A longitudinal study of electricity consumption growth in Kenya

Simone Fobi, Varun Deshpande, Samson Ondiek, Vijay Modi and Jay Taneja

Energy Policy, 2018, vol. 123, issue C, 569-578

Abstract: During the past 5 years, electrification in Kenya has grown by more than 30% due primarily to increases in grid penetration and solar home systems. This represents a way forward for governments, international finance institutions, and entrepreneurs to address some of the challenges of energy access. However, little is understood about how consumption has evolved among these newly-electrified customers. In this paper, we address this by conducting a longitudinal analysis for 136k utility customers across Kenya over six years of electricity bills, uncovering critical trends in spatio-temporal evolution of electricity consumption. Our analysis reveals that recently-electrified customers are reaching their steady-state consumption more quickly than previous customers, that the steady-state is increasingly less, and that typical urban and peri-urban customers tend to consume 50% more electricity than rural customers. In addition we present implications for policymakers and electricity planners considering grid extension and distributed systems for improving electrification.

Keywords: Electricity; Consumption; Growth; Urbanization; Kenya (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:123:y:2018:i:c:p:569-578

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.08.065

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