Factors affecting household satisfaction with electricity supply in rural India

Abstract

Electricity is an important component of socio-economic development, but most studies of household electricity access focus exclusively on the presence or absence of a connection. Here we reach beyond connectivity by examining the relationship between various dimensions of the quality of electricity supply and a household’s subjective satisfaction with their electricity or lighting situation. Studying the results from a survey of 8,568 households in six large, energy-poor states from northern, central and eastern India, we find that household satisfaction responds strongly to the average hours of electricity available on a typical day. The positive effect of increasing the number of hours per day by one standard deviation on satisfaction is almost as large as that of electrifying a non-electrified household. These findings underscore the importance of moving from counting electricity connections to enhancing the quality of electricity supply. Electricity is a fundamental aspect of socio-economic development. Urpelainen et al. survey 8,568 households in rural India and find that the average hours of available electricity is an important factor in household satisfaction with supply, whereas reliability and voltage stability are less important.