The article examines the regional problems of electricity supply. The role of the electric power industry in the socio-economic development of the country is noted. Global trends in the production and consumption of electric power are highlighted. Dagestan, before market transformations, fully provided itself with the energy produced in the republic, and over the past twenty years, electricity consumption has doubled, but its production has not increased, and moreover, in some years there has even been a decrease. The reasons for the sharp increase in electricity consumption by the population of the republic are the increase in living standards, housing construction in cities and the development of the shadow economy, especially mining activities. But the main problem in the article is not so much the shortage of energy itself, as the wear and tear of the grid complex. The wear rate of the networks is more than 20%. The loss of electricity in the networks exceeds 75% of the power consumption. The article emphasizes that without attracting large investments from the federal center, the reconstruction of the energy grid system is impossible. In parallel, the directions of development of distributed energy are highlighted: the construction of small hydroelectric power plants on mountain rivers, geothermal, solar and wind power plants. All this is aimed at ensuring trouble-free reliable electricity supply to the population.