INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT
Energy and the rural poor – A study on the issues related to energy and its relations with the rural poor with an emphasis on access issues and its role in poverty alleviation Sandeep Mysore Seshadrinath PGDM(RM) II (u307045) Project Guide: Prof. C. Shambu Prasad Student Research Committee: Prof. D. V. Ramana & Mr. Shreekumar Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar
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Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire thinktank behind formulating and setting up the Individual Research Project for it has been a great learning experience for me in more ways than one. I would like to personally thank Prof. C. Shambu Prasad, Faculty Guide for his valuable, timely advice which helped shape the research. I would also like to thank Mr.Sreekumar of PRAYAS Energy group for his guidance. I also take this opportunity thank Prof D.V.Ramana, Faculty, XIMB for being a part of the Student Research Committee. Last but not the least I would like to thank the library staff.
Sandeep.M.S 10 th February, 2009
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Table of Contents 1. Introduction........................................................................................................... 5 a. Statement of the Problem ................................................................................... 6 b. Significance of the Problem ............................................................................... 6 c. Purpose.............................................................................................................. 6 d. Methodology ..................................................................................................... 7 2. Literature Survey................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Overview of Energy sector in India.................................................................. 8 2.2 Overview of available options for energy in Rural India .................................. 9 2.3 Poverty & Rural Energy, Human Development – the nexus ........................... 10 2.4 Relationship between HDI & Energy ............................................................. 11 2.5 Understanding India’s Energy Problem.......................................................... 13 2.6 Key Issues related to Rural Energy ................................................................ 14 2.6.1 Access Issues .......................................................................................... 14 2.6.2 Gender Issues.......................................................................................... 15 2.6.3 Health Issues........................................................................................... 15 2.6.4 Environmental Issues .............................................................................. 15 2.6.5 Technological Issues ............................................................................... 15 2.6.6 Role of Credit ......................................................................................... 16 2.6.7 Management Issues ................................................................................. 16 2.6.8 Institutional Issues .................................................................................. 16 2.7 What do the stakeholders say? ....................................................................... 17 2.7.1 ENERGIA – International Network on Gender & Sustainable Energy..... 17 2.7.2 Access to Energy in India – Stakeholder dialogue ................................... 18 3.0 Status & Prospect of Energy Access .................................................................. 19 3.1 The situation of access to energy services ...................................................... 19 3.2 Basic needs of energy in rural areas ............................................................... 20 3.3 The problems of increasing the ability to pay for improved energy services in rural areas............................................................................................................ 20 4.0 Overcoming the Barrier to Energy Access ......................................................... 22 4.1 The role of intermediation.............................................................................. 22 4.2 The role of subsidies ...................................................................................... 23 4.3 Pricing ........................................................................................................... 23 4.4 The enabling environment ............................................................................. 24 4.5 The role of the energy regulator ..................................................................... 24 5. Models for Increasing Energy Services in Rural Areas ........................................ 25 5.1 Marketbased models ..................................................................................... 25 5.2 Governmentled model .................................................................................. 26 5.3 Private company participation........................................................................ 26 5.4 Subsidies ....................................................................................................... 27 6. Learning from Experiences of other Nations........................................................ 27 6.1 Case of Chile – promoting private investments .............................................. 27 6.2 Case of Nepal – technological & managerial innovations ............................... 28 6.3 Critical Success factors .................................................................................. 29 7. Policy Suggestions .............................................................................................. 30 8. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 32 9. References........................................................................................................... 33
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Title: Energy and the rural poor – A study on the issues related to energy and its relations with the rural poor with an emphasis on access issues and its role in poverty alleviation Abstract Rural India has been time and again excluded from the field of view of policy makers. It is the consumers of commercial fuels who have been getting all the focus. Non commercial energy users, who happen to be poor or nearpoor populace in the rural hinterlands of India, have for long been neglected in the energy debate – as it is reflected in the acts that have been formulated thus far. The reasons for this discrimination are a plenty & obvious. Ranging from nonaffordability, improper technologies to high transaction costs, people in rural areas have been kept literally, in the dark. The implications of this can be clearly seen. Inhabitants of rural areas have been depending on fuel supplies which are locally acquired (timber and other solid fuels). The efficiency of these fuels is highly questioned. This has implications for the environment and its biodiversity as people have become largely dependant on the environment for their fuel supplies. With limited or no access to clean energy sources all these factors combined, the rural people have been thrown into a cycle of poverty and neglect. A stunning correlation exists between access to energy and the level of development. It has been long established that insufficient access to modern energy leads to issues of low productivity, nonproductive activities, gender issues and healthrelated problems. Some of the policy suggestions given are defining monitoring mechanisms for energy access, increasing the capacity of the local people to handle new technologies, fostering innovative financing mechanisms like CDM, improving credit delivery in the rural areas, etc. This paper looks at the issues surrounding energy & the rural poor, with a special emphasis on issues of access to energy. Key words: rural energy, poor, poverty alleviation, access to energy
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1. Introduction Poverty alleviation as we see it is not only the increase of monetary income, but refers to improved access to education and healthcare, credit, increased productivity and modern sources of energy as well. The rural populace has been for long deprived of clean energy sources. The problems & issues pertaining to this are a plenty and highly interconnected. It therefore becomes important to map the current scenario with historical inputs and delineate the causal factors for a better understanding of the problem. There are many issues concerning rural energy – ones of technology, management, types of fuel, access to energy etc. Not having access to energy services is an important barrier to development. The World Bank has estimated that there are nearly 1.7 billion people without access to modern forms of energy, such as electricity and oil (World Bank, 1996). The relationship between HDI and per capita energy consumption gives reason to believe that increases in per capita energy consumption for the poorest countries can lead to tremendous improvements in the quality of life in these countries (UNDP, 1999). Improving household energy services can result in savings; the new source replacing more costly and less effective supplies. This is largely related to the intrahousehold decision making power based on gender. Especially poor women are disproportional victims of energy scarcity and of poverty in general. On the household level energy is often not seen as a priority. This is expressed in their poor nutritional status, poor health because of indoor pollution, and low literacy rates (Duflo et al, 2008). Girls and women spend a lot of time in gathering wood fuel and cooking. This time could be used for education or productive purposes. Women’s time can be seen as an important part of the energy crisis in rural areas. Not only because of the time women spend to collect biomass, but moreover because of the labour that women do. Poor rural women are a major target group of major poverty alleviation strategies – this mood is also reflected on the various debates (ENERGIA 1 ). But this need is not getting sufficient attention from the policy makers. There is a very obvious bias towards commercial users of energy. The Electricity Act 2003, for example has barely any provisions made for rural electrification barring mentions in three sections (Sections 4, 5, 6). The focus of GoI programs hitherto have been on Grid Expansion which has poorly fared. There are many other OffGrid options available for providing access to energy in remote rural areas, but the existing institutional support for these programs are minimal. The much hyped RGGVY 2 scheme with the aim of electrifying all the villages has made tardy progress. All of these are not encouraging indicators, especially at a time when energy has gained an importance to an extent that achieving the Millennium Development Goals becomes impossible without progress on the energy front. Section 2 will discuss and summarize the rural energy sector, the nexus between poverty & energy and some of the key issues with respect to rural energy. Section 3 will look into the Status and prospects of energy access, while Section 4 will look at different ways of overcoming the barriers to energy access. Section 5 discusses some 1 2
International Network on Gender & Sustainable Energy Rajiv Gandhi Gram Vidyutikiran Yojana which promises 1Kwh of electricity to every household
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of the existing models to increase energy services in rural areas. Section 6 will present case studies from developing countries to look into the critical success factors. Finally Section 7 & 8 contain policy suggestions for developing countries.
