Reference Electrification Model: A Tool for Rural Electrification Planning

Despite national efforts to expand electricity access, hundreds of millions of Indians live without adequate access to electricity. While national mandates focus on grid extension, India’s utilities have been unable to ensure reliable service to rural, low income customers. Knowing where it is cost effective to extend the grid versus where it makes more sense to try off-grid electrification solutions can be costly and time consuming, but better planning is necessary to achieve universal access. We are developing a software model known as the Reference Electrification Model (REM) which is focused on planning electricity networks for India and other developing countries.

REM uses information about an area with poor electricity access to determine the best electrification mode for each household or other load (e.g., grid-connected, microgrid, or isolated system), estimate costs of electrification, and produce preliminary engineering designs of the recommended systems. For a large region, REM uses national data sets, such as the Census of India, the National Sample Survey, and satellite imagery to estimate the location and profile of latent electricity demand in the region in order to produce cost estimates and indicative system designs to inform electrification planning. For smaller regions or single systems, REM can use more accurate (potentially manually-obtained) demand information to produce more accurate system designs that can support project implementation.

These plans can be used by government planners and off-grid electricity system entrepreneurs to make better decisions about how to plan and implement electrification efforts. In the upcoming years, we hope to apply this tool to the design of microgrid pilot projects in India and other developing countries.