New perspectives on drivers and transitions related to household energy access in developing countries : Case examples from India

Recognizing the governance and political context of energy provisioning the dissertation brings forth and analyses key political and related economic drivers represented by target oriented subsidy driven public sector programmes. It dwells on vested power dynamics favouring supply driven centralized grid electricity and fossil fuel provisioning benefiting largely the urban and the affluent. A desirable energy programme needs to focus on a service centred rather than product or technology centred approach wherein the costing is done on a life cycle basis instead of capital investment. The work here brings forth the need for energy service provisioning, as opposed to mere access, through a broad-based framework of bench-marked, technology-neutral access to modern energy. It emphasizes the need for reliability and equity as well as linkages of energy to broader sustainable development goals such as livelihoods enhancement, education for all and quality health services. Use of kerosene for lighting which epitomizes the inadequacies and inefficiencies of current approach to energy access has been discussed to bringing into focus concerns related to indoor air pollution arising out of use of kerosene in inefficient and archaic lighting devices. The need for addressing health and environmental concerns has also been assessed by focussing on the now recognized role of Short Lived Climate Pollutants such as Black Carbon. The results have significant implications to health impact studies as well as climate impact studies. On the epidemiological side, studies that rely on mean day time values will underestimate the cooking-hour exposure by factors ranging from 5 to 20. The work here also brings forth new perspectives that treat transitions in a broader framework of regime change involving different stakeholders. The new perspectives highlight that transitions need to be studied comprehensively using new frameworks such as strategic niche management (SNM). This dissertation brings into focus new elements such as role of branding and marketing in energy service delivery. While many SNM studies (implicitly) have focused on public funding as the main protective measure, the work here shows how an experiment survives in a market where public funding has been consciously avoided. Rather, protection is sought through innovative funding schemes from banks, and other financial institutions. Both subsidy driven and commercial paradigms of improving rural energy access have systemic inefficiencies, capacity inadequacies and divergence in results from the overarching goals of facilitating energy access for the poor. This necessitates rethinking of the relationships between diverse public and private, and market and non-market actors in energy access programs. The dissertation emphasizes that such relationships should try to synergize performance-driven operations of private sector players with the funding support and social-welfare mandates of donor agencies and NGOs. The approaches for ‘hybridizing’ commercial and social objectives have service quality as its core strength, but with a fair amount of flexibility to innovate in terms of the product, service or business relationships.