a. Statement of the Problem Rural poor do not have access to modern energy sources which is hampering their progress. There are many reasons attributed to this, but the main problem is the problem of access, and understanding this problem is vital to formulate policies to overcome these barriers of access.
b. Significance of the Problem This problem is not new, access to energy and its role in poverty alleviation has been long established. There have been many programs which governments around the world have formulated and implemented, but with limited success. Some countries have been successful in solving their energy problems while some are still lagging behind by a huge margin. More than 1.7 billion people around the world in developing countries how are deprived of access to modern energy. It has been established that energy plays a huge role in poverty alleviation. In fact it has been propounded that energy has a role to play in achieving every Millennium Development Goal that the United Nations has set for developing nations (reference). This gives us a very clear indicator on the importance and significance of this study as we are trying to answer the question why a large chunk of the world population is kept out of the energy pie.
c. Purpose The purpose of this study is to get a better understanding of the issues surrounding rural energy and how it effects the rural population. Firstly, the purpose of this study is to try and bring out the various dimensions of the energy sector – it’s surrounding issues. To explore the role and importance of issues of access, and the role they play in poverty alleviation. This study also aims at finding out the perspectives and opinions of the various stakeholders in of this debate, especially from the point of view of the policy makers and grassroot level implementers. Further, the voice of the developed countries will also be studied to see what kind importance is being placed and given to energy issues in developing countries. This study is also aimed at looking into success stories of other developing nations to analyze the critical success factors so that they could be implemented in countries which have a poor track record. Las but not the least, this study will give us a sense of what the priorities should be for developing countries to solve their energy crisis.
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d. Methodology This study was done mainly using secondary data and previous research findings. Hence the nature of this research is majorly qualitative analysis. Also, a couple of primary surveys which were carried out during the period of study have been used. · To understand the voice and mood of the policy makers – many government documents were consulted – The Electricity Act, Integrated Energy Policy Report etc. Also other discussion forums were scanned through to understand what other stakeholders had to say about the priorities of the policymakers. · To understand the importance being given by the international community, many publications of bilateral and multilateral agencies were consulted (UN, UNESMAP, UNDP, USAID/SARI etc). This gave an insight into the kind of priority energy issues are having in the developed countries. Also discussion forums started by these agencies were consulted to understand the current mood (ENERGIA). · Two surveys, one in Rural Orissa & another in Rural Andhra Pradesh which were carried out during the period of study by a team of independent researchers were also consulted to gain some microlevel insight into the issues, and to corroborate with the macro level evidences which were seen as results of other research documents. · To get an insight into the academic community and the current research happening in this field, journals like EPW and other international, independent publications were consulted. A major source of research inputs would be from A.K.N Reddy’s publications on Rural Energy. · To get a hang of the voice of the grassroot implementers and policy advocacy agents – publications of PRAYAS (energy group) were consulted and also interactions with people in Gram Vikas (an NGO based in Rural Orissa working on issues of Rural Electrification) were carried out. · Lastly, the success stories of catering to the energy needs of people in developing countries will be studied. This will help in studying and knowing the critical success factors which go into making a successful program. This can help make better policy suggestions. This study had certain limitations, some owing to the kind of research itself. There have been many studies conducted previously in this field, and hence a lot of secondary data sources are available. One of the important features of rural energy is the dependence on locally available biomass resources. Since they are collected at zero cash cost, data collection on consumption is primarily recallbased. Similarly, locallevel supply and demand is difficult to capture. Hence, there is an inherent problem of data availability and authenticity. Microlevel experiences are at times contrary to the macro assessments provided in many sources. The analysis done in this report has been presented with respect to the macro assessments and the microlevel evidences (specific surveys and case studies) bringing out the weaknesses in types of data available and assessments made visàvis rural energy transitions. Also, t here are no systematic approaches to collecting data on energy access to the poor and the women in any country. National surveys do not have specific questions to gather such information. Their aggregated data lacks specificity on supply and consumption patterns in different parts of a country.
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2. Literature Survey 2.1 Overview of Energy sector in India India is literally running short of energy. The energy supply has not followed the tremendous demand in India, which has resulted in the fact that India has been compelled to import a large amount of energy, especially oil and gas 1 . India stands with a huge challenge to supply stable energy for its inhabitants for the years to come. The Government has made strategic plans to supply energy to its power starving country. In 2002 the 10 th Five Year Plan was made setting a target of adding over 100,000 MW of capacity by the year 2012. The 12 th Plan is addition target (201217) to be another 66,500 MW. Therefore the government has to rely on different sources of energy to fulfil the plan. India has huge gap between demand and supply of conventional electricity and hence renewable energy sources are being exploited. It is an important element of India’s power policy – to meet the needs of power in an environmentally friendly way and to provide power to remote areas.
Figure 2 Source: Ministry of Power The target is that 10% of the energy has to be covered by Renewable Energy by 2012. In the past few years, there has been considerable growth in power generation based on renewable sources of energy, which also plays a big part in the governments plan (with the recently established Ministry of New and Renewable Energy). Current installed capacity based on these sources is about 6,200 MW, of which wind power constitutes a major part.
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2.2 Overview of available options for energy in Rural India Improved/Smokeless Chulhas Poor families use energy mainly for cooking. The cooking stoves they use are mainly made of mud and brick, and according to Duflo et al, they are 1015% efficient. Thus, the first technology to be considered for improved access in rural areas are more efficient cooking stoves, called improved chulas (IC) in India, which continue to burn wood, but have much higher efficiencies, reaching up to 40% (Duflo et al). Today, a number of lowpriced modern woodfueled ICs have been developed, with improvements based on enclosure to retain heat, maximization of heat transfer to the pot and improvement in combustion. Aside from being more efficient and thus enabling women to spend less time finding wood, emissions of indoor pollutants are also reduced. Biogas Digesters Biogas digesters also hold great promise in delivering change in rural areas, especially in India, where there are large amounts of cattle. Biogas is produced from animal and human waste through a process known as anaerobic digestion, done with organic matter. The marsh gas, or methane, produced, can be used as fuel, replacing traditional biomass or even kerosene and LPG. Some of the advantages of biogas are that there are lots of animals in India, thus it can be produced at low cost, and that the technology to make biogas can be produced locally as well. Biomass Other modern uses of biomass are also great alternatives for replacement of traditional forms, especially in India. Alternative biomass consists mainly of agricultural residues, like rice and coffee husk, and sugar bagasse. The biggest problem with agricultural residues for energy is the low energy per volume, which makes it difficult to handle and transport. One of the main advantages of biomass residues is that they can replace traditional fuel wood directly. Solar Energy Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Panels have recently become a popular solution to target energy problems in disconnected areas. PV panels are particularly good for applications like street lighting, community facilities, or solar home systems (SHS). This is different from hydropower, for instance, where a minimum size is required and there are expansionary limits based on the size of the river and the capacity of the turbine. Another advantage of PV panels is that most of them have proven to be reliable, durable, require low maintenance, and last up to 30 years. The main problems with PV panels for SHS are the high capital cost (as well as installation cost), the need of a battery, which has to be replaced every four to five years thus increasing operating costs, and the fact that they cannot be produced locally and that spares are expensive. Larger PV panels can be used for electricitymicro grids, although the technology might still be too expensive. Wind Energy A second technology that has become increasingly popular in the last years for rural energy supply is wind energy. One of the main advantages of wind turbine generators is that they can be used for both, a household system, or an integrated grid. In the same way as PV panels, the more windmills are installed, the more energy is 9
generated. One of the problems with wind, however, is its intermittence, and thus they are not as reliable as other sources. Using wind for electricity might also be too expensive due to the high replacement costs of batteries. However, for other applications like mechanical energy for water pumping, wind can be extremely beneficial. One final advantage of wind power is that the larger part of the structure can be locally produced, with laminated wood, plastics and welded or galvanized steel for the tower, and thus communities would only have to import the generator and gearbox. MicroHydropower For electricity microgrids, there are two particular technologies that have a great potential in India: micro hydropower, and biomass gasifiers 3 . The main advantages of SHP are that hydropower is technologically mature, easy to maintain, reliable (as long as the river has a continuous flow), and has low operating costs. Its main disadvantage is, similar to other RETs, the high capital costs. SHPs are particularly good for micro grids, but they can also be used for mechanical power. Biomass Gasifiers Another technology that could be used for production of electricity and has a great potential in India is biomass gasification. Biomass gasifiers basically convert biomass into “producer gas” through a thermochemical process, the producer gas is then cleaned, and then powers and internal combustion engine for generation of electricity. This method is particularly good for small capacities in the kW range. Biomass gasifiers are advantageous because they use local resources in a sustainable manner, yet they have higher operation and maintenance costs and the technology is not fully developed yet.
