cent of the rural population in Afghanistan have access.
Although the percentage of population with electricity access has increased during the
last decade, there seems to be no significant decrease in the absolute number of people
without electricity.
Of the total population without electricity access in the region, many reside in
isolated communities, such as islands, forests fringes, and hilly settlements. These
communities are generally small, consisting of low-income households—with
characteristics that may be economically unattractive to electricity distribution
companies or even government electrification programmes that usually prioritize the
allocation of scarce resources. A substantial section of the un-served consumers are
also found in mainstream rural and peri-urban areas, already connected to the grid,
where the issue seems to be less of opportunity to get connected to the grid, but more
Lessons from the
Global Review of
Electrification Experience
The project has undertaken an extensive review of literature on rural electrification
experience from around the world. This review has also allowed the research team
to look into issues, such as electrification—development linkages, regulatory issues,
financing and investment challenges, and delivery options. This section presents a
summary of the lessons from this review.
2.1 South Asian Experience
South Asia accounts for around 33 per cent of the global population without access to
electricity (WEO 2014). Such a situation continues to exist despite several initiatives
and policies to support electrification efforts by the respective country governments.
The challenges to enhance electricity access are manifold including technical, financial,
institutional, and governance barriers.
The current level of household electrification in the rural areas of the region is
around 50 per cent, leaving some 479 million people without electricity in 2012
(WEO 2014). There also exists a wide disparity in Rural Electrification (RE) in South
Asia. Sri Lanka has a RE rate of 88 per cent, which is higher than the global average
(68 per cent), while only 22 per cent of the rural population in Afghanistan have access.
Although the percentage of population with electricity access has increased during the
last decade, there seems to be no significant decrease in the absolute number of people
without electricity.
Of the total population without electricity access in the region, many reside in
isolated communities, such as islands, forests fringes, and hilly settlements. These
communities are generally small, consisting of low-income households—with
characteristics that may be economically unattractive to electricity distribution
companies or even government electrification programmes that usually prioritize the
allocation of scarce resources. A substantial section of the un-served consumers are
also found in mainstream rural and peri-urban areas, already connected to the grid,
where the issue seems to be less of opportunity to get connected to the grid, but more
