Electricity Access & Utility Benchmarking Report

News: NITI Aayog, Ministry of Power, Rockefeller Foundation, and Smart Power India has launched the ‘Electricity Access in India and Benchmarking Distribution Utilities’ report.

Facts:

• About the report: The report is based on a survey conducted across 10 states.
• Objective: The report captures insights from both demand (electricity customers) as well as supply side (electricity distribution utilities).It seeks to:
  • Evaluate the status of electricity access in India across these states and distribution utilities along all dimensions that constitute meaningful access
  • Benchmark utilities’ capacity to provide electricity access and identify the drivers of sustainable access
  • Develop recommendations for enhancing sustainable electricity access.

Key Takeaways:

• Availability of Electricity: 92% of customers reported the overall availability of electricity infrastructure within 50 metres of their premises.
• Grid Based Electricity: 87% of the surveyed customers have access to grid-based electricity. The remaining 13% either use non-grid sources or don’t use any electricity at all.
• Hours of Electricity: The hours of supply have improved significantly across the customer categories to nearly 17 hours per day.
• Metered Connection: Nearly 85% of customers reported to have a metered electricity connection.
• Access: The Access to electricity is observed in 83% of household customers.
• Satisfaction Index: A satisfaction index was created to assess the overall satisfaction level of customers with utility services.The study suggested that a total of 66% of those surveyed were satisfied––74% of customers in urban areas and 60% in rural areas.

Recommendations: Some of the recommendations given by report are:

• Infrastructure and capacity-building of utilities
• Prioritising the release of new connections for non-household customers;
• Transfer of subsidies or other benefits directly into a customer’s account;
• Enhanced technology-driven customer service
• Ensuring 100% metering of customers.