Analyzing Electricity Use and Its Relationship with Electricity Quality in Rural India
Abstract
Rural electrification in India is progressing rapidly, and most households nationwide
are now connected to the electricity grid. However, the country's electricity consumption
remains low, and poor electricity quality continues to constrain households' electricity
use, especially in rural areas of the northern Gangetic plain. Measuring the electricity
access by connection rates alone is insufficient, because poor and intermittent electricity
quality impacts electricity use. First, this study investigates the quantity and ways
in which families use electricity by adopting ESMAP's 2015 Multitier Framework. Then,
it considers the relationship between electricity use and multiple dimensions of electricity
quality using regressions that relate electrical appliance ownership indicators (as
dependent variables) to these quality attributes, controlling for household and community
characteristics. Using data from a survey conducted in the summer of 2018 from 500
households in the border region of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the study finds that nearly
all rural households have low levels of electricity use. The evidence of this study
also supports the idea that electricity supply quality is a severely limiting factor
inhibiting electricity use. These results point to the need for policies that would
increase electricity use through enhancements of the power system, such as the transmission
and distribution lines.
Type
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20452Citation
Dong, Shiyuan (2020). Analyzing Electricity Use and Its Relationship with Electricity Quality in Rural India.
Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20452.Collections
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