Increasing access to energy services in rural areas - REEEP ...

MODULE 10: INCREASING ACCESS TO ENERGY SERVICES IN RURAL AREAS
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6. POLICY OPTIONS FOR INCREASING
ACCESS TO ENERGY SERVICES IN
RURAL AREAS
6.1. Basic needs of energy in rural areas 34
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, back-up energy supplies,
or pumped water reducing risks from drought);
• A sense of “inclusion” in the modern economy (via communications media).
These basic needs and energy sources are listed in table 2 below.
A wide range of devices convert primary sources of energy into various “services”
but this process always has a cost (both for conversion processes and because
of efficiency losses). The cost of “useful energy” can be quite different from the
cost of the “primary energy” or fuel. Therefore it is important to refer to the provision
of energy services rather than merely the supply of energy.
It is important to note that as people become richer and proceed through the
“energy transition” that introduce new, more convenient and efficient sources of
energy into their lives, they may well continue using the traditional energy sources
as well. This is in part for cultural reasons and in part to minimize the risk of interruption
in supply (for example back-up diesel generator to cover the risk of cuts
in power from the electricity grid). This multiple fuel use means that the impact
of fuel switching and efficiency improvements is often not as substantial as models
and policies might predict.
This is perhaps at its most extreme with cooking, where households may graduate
to LPG but women still use wood and charcoal to cook certain types of food.
Even very poor households may retain a variety of options to reduce the costs or
34
EnPoGen Report, Energy, Poverty and Gender: a Review of the Evidence and Case Studies in Rural
China, 2003.