2.3 Poverty & Rural Energy, Human Development – the nexus There are many dimensions to poverty. Poor people live without fundamental freedoms of action and choice that the betteroff take for granted. They often lack adequate food and shelter, education and health. In particular in developing countries these basic needs are missing for the majority of people. In these countries causes and results of poverty are difficult to discern. A framework which analyzes rural poverty makes use of the concept of assets as an explaining factor for poverty situations: “the diverse assets that rural people draw on in building livelihoods; the ways in which people are able to access, defend and sustain these assets; and the abilities of people to transform those assets into income, dignity, power and sustainability” (Bebbington, 1999, p. 2028) 4 . However, there are different ways in which poverty has been explained by making use of this concept.
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A biomass gasifier consists primarily of a reactor or container into which fuel (such as wood, agricultural residues and coal ) is fed along with a limited supply of air. Heat for gasification is generated through partial combustion of the feed material. The resulting chemical breakdown of the fuel and internal reactions result in a combustible gas usually called producer gas. 4
Bebbington, A. (1999) Capitals and Capabilities: a Framework for Analyzing Peasant Viability, Rural Livelyhoods and Poverty. World Development 27 (12), 20212044.
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First, poverty might be explained by a lack of (access to) assets: even if resources are present, there are many factors that could keep the poor from using them. ‘Scarcity is the characteristic of not having enough…it is not the characteristic of there not being enough’. Many other researchers also address the question of access to assets, and apart from endowments (the rights people have to resources), emphasize entitlements (the use people can make of these endowments). Entitlement issues are especially brought to the forefront in Development Projects (like Dam Constructions, Mining etc) Second, poverty could be explained by the low rewards peasants receive for their produce, partly because the profits are skimmed by the market, by corruption, and by payments to landlords, partly because the surplus itself is already low. Finally, poverty could result from difficulties with storage. People might have access to resources and might obtain revenues, but this does not immediately mean their revenues are safe: a small setback – a year of drought, a flood, a war, theft, and a disappointing harvest can start a killing downward spiral. Vulnerability is one of the keywords here. Over the decades, many attempts to alleviate poverty have been carried out. Campaigns against poverty have often bypassed and ignored the perspective of local governments and the poor themselves. Their critical role continues to be forgotten and thus the effectiveness of poverty programs in reaching the poor continues to be hampered. To be successful, development interventions should build on the motivation of the people they target to work with. Also, appropriate interventions are those that balance the priorities of the people with their assets. The chances of success are clearly greatest when in addition the government has put in place an appropriate policy framework, capabilities and resources. Since interventions must be in line with poor people’s main concerns, it is important that they are consulted and given the possibility to reflect their choices and the priorities they want to realize. Therefore it is important to take into account the needs of the poorest. This propoor policy has a strong humanitarian argument, focusing attention on the needs of the poorest. In this approach, GNP is not the main indicator of economic wellbeing anymore. Economic growth should be seen as part of a much larger framework. Poverty alleviation must be approached from a holistic view in which political, economic and social factors are included. This holistic approach makes it possible to explain poverty through an energy focus: development and poverty alleviation are closely linked with the access people have to energy and the use people make of energy. For development to be sustainable the access to energy services should be sustainable, both socially, politically, economically and environmentally.
2.4 Relationship between HDI5 & Energy While the world’s average energy consumption is estimated at 1.54 tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) per person per year in 2004 6 , there are wide variations between industrialised countries and developing countries energy consumption levels. Per 5
The Human Development Index (HDI) is an index combining normalized measures of life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment, and GDP per capita for countries worldwide. It is claimed as a standard means of measuring human development—a concept that, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), refers to the process of widening the options of persons, giving them greater opportunities for education, health care, income, employment, etc. 6 Nation Master Statistics [ URL: http://www.nationmaster.com/ ]
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capita energy consumption in USA for example, is about 7 times that of India and five times the world average (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 (Source: worldpopulationbalance.org) In the past 25 years, access to electricity and modern energy services have been extended to over one billion people around the world. Commercial energy use by developing countries has also increased at a rate higher than the OECD countries. On a per capita basis, however, this has not resulted to equitable access to modern energy services. About 2.5 billion people, mostly in developing countries, still rely on traditional biomass fuels for cooking and 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity (Modi et al, 2005) due to reasons of availability and affordability. There are also wide variations between energy consumption levels of the rich and poor. On average, the poorest 2 .5 billion people in the world use only 0.2 toe per capita annually while the billion richest people use 5 toe per capita per year, which is 25 times more. In terms of electricity consumption, the richest 20 per cent uses 75 per cent of all electricity while the poorest 20 per cent uses less than 3 per cent (World Energy Council, 2002). Variations in modern energy consumption across countries partly explain the wide variations in human development, even among developing countries. United States uses about fifteen times more energy per person than does a typical developing country. While its share of the world’s population is only 4.6 per cent, it accounts for 24 per cent of the world’s energy consumption and over 30 per cent of GDP. But the least developed countries (LDCs) with 10 per cent of the world’s population account for about 1 per cent of energy consumption and a mere one per cent of the world’s
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GDP (Huq, et al. 2003). Pasternak (2000) studied data of 60 most populous countries in the world (excluding Afghanistan, North Korea and Taiwan for which the HDI is not calculated) to analyse the relationship between electricity consumption and the Human Development Index (HDI). The analysis revealed that a threshold of annual electricity consumption of 4,000 kWh per capita is required to achieve an HDI value of 0.9 or greater. Of the countries in the study with HDI below 0.6, 19 had annual per capita electricity consumption of less than 1,000 kWh. Also it was found out that in countries where the HDI was less than 0.6, the main fuel used in the rural areas was traditional fuel. AKNR (undated) also studied the relationship between HDI & energy and found that the impact of energy on HDI depended on its usage. Also it was found that small amounts of increase in energy resulted in high growth in HDI indicators, but again it depended on the usage of energy.
