Publication - The Elusive Quest for Sustainable Mini-Grid Electrification: New Evidence from Indonesia

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Title

The Elusive Quest for Sustainable Mini-Grid Electrification: New Evidence from Indonesia

Publisher

Energy for Sustainable Development

Author

Mike Duthie, Jörg Ankel-Peters, Carly Mphasa, Rashmi Bhat

Published in

May 2024

Abstract

High hopes are pinned to mini-grids for rural electrification, especially in remote and sparsely populated areas. This note presents new evidence from a large evaluation of a US Millennium Challenge Corporation investment into mini-grids in Indonesia. We find that, a few years after commissioning, many mini-grids in the program do not operate properly, corroborating older concerns about the sustainability of mini-grids that have been voiced for several years. Operational costs are typically high and electricity demand low. Our findings are not novel; they rather resonate with a growing literature on the high-cost-low-demand dilemma in mini-grid electrification projects. Therefore, mini-grid programs should take these structural challenges into account, and especially abstain from overly optimistic electricity demand projections.

URL

link to the document

Admin:
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• Mini-grid

• Other