Beyond Basic Access

The Issue

Basic household electricity access is the dominant metric for tracking progress against global energy poverty — but actually means very little in terms of what  drives opportunity and economic prosperity.

Relevance

Household access to basic electricity is an important first step. But it’s not the same as the energy needed for job creation and inclusive economic growth. We need new indicators (and better data) that raise ambitions, prioritize policies and investment, and track progress toward building the high-energy systems all modern economies require.

Our Approach

We aim to broaden energy progress indicators from initial household access to also cover cost, reliability, and energy for industry, commerce, and other productive uses. We push for solutions at scale that align with countries’ own development ambitions. The Hub has developed two new metrics to do this: The Modern Energy Minimum as a new consumption target and the Reliability-Adjusted Cost of Electricity (RACE) to reflect what firms care about most.