Rural Electrification In Nepal Research Articles

Nepal's Rapid Rural Electrification Achievement: A Review

Nepal has been able to accelerate electricity access to rural areas very rapidly from early 2000s. Though the existing literature provides insights into the factors, enablers, challenges, and institutional models influencing rural electrification in Nepal, there is currently very little assessment of the specific factors that led to Nepal’s rapid rural electricity access in the first two decades of this century. This review paper investigates what spurred this rapid rural electrification in Nepal. The study employs a literature review approach and uses the multi-level perspective and energy justice frameworks for a holistic interpretation of findings of the literature review. Analysis of the findings from the literature review indicate that Nepal's rapid electrification can be assessed primarily through the perspectives of governance and policies. The discussion also touches on the institutional context, the politics surrounding the electrification transition, and policy innovations. The effectiveness of the polices is also analysed through an energy justice perspective. The analysis highlights challenges and disparities in geographical distribution and energy justice. The paper argues that Nepal’s rural electricity access was boosted by political and socio-economic conditions, like advent of democracy and large-scale foreign employment, and was propelled by innovative government policies for grid based and off-grid rural electrification. However, it also concludes that work still needs to be done from an energy justice perspective to bring about geographical and economic equity in the effort.

IDENTIFYING THE BEST DECENTRALIZED RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEM FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION IN NEPAL

Access to electricity is generally recognized as an important factor for economic and social development. Moreover, the world energy consumption depends on the use of limited resources like fossil fuels that induce adverse impact on the environment and society. As an alternative, renewable energies turn into crucial alternative energy ensuring sustainable energy needs and taking care of society, economy and the environment. In order to combat such issues, the United Nations has declared universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy for by 2030. In many cases, different types of renewable energy systems are being developed to serve energy need without considering the best alternative. Thus, this paper tries to prioritize the installed Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE) systems for rural electrification in Nepal by analyzing nineteen sustainability indicators related to four sustainability dimensions - technical, social, economic and environmental. An Analytical Hierarchy Process-Online Software (AHP-OS) model is used for ranking various DRE systems. Suitable goals, criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives are developed after reviewing pertinent literature and consultation of the experts. The results reveal that micro-hydropower is the best electrification option followed by the solar home system, solar mini-grid, and wind-solar hybrid for decentralized electrification in Nepal. Biomass is found to be the least prioritized alternative in Nepal. The outcome of the research can help the policy-makers and decision-makers in shaping energy policies, plans, and programs, and foster sustainable energy development in the country. Similarly, the relevant stakeholders will be benefited by improving their products and services in the future.

Prioritizing the Weightage of Sustainability Criteria and Sub-Criteria of Decentralized Micro-Hydropower Projects for Rural Electrification in Nepal

In many cases, sustainability of renewable energy systems (RES) is being analyzed by identifying certain criteria and sub-criteria considering equal weightage among the respective groups. However in reality, relative weightage of criteria and sub-criteria vary due to many reasons. Thus, this paper tries to prioritize the weightage of criteria and sub-criteria of decentralized micro-hydropower projects for rural electrification by analyzing sustainability indicators related to four dimensions- technical, social, economic, and environmental. An Analytical Hierarchy Process –Online Software (AHP-OS) model is used to prioritize the weightage of respective criteria and sub-criteria through expert opinion. Suitable goal, criteria and sub-criteria are developed after reviewing pertinent literature and consultation of the experts. The results reveal that technical criteria (0.362) is the most crucial sustainability criteria followed by economic (0.290) and social (0.226). Environmental criteria (0.122) is found to be the least preferred criteria. The results reveal that ‘energy availability’ (10.8%) is observed to be the most preferred and ‘GSI inclusion’ (2.4%) is ranked to be the least preferred sub-criteria among the 19 sub-criteria. Nepal, being a developing country, shows a trend of people preferring the development of energy services first at a relatively low cost without considering the environment and gender/social inclusion. As a result, technical and economic criteria and sub-criteria are preferred more than that of environmental and social. The outcome of the research can help decision-makers and policy-makers in shaping energy policies, plans, and programs, and foster future pathways for providing sustainable rural electrification in the country. Keywords: Indicators, Sustainability, Multi-criteria analysis, Prioritizing, Pairwise DOI : 10.7176/JETP/9-9-02 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

Role of Renewable Energy Technologies for Rural Electrification in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Nepal

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Renewable energy markets in rural electrification: Country case Nepal

This paper discusses and analyzes renewable energy (RE) based rural electrification supply models, economics behind rural electrification, market drivers and market distribution in the rural areas of Nepal. Markets for RE technologies are emerging in Nepal as a consequence of increasing rural electrification in the country. Two promising technologies are in evidence — solar home systems (SHS) and micro hydro. The availability of abundant renewable resources, lack of fossil fuels and difficult geographical terrain for grid extensions contribute to the advantages of RE-based decentralized rural electrification in Nepal. The distributional analysis shows increasing extensive growth and decreasing intensive growth of off-grid rural electrification thus indicating market expansion with uneven penetration among the rural people. Solar PV technology is still not within the reach of the economic poor. Access to credit and cumbersome subsidy delivery mechanism have been perceived as the major factors affecting the expansion of rural electrification by the stakeholders, requiring innovations in these areas so that a large rural population can have access to electrification.

Rural Entrepreneurship through Electricity

Rural electrification in Nepal is supported mostly by bilateral donors and banks as a top down supply driven activity with emphasis on generation and transmission, but not focusing on supplying electricity to the maximum number of rural people. In the past, rural electrification was awarded as political favors, leading to inefficiency. Further, it could not further the efficient development of energy, which requires marketing innovation. The result of such rural power distribution created a condition where everybody was at fault and a loser. An innovative approach involving the rural communities has the potential of reversing this trend, and allowing communities themselves to manage local rural electrification systems. This approach has raised public interest in Community Development and Rural Electrification with the establishment of about 450 rural electricity communities in Nepal. In anticipation, these communities are willingly contributing 20% matching fund of total rural electrifi cation cost. Since 2003 to 2008, 189,770 households (about 45,000 households annually) have gotten access to electricity in rural areas through the promotion of community-based electricity development. Clearly, this is a signifi cant positive response from the rural population. Like community forestry before it, community rural electrifi cation is also a success story in Nepal. The new approach has paved the way to gender equality. It helped to generate more economic activities, to activate productive end use of electricity, developed rural entrepreneurship and released the poorest of poor population from the ‘bonds’ of the old social structure.Hydro Nepal: Journal of Water, Energy and Environment Issue No. 4, January, 2009 Page 36-39

Harnessing of Mini Scale Hydropower for Rural Electrification in Nepal

This paper provides insight on hydropower development in general and mini-scale hydropower in particular, for rural electrification in Nepal. It also analyses the opportunities and challenges in the development of mini-scale hydropower to supply reliable electricity in remote rural areas of the country as an aid to poverty reduction and economic progress.
 
 Hydro Nepal: Journal of Water, Energy and Environment Vol. 1, No. 2(2008) pp. 26-28