The rising salience of access to electricity (and the reforms that will enable access)


Posted on June 7, 2014  /  0 Comments

The prospects of breakthrough changes in electricity dominated a number of my recent conversations. Could be because we were disseminating our 2012-14 research results to electricity audiences, or because we just finished teaching an introductory course on electricity regulation. But, it’s also possible that the prospects of a step change are imminent, driven by the increasing demand for reliable, universal electricity access by the neo middle classes (to use the terminology of the victorious BJP), and also the technological possibilities opened up by the application of ICTs to electricity networks.

But is the development community beginning to look at electricity?

One indicator is that electricity papers are being read at ICT4D conferences. CPRsouth was early in accommodating electricity papers; a best paper in 2010 was on smart grids.

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