IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/enp/wpaper/eprg0730.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rural Electrification in India: Economic and Institutional aspects of Renewables

Author

Listed:
  • James Cust

    (Faculty of Economics, Cambridge)

  • Anoop Singh

    (Department of Industrial and Management Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur)

  • Karsten Neuhoff

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge)

Abstract

The paper assesses the demand for rural electricity services and contrasts it with the technology options available for rural electrification. Decentralised Distributed Generation can be economically viable as reflected by case studies reported in literature and analysed in our field study. Project success is driven by economically viable technology choice; however it is largely contingent on organisational leadership and appropriate institutional structures. While individual leadership can compensate for deployment barriers, we argue that a large scale roll out of rural electrification requires an alignment of economic incentives and institutional structures to implement, operate and maintain the scheme. This is demonstrated with the help of seven case studies of projects across north India.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • James Cust & Anoop Singh & Karsten Neuhoff, 2007. "Rural Electrification in India: Economic and Institutional aspects of Renewables," Working Papers EPRG 0730, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:enp:wpaper:eprg0730
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/eprg-wp0730.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Banerjee, Rangan, 2006. "Comparison of options for distributed generation in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 101-111, January.
    2. Nouni, M.R. & Mullick, S.C. & Kandpal, T.C., 2006. "Photovoltaic projects for decentralized power supply in India: A financial evaluation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(18), pages 3727-3738, December.
    3. Ghosh, Debyani & Shukla, P. R. & Garg, Amit & Ramana, P. Venkata, 2002. "Renewable energy technologies for the Indian power sector: mitigation potential and operational strategies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 6(6), pages 481-512, December.
    4. Radulovic, Verena, 2005. "Are new institutional economics enough? Promoting photovoltaics in India's agricultural sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(14), pages 1883-1899, September.
    5. Chakrabarti, Snigdha & Chakrabarti, Subhendu, 2002. "Rural electrification programme with solar energy in remote region-a case study in an island," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 33-42, January.
    6. Miller, Damian & Hope, Chris, 2000. "Learning to lend for off-grid solar power: policy lessons from World Bank loans to India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 87-105, February.
    7. Bose, Ranjan Kumar & Shukla, Megha, 2001. "Electricity tariffs in India: an assessment of consumers' ability and willingness to pay in Gujarat," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 465-478, May.
    8. M.R. Nouni & S.C. Mullick & T.C. Kandpal, 2005. "Techno-economics of micro-hydro power plants for remote villages in Uttaranchal in India," International Journal of Global Energy Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 24(1/2), pages 59-75.
    9. Velayudhan, S. K., 2003. "Dissemination of solar photovoltaics: a study on the government programme to promote solar lantern in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(14), pages 1509-1518, November.
    10. Nouni, M.R. & Mullick, S.C. & Kandpal, T.C., 2007. "Biomass gasifier projects for decentralized power supply in India: A financial evaluation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 1373-1385, February.
    11. Kishore, V. V. N. & Bhandari, Preety M. & Gupta, Pratul, 2004. "Biomass energy technologies for rural infrastructure and village power--opportunities and challenges in the context of global climate change concerns," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 801-810, April.
    12. Ashok, S., 2007. "Optimised model for community-based hybrid energy system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1155-1164.
    13. Duke, Richard D. & Jacobson, Arne & Kammen, Daniel M., 2002. "Photovoltaic module quality in the Kenyan solar home systems market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 477-499, May.
    14. Ghosh, Sonaton & Das, Tuhin K. & Jash, Tushar, 2004. "Sustainability of decentralized woodfuel-based power plant: an experience in India," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 155-166.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shahidur R. Khandker, Hussain A. Samad, Rubaba Ali, and Douglas F. Barnes, 2014. "Who Benefits Most from Rural Electrification? Evidence in India," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    2. Narula, Kapil & Nagai, Yu & Pachauri, Shonali, 2012. "The role of Decentralized Distributed Generation in achieving universal rural electrification in South Asia by 2030," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 345-357.
    3. Antoine Boche & Clément Foucher & Luiz Fernando Lavado Villa, 2022. "Understanding Microgrid Sustainability: A Systemic and Comprehensive Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-29, April.
    4. Roy, Anindita & Kedare, Shireesh B. & Bandyopadhyay, Santanu, 2009. "Application of design space methodology for optimum sizing of wind-battery systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(12), pages 2690-2703, December.
    5. Holstenkamp, Lars, 2019. "What do we know about cooperative sustainable electrification in the global South? A synthesis of the literature and refined social-ecological systems framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 307-320.
    6. Oda, Hisaya & Tsujita, Yuko, 2010. "The determinants of rural electrification in Bihar, India," IDE Discussion Papers 254, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    7. Palit, Debajit & Malhotra, Ramit & Kumar, Atul, 2011. "Sustainable model for financial viability of decentralized biomass gasifier based power projects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 4893-4901, September.
