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. Everyone deserves to have lights at home. But access is not the same as the energy needed for job creation and economic growth. We need new indicators (and better data) that raise ambitions, prioritize investments, and track progress toward abundance for everyone.

Our Approach

We aim to broaden progress indicators from initial household access to also cover cost, reliability, and energy outside the home for industry, commerce, and other productive uses. We propose targets that align with countries’ own development ambitions. The Hub has developed two new metrics to do this: The Modern Energy Minimum as a new 1000 kWh per person target and the Reliability-Adjusted Cost of Electricity (RACE) that reflects what firms care about most. Our Open Energy Tracking [coming soon] leverages machine learning and geospatial data to estimate electricity consumption at five tiers, not just one, providing insights into what happens after initial connections.