Off-grid renewable energy solutions:analysis of policy instruments
Student name: Mr Nand Gopal E
Guide: Dr V V N Kishore
Year of completion: 2012
Host Organisation: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, New Delhi
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr V K Jain
Abstract: Rural electrification is the availability of electricity for use by rural communities irrespective of
the technologies, sources and form of generation. Although the rate of rural electrification
worldwide has increased and has made significant gains in terms of percentage of access to
electricity, there is no significant decrease in the absolute number of people without access to
electricity worldwide. The research work first looks at rural electrification scenario of India and
then briefly compares it with that of south Asian countries.
The research work carries out a critical evaluation of existing approaches to the offgrid/decentralized
energy development in India. An exhaustive review of policies and
programmes is complemented with a statistical analysis of project level information available
from secondary sources. Combining a rigorous analytical framework with actual case studies, it
is tried to explain crucial role of policies in rural electrification. The major findings of the study
suggest that successful decentralized interventions are critically contingent upon certain key
determinants i.e. choice of technology, scale of the project, and type of policy support, role of
community, economic linkages and type of investment.
The recent literature on rural electrification has emphasized the importance of linking its
development with productive uses for energy. A detailed analysis is carried out on effect of
increased capacity utilization on LUCE of the off-grid renewable energy technology based plant.
Then a relative comparison is done with diesel generator sets and true cost of supply of power
from central grid.
Finally the study brings out issues in off-grid renewable energy solution and provides policy
recommendation for the same. Analysis are both qualitative and quantitative, the quantitative
ones are supported by strong calculation based on actual cost and few realistic assumptions. In
the end the policy recommendations are listed out.
Key words: decentralized generation, policy instruments, rural electrification, financial analysis,
subsidy
