Context: Recently, NITI Aayog, Ministry of Power, Rockefeller Foundation, and Smart Power India launched the ‘Electricity Access in India and Benchmarking Distribution Utilities’ report.
About the report

• The report assesses 25 distribution utilities and is based on a primary survey conducted across 10 states.
• The survey represents about 65% of the total rural population of India and with a sample size of more than 25,000, including households, commercial enterprises and institutions.

Aimed at capturing insights from both the demand (electricity customers) as well as supply-side (electricity distribution utilities), the report seeks to:

• Evaluate the status of electricity access in India across these states and distribution utilities along all dimensions that constitute meaningful access
• Benchmark utilities’ capacity to provide electricity access and identify the drivers of sustainable access
• Develop recommendations for enhancing sustainable electricity access

Key findings of the report

• 92% of customers reported the overall availability of electricity infrastructure within 50 metres of their premises; however, not all have connections, the primary reason being the distance of households from the nearest pole.
• Overall, 87% of the surveyed customers have access to grid-based electricity. The remaining 13% either use non-grid sources or don’t use any electricity at all.
• The hours of supply have improved significantly across the customer categories to nearly 17 hours per day.
• Nearly 85% of customers reported to have a metered electricity connection.
• Access to electricity is observed in 83% of household customers.
• A satisfaction index was created to assess the overall satisfaction level of customers with utility services.
• The study suggested that a total of 66% of those surveyed were satisfied – 74% of customers in urban areas and 60% in rural areas.