3 a few lights and plug points.<sup>2</sup> The main source of data on electricity access is the International Energy Agency’s _World Energy Outlook 2011_ . Country updates on electricity access were included where available.

A word about terminology is in order here. The term “connection charge” is used in the industry (and in this paper) to denote the fee charged to a consumer to connect to an established distribution network. The cost related to connection charge usually covers the estimated costs of materials, labor, and transport needed to make the connection from the nearest pole of the distribution system, along with the costs of inspection of the consumer’s premises and, in some instances, a relatively small one-time application fee. By contrast, “cost of connection” or “connection cost,” as often used in energy literature, usually refers to the total expense (to the utility and the consumer) of providing new electricity supplies. Different authors include various cost components in their treatment of connection costs depending on the scope of their analysis. Typically such connection costs consist of the service connection expenses from the nearest distribution line post to the consumer’s main circuit breaker (that is, the connection charge) along with the cost of upstream development of the power grid to serve an area. In general, the key item of the related upstream cost is that of the distribution system (medium voltage) expansion. It can also include, depending on the scope of the analysis, further upstream development costs needed in the transmission and generation systems as well as the downstream cost of internal wiring of the consumer’s house. Only a few utilities collect contributions from prospective consumers before setting up a distribution network. Such contributions are normally in addition to the connection charge. Usually the connection charges and internal wiring cost are paid by the households.

Although this paper focuses on connection charges to consumers, rather than on the other costs of developing distribution systems, the cost-effective development of distribution systems is also key to the success of rural electrification programs (see appendix 3 for more information).

# **Access to Electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Status Report**

About 1.3 billion people around the globe lack access to electricity (IEA 2010a, 2010b), and the majority of them reside in rural areas. Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounts for almost 45 percent of that number (table 1). Across the subcontinent, fewer than one-third of households have electricity. In most parts of the world, urban electrification rates exceed 90 percent, but less than 60 percent of the urban population in Sub-Saharan Africa has

> 2 Connection charges and the costs behind them vary with the load demanded by the customer. A large factory, for example, will require a medium-voltage connection and a transformer, and the connection charge will be high. Even for low-voltage (residential) consumers, a three-phase connection will cost more to provide than a single-phase connection. Similarly, a 100 ampere (amp) connection will cost more than a 30 amp connection. Some utilities have standardized the lowest rating connection cost. Therefore, even if the distance from the pole is 10 meters (m) or 30 m, all households are charged a common rate based on an estimated average distance to the nearest pole. In some utilities, the minimum rating offered to residential customers is 30 amp single-phase (using 16 mm<sup>2</sup> conductors). More forward-thinking utilities also offer a lower (thus less costly) single-phase rating, such as 10 or even 5 amps, using less costly service cable (6 or even 4 mm<sup>2</sup> ).