2.5 Understanding India’s Energy Problem 2.5.1 Lack of energy in the rural areas Although this paper is about energy needs, not necessarily electric connectivity, electrification rates are a good benchmark to measure urbanrural differences. Currently, there are 1.7 billion people in the world who lack electric connectivity in their homes, and four fifths of these people, or about 1.3 billion, live in rural areas, most of them in Africa and Asia.1 It is important to note that even in rural areas where electricity is accessible, connectivity is often severely interrupted, resulting in high rate of burnouts of pumps, motors, and transformers as was observed in the primary survey (Observations in Appendix I). The main reason for lower electrification rates and higher costs in rural areas worldwide is that grid extension is more expensive in rural than in urban areas. The high transmission and distribution costs in rural areas make it unattractive, especially since most people are poor and thus unable to pay for electric services (Haribandhu et al, 2007). In other cases, when subsidized grid extension does reach rural areas, the tariffs are too high for people to pay because the existent demand is too low. 2.5.2 Dependence on Traditional Biomass Poor people lacking adequate energy services in rural areas rely mainly on traditional biomass: firewood, charcoal, and animal dung. Cooking is the main use of energy in rural households, consuming up to 85% of the total energy use. Currently, about 2.4 billion people, mostly in developing countries, depend on traditional biomass, representing 40% of the world population. The use of traditional biomass is more prevalent in rural areas, simply because biomass is more available and other fuels are harder to get. This number is greater than the number of people who lack electric connectivity because cooking with electricity is too expensive, and thus many people who do have electricity access continue to rely on biomass until they move up to kerosene or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
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2.5.3 Climbing the Energy Ladder The “energy ladder” is a concept that describes the resources and end uses of energy in poor rural areas relative to income, showing how poor people in rural areas meet their energy needs as their income increases. For household use, the first footstep of the ladder is biomass, with the second step being kerosene and LPG, and finally electricity. It must be noted that for different uses, like agriculture and small businesses, there are variations to the energy ladder, particularly with the increased used of animal and human power. There are three issues of the energy ladder that are of paramount importance: the first one is that biomass is the hardest footstep to move past because it is regarded as “free;” families in rural areas simply gather firewood, there is no monetary cost involved. Thus, the idea of paying for technology, especially renewable energy technologies (RETs, which have high capital costs), does not make sense for poor people in rural areas. The second issue is that, as an International Energy Agency report indicates, there is a “widespread misconception that electricity substitutes for biomass. Poor families use electricity selectively – mostly for lighting and communication devices. They often continue to cook and heat with wood or dung, or with fossilbased fuels like LPG and kerosene”. Thus, moving up the energy ladder includes both, innovative technologies for specific enduses and modern improved uses of traditional fuels. Finally, the third issue is that there is a misconception that moving up the energy ladder is completely dependent on affordability (or income), but it must be noted that availability and cultural acceptance are equally important. 2.2.4 Energy and Rural Development Aside from cooking, energy could also benefit families in rural communities by providing thermal comfort and allowing them to pump water for drinking and irrigation. Energy services also enable incomegenerating activities and micro enterprise, a topic that will be emphasized strongly in this paper given that the most effective policies for increasing energy access and electrification rates have to go handinhand with increasing income, creating jobs, and empowering poor rural communities. Some forms of energy (that are not electricity) for business in poor rural areas can range from food processing, brick making, pottery and water pumping for irrigation. In India, most of the energy use in rural areas is for agriculture irrigation, and this energy is mostly met with animal and human power.
2.6 Key Issues related to Rural Energy 2.6.1 Access Issues Access to energy is not all about bringing the “powergrid” to the rural areas, but it is making energy available to those in need in various forms for a range of services. The issue of access is perhaps the most long standing issue and also the most long standing hindrance to poverty alleviation. Access to energy issues will be discussed in detail in the coming chapters.
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2.6.2 Gender Issues The gender issues surrounding the energy debate are obvious and quite disturbing. Among the 1.7 billion People who are without access to modern energy services, the higher number and the most affected are women. Due to nonavailability and lack of access to modern energy around 2.4 billion people rely on traditional fuel –wood, charcoal, and dung, agricultural residues for cooking and heating – which form the primary usage of energy in rural areas. Women are the primary energy procurers and managers. For women, burden of household chores fuel and water collection, familial responsibilities result in missed opportunities of education, livelihood and other activities. Energy can not only save time for women, but also empower them. Health risks from indoor air pollution (asthma and other respiratory problems) are high as the chulhas used for cooking are inefficient.
2.6.3 Health Issues At the local level, receding forests add to the drudgery of women who have to travel longer distances in search of fuel or, in extreme situations, are forced to switch to inferior fuels such as roots, weeds, leaves, etc. An estimated 84% of rural women aged 1059 years are affected by fuelwood scarcity in India. Inefficient combustion of biofuels in traditional cook stoves produces smoke which can cause a variety of respiratory illnesses (Esther Dufflo et al, 2008).
2.6.4 Environmental Issues Biomass resources are at present being overexploited. There is evidence that where the land is already degraded, fuelwood extraction can make things worse. Deforestation and burning of biomass significantly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. In India it is estimated that of the 68.3 million tonnes of carbon released annually due to biomass burning, fuelwood accounts for 82.3%.In addition to carbon dioxide emissions, wood burning also creates the products of incomplete combustion (PICs) which have a global warming potential as great as carbon dioxide. The water retention of the soil is also reduced increasing the need for irrigation. Crop residues not only maintain the organic content and humus of the soil, but also provide surface protection. Thus a reduction in crop residues makes the soil vulnerable to erosion and drought.
2.6.5 Technological Issues There have been many technological innovations aimed at providing better energy for the rural poor. But many of these initiatives have had limited success (for example Biogas). This is mostly because of poor understanding of the needs of the local people – Biogas plant at Pura 7 is an example (AKNR, 2004). The R&D and industrial set up in developing countries, seldom promote the development of equipment, products and technologies for alleviating the problems of the rural people. When such efforts are made (for example in the case of alternative energy technologies), it is often on the 7
Pura is a village in Karnataka where a community biogas plant was setup during the 1970s.
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basis of a superficial assessment of the vast market potential in the rural areas which could be profitably tapped, with subsidies being provided from government and donor agencies at the national or international level. The result is that such attempts usually end up as dismal failures, and the blame is then placed on the lack of receptivity of the rural people instead of on the lack of proper local assessment and planning and of linkages with rural development programmes. Also, many times people friendly technologies are not used and hence the interventions become useless. Even if the technology is simple and easy to use, there is no capacity building to enable people to maintain the technology. The approach is predominantly Lab to Land – and lacks a coordinated effort in R&D inputs from land to lab.
2.6.6 Role of Credit Energy does not come free of cost. The role of private sector participation is seen as a way of bringing in improved services and products. Even though highly subsidized, they do come at a cost. The problem here is not necessarily that people are unwilling to pay. Evidence suggests that people will spend a significant proportion of their incomes on better energy, which improves their quality of life or enables them to become more productive (World Bank, 2005). In Bangladesh even the poorest people are connecting to the grid when the service is available. In rural China, many people without easy access to cooking fuels are investing in efficient stoves and tree planting. The problem is that rural customers often cannot get affordable credit. That makes it difficult for them to pay the high startup costs of improving their energy supplies.
