

@mastersthesis {6997,
	title = {Expanding access to off-grid rural electrification in {Africa}: {An} analysis of community-based micro-grids in {Kenya}},
	year = {2009},
	note = {3411226},
	school = {University of California, Berkeley},
	type = {phdPh.{D}.},
	address = {Ann Arbor},
	abstract = {Community micro-grids have played a central role in increasing access to off-grid rural electrification (RE) in many regions of the developing world, notably South Asia. However, the promise of community micro-grids in sub-Sahara Africa remains largely unexplored. My study explores the potential and limits of community micro-grids as options for increasing access to off-grid RE in sub-Sahara Africa. Contextualized in five community micro-grids in rural Kenya, my study is framed through theories of collective action and combines qualitative and quantitative methods, including household surveys, electronic data logging and regression analysis. The main contribution of my research is demonstrating the circumstances under which community micro-grids can contribute to rural development and the conditions under which individuals are likely to initiate and participate in such projects collectively. With regard to rural development, I demonstrate that access to electricity enables the use of electric equipment and tools by small and micro-enterprises, resulting in significant improvement in productivity per worker (100-200\% depending on the task at hand) and a corresponding growth in income levels in the order of 20-70\%, depending on the product made. Access to electricity simultaneously enables and improves delivery of social and business services from a wide range of village-level infrastructure (e.g. schools, markets, water pumps) while improving the productivity of agricultural activities. Moreover, when local electricity users have an ability to charge and enforce cost-reflective tariffs and electricity consumption is closely linked to productive uses that generate incomes, cost recovery is feasible. By their nature{\textendash}a new technology delivering highly valued services by the elites and other members, limited local experience and expertise, high capital costs{\textendash}community micro-grids are good candidates for elite-domination. Even so, elite control does not necessarily lead to elite capture. Experiences from different micro-grid settings illustrate the manner in which a coincidence of interest between the elites and the rest of members and access to external support can create incentives and mechanisms to enable community-wide access to scarce services, hence mitigating elite capture. Moreover, access to external support was found to increase the likelihood of participation for the relatively poor households. The policy-relevant message from this research is two-fold. In rural areas with suitable sites for micro-hydro power, the potential for community micro-grids appear considerable to the extent that this option would seem to represent "the road not taken" as far as policies and initiatives aimed at expanding RE are concerned in Kenya and other African countries with comparable settings. However, local participatory initiatives not complimented by external technical assistance run a considerable risk of locking rural households into relatively more costly and poor-quality services. By taking advantage of existing and/or building a dense network of local organizations, including micro-finance agencies, the government and development partners can make available to local communities the necessary support{\textendash}financial, technical or regulatory{\textendash}essential for efficient design of micro-grids in addition to facilitating equitable distribution of electricity benefits.},
	keywords = {0626:Sociology, 0700:Social structure, 0791:Energy, Africa, Applied sciences, Collective action, Energy, Kenya, Rural development, Rural electrification, Rural energy, Social sciences, Social structure, Sociology},
	url = {http://search.proquest.com/docview/507612833?accountid=14270},
	author = {Kirubi, Charles Gathu}
}
