The Challenge of Rural Electrification: Strategies for Developing CountriesDouglas Barnes and his team of development experts provide an essential guide that can help improve the quality of life to the estimated 1.6 billion rural people in the world who are without electricity. The difficulties in bringing electricity to rural areas are formidable: Low population densities result in high capital and operating costs. Consumers are often poor, and their electricity consumption is low. Politicians interfere with the planning and operations of programs, insisting on favored constituents. Yet, as Barnes and his contributors demonstrate, many countries have overcome these obstacles. The Challenge of Rural Electrification provides lessons from successful programs in Bangladesh, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Philippines, Thailand, and Tunisia, as well as Ireland and the United States. These insights are presented in a format that should be accessible to a broad range of policymakers, development professionals, and community advocates. Barnes and his contributors do not provide a single formula for bringing electricity to rural areas. They do not recommend a specific set of institutional arrangements for the participation of public sector companies, cooperatives, and private firms. They argue instead that successful programs follow a flexible, but still well-defined set of principles: a financially viable plan that clearly accounts for any subsidies; a cooperative relationship between electricity providers and local communities; and an operational separation from day-to-day government and politics. |
Contents
Chapter 1 The Challenge of Rural Electrification | 1 |
Chapter 2 The Cooperative Experience in Costa Rica | 18 |
Chapter 3 Power and Politics in the Philippines | 45 |
Chapter 4 Rural Poverty and Electricity Challenges in Bangladesh | 74 |
Chapter 5 Public Distribution and Electricity Problem Solving in Rural Thailand | 102 |
Chapter 6 From Central Planning to Decentralized Electricity Distribution in Mexico | 132 |
Chapter 7 Electricity and Multisector Development in Rural Tunisia | 163 |
Chapter 8 Rural Electricity Subsidies and the Private Sector in Chile | 198 |
Chapter 9 National Support for Decentralized Electricity Growth in Rural China | 225 |
Chapter 10 The New Deal for Electricity in the United States 19301950 | 259 |
Chapter 11 Electricity for Social Development in Ireland | 293 |
Chapter 12 Meeting the Challenge of Rural Electrification | 313 |
References | 329 |
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Common terms and phrases
access to electricity administrative agencies agricultural Anji County average Bangladesh barangays benefits bills central Chile commercial communities connection construction consumption Costa Rica costs country’s coverage cross-subsidy customers developing countries distribution companies distribution system economic effect elec electricity distribution electricity service electricity supply energy ensure equipment established expansion farm federal funds grid growth hydroelectric implementation increased industrial infrastructure initial installed investment involved loans ment Meseta Central million municipal NRECA operating PBSs Philippines planning political problems providing electricity Province RECs regional renewable energy residential responsible revenue role rural areas rural development rural electric cooperatives rural electrifica rural electrification program rural electrification projects rural households sector SHP stations single-phase social standards STEG subsidies success tariff technical Thailand tion tricity Tunisia U.S. Census Bureau urban USAID users villages World Bank