2.6.7 Management Issues Rural Energy systems, which are meant to cater to the energy needs of the rural poor, are often faced with managerial issues when it comes to delivering the services in the last mile – which makes all the difference. Lack of coordination among the different agencies coupled with ignorance of the beneficiaries result in effective implementation of schemes and programs. There is a lack of trust among the beneficiaries due to past history in the government institution. Malpractices by the implementers have eroded the faith in the system. Lack of representation of the community in the decision making bodies has hampered the success of programs and initiatives.
2.6.8 Institutional Issues For such programs and schemes to run effective a strong Institutional support and backup is essential. If there is anything wrong with the institutional framework, the probability of success no matter how well the programs are structured – are bound ot fail. Government officials in rural areas frequently do not have training or knowledge of energy planning and technology assessment or do not have the motivation to carry out such energy assessment and planning by reaching out to the people. Voluntary action groups and nongovernmental organizations, because of their local presence and commitment to rural development, can fill this gap by bringing together the people and the programmes meant for them. However, voluntary agencies and NGOs 16
frequently do not join hands with the Government machinery within the framework of a common programme. Without a suitable coordination mechanism, the work of the NGOs is often restricted to sporadic demonstration projects, which makes a limited impact on improving rural living conditions through sustainable rural development.
2.7 What do the stakeholders say? To know the current debates and issues in the rural energy sector, forums and conferences focussing on the same were followed and studied. The following section is a summary of the opinions & points of views of the various actors in this sector.
2.7.1 ENERGIA – International Network on Gender & Sustainable Energy The energy solutions forum is an online platform for experts to share their experiences in the field of energy security and energy policies with respect to gender and poverty. The creation of the Forum is the result of concerns that progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals will be hampered – or even reversed – as a result of lack of energy supply in many rural areas in the region, coupled with the food, fuel and financial crises. The Forum will push forward with new approaches that will lead to propoor and prowomen energy policies and programmes. This e group has the potential to be a pressure group to influence policy makers and planners to bring in appropriate incorporations which are relevant to the context. The value of this knowledge and experience is invaluable as it adds a very practical dimension of policy making and planning. The forum enables dialogues and the concerns of various stakeholders can be addressed in a single place. The main theme of current discussions is on gender & energy. As research suggests, women bear the most of the brunt due to skewed access to modern energy. Listed below is a summary of the current discussions. Most countries have made progress in enhancing energy access, especially with rural electrification. However, per capita energy consumption remains low among the poor and there are significant gaps in electricity access with large numbers of populations still without electricity 8 and many that have access experiencing low quality of service. High dependence on biomass fuels continues among both rural and urban poor. Progress with achieving the MDGs has slowed down in most countries. MDG 1 of halving extreme poverty by 2015 is unlikely to be reached in the majority of situations due to the direct and indirect impacts of high energy prices on living costs. Additionally, the unavailability of supply in many rural areas continues to be a challenge. On the other hand, the situation offers fresh opportunities to reduce fossil fuel dependence by accelerating efforts to mainstream renewable energy solutions and improve energy efficiency. In all countries, governments have responded with policies and programme to enhance energy access. More attention is being paid the energy 8
Rajiv Gandhi Gram Vidyutikiran Yojana (RGGVY) which promises 1Kwh electricity per household has made little progress. There have been many questions raised on its implementation.
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needs of the poor, although financing investments to meet their needs remains a major barrier. Since many policy initiatives and programmes to enhance energy access among the poor are relatively new, their impacts are yet to be assessed. To the extent privatization can improve the energy access of the poor and women; it can raise their incomes, improve their living conditions and social status, and help draw them into decision‐making affecting their lives. However, this depends on whether privatization is able to reduce losses and increase energy supply, whether subsidies are maintained by the state, and whether private energy providers channel subsidies to the poor. As can be inferred from the discussions, the evidence so far is not encouraging.
2.7.2 Access to Energy in India – Stakeholder dialogue Business, government and other stakeholders discussed ways to provide affordable & reliable energy services for currently underserved populations in India. Representatives from the private sector, government, and nongovernment organizations, and multilateral financing institutions came together for a one day stakeholder dialogue on access to energy in India. The participants agreed that the key challenges for India are reaching to remote areas, developing financially viable models, and scalingup the existing pilot initiatives scattered across the country. The discussion mainly focussed on understanding the Government of India’s ongoing efforts to reach remote rural areas, on exploring business models for sustainable energy services and identifying the enabling factors & incentives to scale up to the successful models. In this regard, panellists stressed the importance of creating strong entrepreneurial franchise models, carbon credits that enhance project viability and sharing experiences from various parts of the country and elsewhere in the world. The key speakers in the dialogue were representatives from the Ministry of Power, Government of India, the Chhattisgarh State Renewable Energy Development Agency, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank, private sector representatives from energy & financial institutions, representatives from the nongovernment organization sector such as, the READ Foundation, REEEP, and GVEP Foundation etc. Government Agencies · The representative from the Ministry of Power spoke only about access to grid electricity, and only electricity as a source of energy. Also, issues of energy efficiency were discussed in the context of commercial energy users. The bias towards only grid electricity and the neglect of offgrid power still persisted. Private Sector · The common thread of grouse running through representatives from the private sector was the present disincentives for private companies to enter the rural areas. · High degree of political interference and bureaucracy resulted in slow progress. Policy environment and institutional structure not conducive for private companies to enter rural areas. No long term political commitment/will to support private sector – there is a sense of missing trust. 18
· Also, the role of finance and promotion of microentrepreneurs to take up responsibilities in this sector was stressed. It was deliberated that finance played an important role in bringing about an enabling environment for improved access to energy. There have been programs started as part of CSR of companies and other profit making enterprises where energy (biogas, solar) and energy appliances are made available at lower prices. NonGovernmental Organizations – International NGOs · The main theme of presentations of NGOs was on increasing the energy security and promotion of renewable sources of energy. · NGOs also stressed the role of innovative finance mechanisms 9 to promote the · Increase penetration of CDM 10 projects in developing countries NonGovernmental Organizations – Indian NGOs · The Local NGOs stressed more on their role in facilitating the initiatives of government programs. For NGOs, matters of energy used to stop at issues like biogas and chulhas. But with the introduction of programs by Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) and other business models, the role of NGOs is getting clearer.
3.0 Status & Prospect of Energy Access From the extensive literature survey it is quite evident that the most looming issue facing the Indian rural energy sector, and also perhaps in most of the developing countries is the issue of access. From here onwards we dig deeper into the issue of access to energy and associated topics.
3.1 The situation of access to energy services When approaching “energy” for rural areas many people think of this in terms of provision of electricity or “bringing in the power grid”. But energy covers a number of different forms, for example, direct light, heating, cooling, shaft power as well as electricity, and for a huge number of different tasks (cooking, lighting, water pumping, refrigeration and communications) and endusers (domestic, businesses, basic social services, transportation etc.). Because energy is just the “ability to work”, demand for energy is a “derived demand”; people do not want energy in itself but the “energy services” provided. This wide range of services is made possible by different fuels and technology and can have a major impact in facilitating livelihoods, improving health and education in rural areas of developing countries and helping to reduce poverty.
