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Rural Electrification in India: Economic and Institutional aspects of Renewables

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  • Cust, J.
  • Singh, A.
  • Neuhoff, K.

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Cust, J. & Singh, A. & Neuhoff, K., 2007. "Rural Electrification in India: Economic and Institutional aspects of Renewables," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0763, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:0763
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    13. 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.
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    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.

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    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

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