IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - July/August 2014 - 96

in my view

Sudeshna Ghosh Banerjee, Mikul Bhatia,
Elisa Portale, Ruchi Soni, and Nicolina Angelou

energy access challenge
strategies from the World Bank Group

ElEctricity accEss is onE of
the most important development challenges of the 21st century. a large
swath of the world's population still
remains in the dark, relying on kerosene
and candles on a daily basis. access to
electricity in flexible, reliable, and sustainable forms brings a range of social
and economic benefits by enhancing
the quality of household life and stimulating the broader economy. Modern
energy is essential for the provision of
health care; clean water and sanitation;
and reliable and efficient lighting, heating, cooking, mechanical power, transportation, and telecommunications.
there is now unambiguous evidence
of the benefits of electricity provision.
at a minimum, the quality of electrical
lighting (measured in lumens) is many
times better than that of kerosene, the
most common alternative lighting fuel.
in addition, students are able to study for
longer hours, instances of respiratory and
gastrointestinal diseases are reduced, the
safety and security of women is heightened, and women's role in the household
decision-making process is increased.
the sustainable Energy for all
(sE4all) was launched in 2012 to
organize the efforts of the international
community around a common set of
energy goals to be achieved by 2030 and
universal access to electricity was one of
them. the "Global tracking framework
report," prepared under the sE4all
initiative, presents detailed country-level
and global data that outline the scale of
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2014.2313800
Date of publication: 17 June 2014

ieee power & energy magazine

the challenges ahead as countries try to
meet the three objectives of the sE4all
initiative by 2030:
✔✔ providing universal access to
modern energy
✔✔ doubling the share of renewable
energy in the global energy mix
✔✔ doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency.

Current and projected
electricity access deficit
the "Global tracking framework report"
states that about 1.2 billion people or
17% of the global population lived without access to electricity in 2010. the
access deficit is overwhelmingly rural
and located in sub-saharan africa and
the south asian regions. in fact, subsaharan africa alone constitutes half
of the access deficit. india is home to
the largest nonelectrified population of
more than 300 million people, followed
far behind by nigeria and Bangladesh.
in fact, the access deficit is localized in
a select group of countries. the top 20
countries with the largest nonelectrified
population contribute 74% of the total
access deficit.
among the regions, the access rate
is lowest in oceania (where one out of
four people has electricity) and subsaharan africa (where one out of three
people has electricity). Electrification
rates in urban areas are much greater;
only in oceania and sub-saharan
africa do they remain lower than 90%.
comparatively, in rural areas, the challenge is still stark in most of the developing world, except in the caucasus
and central and East asia.
1540-7977/14©2014IEEE

although 1.8 billion people obtained
connections to electricity between 1990
and 2010, the rate was only slightly
ahead of the population growth of 1.6
billion over the same period. it is also
noteworthy that annual growth in access
to modern energy has only been around
1% on average. the largest absolute
increase in the electrified population
was achieved in india, where 24 million people annually gained access since
1990, followed by china and indonesia.
looking ahead, the projected access
profile in 2030 is alarming. the international Energy agency's World Energy
outlook posits a new policies scenario,
in which existing and announced policy
commitments are assumed to be implemented and under which the global
access deficit for electricity will be cut
to about 990 million by 2030. that is
still 12% of the expected global population, not far below the 17% today.
sub-saharan africa is projected to witness an increase in the nonelectrified
population in rural areas. to achieve
universal access to electricity by 2030,
some 50 million more people will have
to gain access each year than projected
under this scenario. Getting there will
require an additional Us$45 billion
invested in access every year, five times
the current annual level. the carbon
cost of such expansion, however, is
low: to bring electricity to those without it would increase global carbon
dioxide emissions by less than 1%.

(continued on p. 94)
july/august 2014

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