    8. Harish, Santosh M. & Morgan, Granger M. & Subrahmanian, Eswaran, 2014. "When does unreliable grid supply become unacceptable policy? Costs of power supply and outages in rural India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 158-169.
    9. Valeria Gambino & Riccardo Del Citto & Paolo Cherubini & Carlo Tacconelli & Andrea Micangeli & Romano Giglioli, 2019. "Methodology for the Energy Need Assessment to Effectively Design and Deploy Mini-Grids for Rural Electrification," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-27, February.
    10. Duran, Asligul Serasu & Sahinyazan, Feyza G., 2021. "An analysis of renewable mini-grid projects for rural electrification," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    11. Goel, Sonali & Sharma, Renu, 2017. "Performance evaluation of stand alone, grid connected and hybrid renewable energy systems for rural application: A comparative review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1378-1389.
    12. Oda, Hisaya & Tsujita, Yuko, 2011. "The determinants of rural electrification: The case of Bihar, India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3086-3095, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chaurey, Akanksha & Kandpal, Tara Chandra, 2010. "Assessment and evaluation of PV based decentralized rural electrification: An overview," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(8), pages 2266-2278, October.
    2. Buragohain, Buljit & Mahanta, Pinakeswar & Moholkar, Vijayanand S., 2010. "Biomass gasification for decentralized power generation: The Indian perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 73-92, January.
    3. Nouni, M.R. & Mullick, S.C. & Kandpal, T.C., 2008. "Providing electricity access to remote areas in India: An approach towards identifying potential areas for decentralized electricity supply," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(5), pages 1187-1220, June.
    4. Kaundinya, Deepak Paramashivan & Balachandra, P. & Ravindranath, N.H., 2009. "Grid-connected versus stand-alone energy systems for decentralized power--A review of literature," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(8), pages 2041-2050, October.
    5. Purohit, Pallav, 2009. "CO2 emissions mitigation potential of solar home systems under clean development mechanism in India," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1014-1023.
    6. Narula, Kapil & Nagai, Yu & Pachauri, Shonali, 2012. "The role of Decentralized Distributed Generation in achieving universal rural electrification in South Asia by 2030," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 345-357.
    7. Yaqoot, Mohammed & Diwan, Parag & Kandpal, Tara C., 2017. "Financial attractiveness of decentralized renewable energy systems – A case of the central Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in India," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 973-991.
    8. Nieves, J.A. & Aristizábal, A.J. & Dyner, I. & Báez, O. & Ospina, D.H., 2019. "Energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions analysis in Colombia: A LEAP model application," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 380-397.
    9. Suberu, Mohammed Yekini & Mustafa, Mohd Wazir & Bashir, Nouruddeen & Muhamad, Nor Asiah & Mokhtar, Ahmad Safawi, 2013. "Power sector renewable energy integration for expanding access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 630-642.
    10. Parihar, Amit Kumar Singh & Sethi, Virendra & Banerjee, Rangan, 2019. "Sizing of biomass based distributed hybrid power generation systems in India," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 1400-1422.
    11. Palit, Debajit & Malhotra, Ramit & Kumar, Atul, 2011. "Sustainable model for financial viability of decentralized biomass gasifier based power projects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 4893-4901, September.
    12. Mishra, Pulak & Behera, Bhagirath, 2016. "Socio-economic and environmental implications of solar electrification: Experience of rural Odisha," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 953-964.
    13. Harish, Santosh M. & Morgan, Granger M. & Subrahmanian, Eswaran, 2014. "When does unreliable grid supply become unacceptable policy? Costs of power supply and outages in rural India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 158-169.
    14. Palit, Debajit & Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Cooper, Christopher & Zoppo, David & Eidsness, Jay & Crafton, Meredith & Johnson, Katie & Clarke, Shannon, 2013. "The trials and tribulations of the Village Energy Security Programme (VESP) in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 407-417.
    15. Elizabeth Baldwin & Jennifer N. Brass & Sanya Carley & Lauren M. MacLean, 2015. "Electrification and rural development: issues of scale in distributed generation," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 196-211, March.
    16. Mandelli, Stefano & Barbieri, Jacopo & Mereu, Riccardo & Colombo, Emanuela, 2016. "Off-grid systems for rural electrification in developing countries: Definitions, classification and a comprehensive literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1621-1646.
    17. Debajit Palit & Ramit Malhotra & Sanjay Mande, 2017. "Enhancing viability of biofuel-based decentralized power projects for rural electrification in India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 263-283, February.
    18. Lahimer, A.A. & Alghoul, M.A. & Yousif, Fadhil & Razykov, T.M. & Amin, N. & Sopian, K., 2013. "Research and development aspects on decentralized electrification options for rural household," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 314-324.
    19. Chaurey, A. & Kandpal, T.C., 2009. "Carbon abatement potential of solar home systems in India and their cost reduction due to carbon finance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 115-125, January.
    20. Gupta, Ajai & Saini, R.P. & Sharma, M.P., 2011. "Modelling of hybrid energy system—Part I: Problem formulation and model development," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 459-465.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Rural Electrification; Distributed Generation; Renewable Energy; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:enp:wpaper:eprg0730. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ruth Newman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/jicamuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.