Rural electrification: Towards an application of coproduction and its potential for the case of India

Abstract

In developing countries, the rural poor lack access to electricity. The provision through centralised grids is often unreliable and does not reach rural areas. This creates a negative impact on the rural population's health and limits their socio-economic development. Theoretical debates have been distributing the responsibility of public service provisions between the government and the market sphere, both of which have left the poor widely under-served. Co-production of public services, making use of complementary inputs by the public sector and citizens has been shown to be a successful alternative. The following thesis will transfer the concept of co-production to the case of electricity services for poor rural communities under consideration of decentralized distributed generation from renewable energy technologies. Two examples from India are elaborated here and the feasibility demonstrated. Whilst the decentralized structure of the government created a conducive environment for co-production, challenges arise from the inexperience of public agencies to deliver electricity services through co-production. Appropriate and continuous training and support of the rural communities by a dedicated project implementing agency of governmental or non-governmental nature are crucial to the projects’ success especially during the first implementation stage. Despite promising cases of citizen initiated public service production, the initiation of co-producing electricity services in poor rural areas has to come from the government, NGOs, and also aid agencies.