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Innovative mechanisms like Carbon credit The CDM allows net global greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced at a much lower global cost by financing emissions reduction projects in developing countries where costs are lower than in industrialized countries. 10
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3.2 Basic needs of energy in rural areas The benefits deriving from energy services are often diverse and complex. They range from: • The direct benefits of contributing to increased production and reducing “sweat energy”; • The contribution that energy can make to health and human capital, for example in terms of pumping water or provision of lighting and other services to health facilities and schools; • More intangible benefits of “security” (via street lighting, backup energy supplies, or pumped water reducing risks from drought); • A sense of “inclusion” in the modern economy (via communications media).
3.3 The problems of increasing the ability to pay for improved energy services in rural areas Large numbers of people in effect suffer from a “vicious circle” of energy poverty where they are “energy poor” because they do not have the means to buy improved energy services, even if they have access to them (in the sense of being in close proximity to a supply). Furthermore, even people who can afford improved energy supplies still may not be able to afford the “conversion technology” that makes that energy useful (for example, a stove, radio, light bulb or motor) [Refer Figure 3] Increased access to money becomes crucial because improved energy services at the household level frequently necessitate switching to an energy technology that costs money from one that does not. Even where improvement in lighting results in cash savings because the new source replaces more costly but less effective supplies (such as batteries and candles), there is frequently a net increase in money expenditures because people make more use of the improved energy services. This means that attempts to reduce energy poverty (particularly using electricity supply technologies) face a particularly difficult issue in terms of the stated preferences of intended beneficiaries. When rural people express their needs for improved energy services they often give high priority to lighting, a perfectly understandable position for those forced to live much of their lives in the semidarkness provided by candles or kerosene. But the most financially sustainable decentralized electricity supply options are likely to be those which provide power to productive enterprises that can sell their products/services profitably.
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Figure 3 Source: (ESMAP World Bank, 1999). Generally village wealth will not increase unless goods and services can be sold outside the village; this implies that roads and transport are likely to be necessary “complementary inputs”. An important conclusion follows from this; the cycle of energy poverty will often be broken only by combining improved energy services with end uses that generate cash incomes. These are likely to be the productive energy enduses that enhance production activities, either by increasing productivity, extending the range of outputs or improving output quality. This might be labelled a “virtuous circle” and is illustrated in Figure 4. Clearly the vicious cycle of energy poverty (as with other forms of poverty) can be broken through the redistribution of wealth by means of grants and subsidies. But the level of funds available from government, aid donors and nongovernmental organizations is likely to be far less than those required to provide all people with adequate energy services. There is a further consideration, that is, when planning propoor energy interventions it is important to consider the means of using the energy to secure cash incomes at an early stage of the development process, and only subsequently to see how the impact of improved energy services can be extended to the other aspects of sustainable livelihoods. It has proven extremely difficult to produce financially sustainable results with energy projects if they are started with the mind set of “social development” (akin to feeder roads, clinics and schools) that are free at the point of service. Such projects often fail when the governments, aid agencies and NGOs who finance such schemes initially cannot sustain their support for recurrent expenditures.
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Figure 4
Source: (ESMAP World Bank, 1999).
4.0 Overcoming the Barrier to Energy Access 4.1 The role of intermediation There are clearly many ways in which the overall energy supply and use system might be conceptualized. The most effective method with which to increase energy services in rural areas is the policy instrument. The approach extends the idea of financial intermediation, technical intermediation, social intermediation and organizational intermediation. Financial intermediation: involves putting in place all the elements of a financial package to build and operate decentralized rural energy supply companies in place. Technical intermediation: involves both improving the technical options by undertaking research and development activities and importing the technology and knowhow “down” through the development of capacities to supply the necessary goods and services. Organizational intermediation: involves not only the initiation and implementation of programmes, but also lobbying for the policy change required to construct an “environment” of regulation and support in which the energy technology and the various players can thrive. This involves putting in place the necessary infrastructure, and getting the incentives correct in order to encourage owners, contractors, and financiers. Organizational intermediation must include the development of regulatory support and incentive structures, which can specifically address the energy needs of the poor in rural areas.
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4.2 The role of subsidies In addition to overall poverty in rural areas, the number and range of “intermediation tasks”, low density of demand and remoteness of location, raises the costs and reduces profitability of energy supplies to rural areas. Furthermore a certain amount of “social overhead investment” 11 almost always has to be put in place to support such schemes (training, technical assistance, capacity building within communities). The burden of these overheads will be particularly high for innovative schemes, though they may eventually be spread across a large number of enterprises. If the cost of energy is too expensive for poor people who need it, then the issue of subsidies and/or grants cannot be avoided. The political acceptability of subsidies has undergone wild fluctuations in recent years. All governments provide subsidies, and it is clear that some have done more harm than good (destroying markets and benefiting people who are already better off). However, the essential question that has emerged is as to whether a particular form of subsidy is actually likely to achieve its intended purpose. The arguments for using money that is supplied at less than full commercial rates of interest are overwhelming if large numbers of people are to be given access to improved energy services. This “soft money” will be required to enable people with insufficient purchasing power to gain access to electricity, and to other more convenient forms of energy. If the case can be made for subsidies, experience suggests that the use of soft money can both help the expansion of decentralized energy supply options and harm them. As always, the “devil is in the detail” and in the specifics of each context. Hence the phrase “smart subsidies” (ESMAP World Bank, 1999) has been coined to put some distance between current forms of subsidy and the earlier forms, for example subsidies on gridbased electricity, kerosene and diesel, that have been shown to stultify innovation, destroy markets and support the already more well off.
4.3 Pricing Perhaps, one of the most critical issues in rural energy development is the non monetized nature of many aspects of the rural economy, in particular, the bulk of energy supplies in the form of fuelwood and other biomass fuels. The limited cash that rural people do have needs to be spent on a variety of goods: because energy has traditionally been considered a free resource, it may not enjoy the highest priority. At the same time, the introduction into rural societies of modern energy sources carries a cash price. While the ability and the willingness of rural people to make the transition from traditional to modern energy sources may be contingent upon their financial resources, their prospects of achieving higher income levels are, in turn, often 11
Social Overhead Investments are investments in sectors such as education, health which affect and support the Directly Productive Activities
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constrained by the extent to which such a transition is achieved. Energy and rural development may thus find themselves in a state of mutual dependence, and represent one aspect of the poverty cycle that pervades many rural areas. Breaking this deadlock is one of the major challenges faced by developing countries in developing their rural areas 12 . Pricing rural energy services is a dilemma issue. High prices for the services will be beyond the affordability of rural people and low pricing will result in it being difficult to induce the necessary investment from commercial banks and private investors. In most cases, the immediate priority of dealing with rural energy poverty is to provide a minimum amount of energy to meet people’s basic needs, irrespective of their ability to bear the costs of supply and delivery. So subsidies on prices are one measure used to lower the cost of energy service in rural area. For example, in the Chinese village solar power programme implementation, the government proposed a price subsidy, so that the rural people only pay the operating cost, and the government will pay the investment cost.
4.4 The enabling environment The local government clearly plays a crucial role in the provision of subsidies, even where it has been “rolled back” from direct involvement in providing energy services to poor people. However, subsidies should not be considered in isolation from other aspects of government intervention. Although the climate is growing more favourable to decentralized energy supply options, in most countries the existing regulatory framework is often the major barrier to such development. It can be hostile, contradictory or uncertain. Taxes and subsidies still often undermine markets, rather than encourage them. The supporting infrastructure of training institutions or finance may be nonexistent or inaccessible. Competitors may be able to gain privileged access to subsidies that enable them to sell their products below cost. Without changes to this policy environment, the flow of private sector finance and innovation will be restricted. These are the areas currently at the focus of much analysis, innovation and reform.
