Non-universal nature of energy poverty: Energy services, assessment of needs and consumption evidences from rural Himachal Pradesh

Manashvi Kumar

Energy Policy, 2020, vol. 138, issue C

Abstract: Consumer behavior in rural ecosystems represents considerable variations vis-à-vis consumption of energy in different forms. Consumer preference towards any given energy service is a function of geographical situatedness, local customs, traditions and tastes including local weather conditions. Rural flavour of energy poverty has a distinctive micro-character which can be understood in terms of socio-cultural behaviourism of an energy consumer. This geo-spatial flavour further appears to be a function of socio-economic functionalities of communities which could be socio-culturally- similar or different. Energy poverty is saddled with conceptual concentricity. Empirical evidence shows that the phenomena and the concept both are vulnerable in terms of operationalization by means of a single universal definition. It exhibits contrarian hues in terms of availability, access, distribution, affordability, and acceptability of an energy service. This study presents an alternative approach to understanding of both-the phenomena and the associated conceptual construct. The present paper is an explicit representation of the everyday grain of energy needs and consumption patterns in six rural socio-cultural systems. This study based upon fieldwork in the six villages viz., Bhadroya, Thapkour and Gaghwal (Kangra District) and Kakira, Bidingi and Talhara (Chamba District) throws up interesting findings which challenge the contemporary discourse on energy poverty.

Keywords: Energy poverty; Energy consumer; Rural flavour; Empirical evidence; Socio-cultural systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151930816X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:138:y:2020:i:c:s030142151930816x

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111235

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().