4.5 The role of the energy regulator The overall role for an energy sector regulator in a liberalizing power market is to ensure a levelled playing field and to overlook the proper functioning of the power market.
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Hence a pointer in this regard would be to look at income generating activities which make little or no use of fuel
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5. Models for Increasing Energy Services in Rural Areas As the world suddenly entered an era of rising energy prices and unstable petroleum based fuel supplies, these factors threatened to accelerate the perceived gradual environmental depletion associated with rural people’s heavy reliance on fuelwood and agricultural residues to meet their basic energy needs. As supplies of petroleum based fuels became more costly and unreliable, it was believed that people would have to switch back to traditional or nature energy sources. Therefore the option in the most developing countries became to increase energy services by using different business models.
5.1 Marketbased models There are very limited successful stories for increasing energy services in a sustainable fashion to rural areas using a marketbased model, due to the distributed service and limited profit on investment in this area. However, international aid agencies have developed several market based business models to increase energy access to rural areas. The general implementation flow of most market based models is shown in figure 5.
Figure 5 Source: ESMAP, 1999 Other marketbased models could be the “concession approach” and “rental approach” as shown in figure 6.
Figure 6 Source: ESMAP, 1999 *VPS means Village Power Supplier
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A concession approach has been demonstrated in Argentina, where an award would be given to the most qualified RESCO 13 bidder to provide the energy services as a regulated monopoly in a certain areas and over a certain number of years thereby operating in a “controlled” freemarket environment. The tariffs should be real, reflecting the actual costs of service, but subsidies for electricity used could be extended to the poorest (based on household spending for lighting in the absence of electricity or on household willingness to pay) and then reduced over time during the concession period.
5.2 Governmentled model A governmentled model can take on several forms. For example, for the Mexico PRONOSOL programme, the government maintained control of the programme and the private sector only participated as a vendor of goods and services and never as the owneroperator. A “bottomup” approach was taken allowing awareness building on RE and participation of communities, and this effort has increased the rural electrification level with over 40,000 solar home system (SHS) disseminated.
Selecting the installation companies by bidding
Government Budget
Install systems for rural areas
RESCOs
Figure 7 Source: ESMAP, 1999 In this model, the government is the financial agency and the installation company and the local service company play a crucial role for supply energy service in the rural areas. However, the sustainability of this model depends very much on continuing government support.
5.3 Private company participation Increasingly in developing countries the task of ensuring adequate energy supplies is being left to the private sector. This is primarily the result of structural adjustment programmes, central to which is the privatization of publicly owned utilities and the elimination of costly subsidies. In the absence of carefully defined contractual 13
Renewable Energy Service Companies
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relationships between the new private utilities and the state, reliance on the private sector to provide energy services to the rural poor may result in their continued neglect, since potential returns on investment in rural areas may be lower than in other areas, or nonexistent in some extreme cases. Despite this there are examples of private commercial RE successes in the provision of energy services in rural areas: SELCO (Solar Energy Light Company), active in India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, and SOLUZ are good models, using feeforservice and customer financing and leasing approaches.
5.4 Subsidies Finally, subsidies, which are provided by the central and local governments, are one of the most popular economic incentives for increasing energy for rural areas in developing countries. The typical subsidies are as follows: • Management and administration: Governments would finance the agencies, which manage the energy planning, regulation and price as well as other services for increasing energy to rural areas, such as IREDA and the Ministry of Non conventional Energy Sources (MNES) of India. • Direct cost for R&D: There are some subsidies for rural energy research and development in many developing countries. • Projects subsidies: In some cases, special financial agencies have been set up for rural energy project financing, such as IREDA in India, which offers soft term loans varying at present from 2.5–14 per cent. Since 1987, IREDA secured international funding for the solar photovoltaic and thermal, small hydro and wind sectors through the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
6. Learning from Experiences of other Nations Success stories from across the world – where developing nations were able to cater to energy requirements of the poor in a large way had a common thread running through them – political will of the respective governments & innovative practices. Tackling issues of access to energy which are multidimensional and interconnected calls for innovative, outofthebox solutions. We look at two cases in particular, one of Chile in South America and one of Nepal.
6.1 Case of Chile – promoting private investments Chile, one of the earliest and most thorough energy reformers, has also been one of the more innovative in restructuring its subsidy schemes. It has seen electrification as a key measure in alleviating poverty in rural areas—in 1992 about 47 percent of its rural population had no access to electricity. Its rural electrification program includes subsidies designed to be consistent with the broad principles of energy reform— decentralization of decisions to the regional and community level, competition (between technologies as well as suppliers), and a requirement that all partners in the
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process—users and private companies as well as the state—contribute to the financing of expansion projects. The shortterm result: an increase in rural electrification of about 50 percent in the first five years of the program. In the 1980s Chile liberalized its markets, privatized stateowned electricity companies, and allowed the private sector the key role in investment. Before selling the electricity companies, the state split them into generation and transmission companies and distribution utilities. The distribution utilities were divided according to the areas in which they operated, but no exclusive distribution rights were granted. The National Energy Commission was created as the main policymaking and regulatory body. A new electricity law established free entry and competition in generation, a nonexclusive concession system for distribution, and a pricing scheme based on marginal costs, with generation charges reviewed every six months and distribution charges every four years. Rural electrification in Chile had traditionally been the domain of the stateowned power companies, which followed centrally developed plans and relied on subsidies from the central government or cross subsidies from tariffs set above cost in urban areas. Lack of funding and pressure from other priorities made electrification slow. By the early 1990s more than 1 million people— almost half the rural population—still had no access to any source of electricity. By contrast, 97 percent of urban households had electricity supply. The lack of access was concentrated in a few regions where most of the rural population lives. It affected mainly lower income families, since the wealthier could usually afford to install generators or pay for extension of the distribution grid. To increase rural access to electricity, Chile launched a rural electrification program in 1994. The design of the program is compatible with the overall electricity sector reforms—that is, based on competition, private investment and decentralized decisionmaking. The program has increased the coverage of electricity systems in rural areas from 53 percent in 1992 to 76 percent at the end of 1999, exceeding the 75 percent target set for 2000. And it has shown that it is possible to create market incentives that lead to efficient private solutions to rural electrification—an important lesson at a time when so many developing countries are reforming their power markets and privatizing their stateowned electric utilities. Another innovative aspect of the program has been the use of competition. It has successfully introduced competition at several levels: among communities, for financing for their projects; among distribution companies, for implementation of their projects; and among regions, for the funds provided by the central government.
6.2 Case of Nepal – technological & managerial innovations Innovations in Rural electrification Technological Innovations In urban areas, electricity is distributed at either 400 V or 11 kV. Beyond about a kilometer range, 400 V lines have excessive voltage drop. 11 kV lines present practical problems to supply the low but highly dispersed loads in the rugged hilly rural terrain. Keeping this in mind, a 1 kV system was used where many line accessories for 400 V lines were used. This extended the service distance from about
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1 km to about 5 km. Furthermore, a 1 kV system discouraged theft of electricity because tapping these lines did not give consumers a usable voltage. Managerial Innovations Electricity Users’ Organizations (UOs) As mentioned above, building rural electrification networks is expensive. Operating these networks is also very labour intensive. The UOs, established by the power corporation, mobilize local resources for construction of lines in the form of labor and local materials. During maintenance, these UOs carry out simple maintenance of the system and collect dues and deposit them in the company offices. For their contribution to the operation of the network, 10% of the fees collected are refunded to the UO. The UO uses this fund to pay a serviceman to carry out the tasks. In addition to reducing the cost of constructing and operating the network, the UOs help channelize the social capital in the villages and instil a sense of ownership the distribution system among the consumers. Motivators Motivators are local youths who have been trained to familiarize rural consumers with various aspects of electrification such as safety, end use promotion, tariff etc. Various methods like drama, presentations, house visits, and demonstrations are used as motivation tools.
6.3 Critical Success factors · The policy makers and the implementers have shown Commitment, Dedication & Motivation in all the studied programs. Nothing much depends on the kind of model being followed, but the social, economic, cultural and political environment which matters along with national resolve · Dynamic process – since the nature of the issues in this sector, the policies and rules should not be rigid and by the book. · In a country as diverse as ours, there should be a National Plan or regional plan with detailed strategy with priority setting and multiyear targets · Subsidy should be efficient, equitable and effective. However it should not lead to subsidy dependency syndrome. · As it was reflected in the stakeholders’ dialogue, the process of village selection should be transparent and the criteria should be dependent on financial viability of investment. This will help in reducing political interference · Favourable climate for investors in DG and rural industries · Policies encouraging investment income tax exemptions, licensing exemptions, single window clearances. · Financing schemes from rural banks and other financial institutions. · Charging the right price is the key to financial sustainability o Affordability is the issue – well targeted subsidy is required. Regulator plays important an important role in this o Lifeline rates for the poorest
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o Connection charges sometimes is issue for taking supply o ‘willingness to pay’ study is useful in judging peoples capacity and willingness to pay o Revenue from customers not from subsidy is necessary · Customer focus o Consumer grievance redressal mechanism o Easy bill payment procedures o Credit for connection charges o Maybe prepaid cards and spot billing o Awareness campaigns for connections, increasing loads and customer meets involving the communities · Capacity building of the local community and community workers. Community participation need for participatory planning · Encourage PPPP Public, Private, People Partnership
7. Policy Suggestions · Governments and donors need to define specific timebound targets, allocate resources and define monitoring mechanisms to address energy access for the poor as part of their efforts to achieve the MDGs. Countries like Brazil and China have shown the political will and are succeeding in delivering energy access to the poor. · Governments, international development agencies and donors need to scale up investments targeted specifically at decentralised renewable energy systems in line with the challenge to limit the expansion of energy poverty which will occur if action is not taken in rural areas. Existing successful examples and expertise around the world should be leveraged. · Specific support is needed to facilitate the mobilisation of local indigenous funds to contribute to closing the funding gap of energy for the poor. The international financial institutions and donors can play a facilitating role and should support developing countries in this area. The mobilization of these resources would require appropriate mechanisms and enabling institutional and legal frameworks not only at national, but also at local levels. · Developing countries need to allocate funding and resources to create local capacities and promote energy literacy to ensure the effective involvement of local women and men and their organisations in the energy planning and decision making processes. Capacity and knowledge are the key elements to empower the poor to participate in the energy debate and in the production, implementation, operation, maintenance and use of local energy infrastructure.
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· The most important existing financing mechanisms such as the CDM 14 , the GEF 15 and the new Clean Energy Investment Framework of the World Bank should be regularly assessed against their real impact in addressing energy poverty and ensuring access for the poor. This review process should be inclusive and should result in the modification of procedures and mechanisms in order to enable small and non conventional energy programmes targeted to the poor to receive adequate funding. Likewise the proportion of propoor energy investments should increase consistently with the magnitude of the current challenge. This is urgent if the funding gap is to be bridged · As part of a comprehensive international review on energy for sustainable development by 2010 governments and donors should report on progress made to address the energy access agenda including progress made by multilateral organisations specifically in terms of funding for small decentralised solutions, community capacity building, leverage of local indigenous financing and the achievement of national energy access targets.
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Clean Development Mechanism Global Environment facility helps developing countries fund projects and programs that protect the global environment. 15
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8. Conclusion A key form of intervention in the bid to increase the access of rural people to energy services is financing. Many renewable technologies best suited to providing energy services to remote rural areas use nonmonetized fuel, but have a prohibitive initial capital cost. At the same time, many developing country governments are actively promoting the replacement of fuelwood by subsidizing other energy sources. However, the success of such fuel substitution and energy access programmes basically depends on two factors largely beyond government control: economic growth and the corresponding increase in personal incomes that would permit consumers to switch fuels. The substitution process in many countries is hampered by high import costs resulting from the inefficient procurement of small quantities of renewable energy technologies. Subsidies are a conventional means to overcoming the financial obstacles, but this approach presents various difficulties. The welfare objective embodied in subsidies for rural electricity, or commonly used fuels such as kerosene, LPG and diesel, can often fail in its purpose, because of the diversion of these energy sources to unintended uses, or their disproportionate use by the more affluent, who could anyway afford the real costs of energy supply. A reduction or removal of pricing subsidies to overcome this problem is, however, not straightforward because of its potential adverse impacts on the poor. The partial withdrawal of kerosene price subsidies in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, for example, forced people in some rural areas to return to the use of fuelwood. Both these countries suffer from deforestation and this could have serious environmental implications for them in the long run. Private sector participation is always the most important option for energy access to rural people, and in the most of the developing countries, private investments become the crucial measure to ensure the energy supply to rural people. There is a clear need for planning integration between rural electrification authorities, ministries and transmission and distribution system operators. An independent or semiindependent energy regulator, being an essential partner for the national government in implementing the energy policies, should be handed the mandate and the resources to coordinate the consultation process. In summary, rural development/poverty alleviation in general and rural energy specifically need to be given much higher priority by policy makers and regulatory agencies; rural energy development must be decentralized to put rural people themselves at the heart of planning and implementation; and rural energy development must be integrated with other aspects of rural development & poverty alleviation. Meeting India’s energy challenges requires a radical scalingup of access. This requires improved enabling environment, effective policy and regulatory frame work, improved management capacity and healthy financially utilities.
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9. References (AKNR, undated) Amulya Kumar .N Reddy: Goals, Strategies & Policies for Rural Energy (AKNR, 2004) Amulya Kumar N Reddy Lessons from the Pura Community Biogas project, Energy For Sustainable development, Volume VIII Number 3, 2004 (Bebbington, 1999, p. 2028) (Duflo et al, 2008) Cooking Stoves, Indoor Air Pollution and Respiratory Health in Rural Orissa by Esther Duflo, Michael Greenstone, Rema Hanna: EPW August 9 th 2008 (EA, 2003) The Electricity Act of India, 2003 (IEP, 2006) The Integrated Energy Policy of India (Haribandhu et al, 2007) Governance in Rural Electricity Systems, New Delhi, Academic Foundation, 2007 (Modi et al, 2005) Energy Services for the millennium development goals, UN Millenium Project (Seeta et al, 2004) Seeta Giri et al, Energy for sustainable development: in Asia & Pacific Regions: challenges and lessons from UNDP Projects (Worldbank, ESMAP 1999) Energy Services for the World’s Poor. Energy and Development Report 1999. ESMAP Report. Washington DC: World Bank
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