An econometric study of illegal electricity connections in the urban favelas of Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Light for all? Evaluating Brazil's rural electrification progress, 2000–2010

“…Furthermore, some Brazilian households do not actually have metered connections, meaning that their monthly bill cannot be conditioned on actual consumption. In a study of illegal electricity connections in the Brazilian favela slums in Belo Horizonte, Mimmi and Ecer (2010) find that 4% of slum dwellers have an illegal connection. Because Brazil's electricity pricing is based on consumption, unmetered connections mean that households are not paying for consumption.…”

Electricity Theft in Kampala and Potential ICT Solutions

“…Her work reveals that demand for electricity stays the same regardless of the price and that electricity theft is higher when the cost of living is high than when it is low. Mimmi et al [16] studied the socio-economic factors that lead to theft in the peri-urban slum dwellers of Brazil. They find that the quality of power supply and feelings of being discriminated against by the utility, lack of access to electricity connections, home businesses and poor energy efficiency practices all contribute to electricity theft.…”

Empowering change: The effects of energy provision on individual aspirations in slum communities

“…This study showed that in slums the barriers to electricity provision consist of high levels of bureaucracy for legal connections, financial obstacles in the form of high upfront lump sum fees, unsafe practices through illegal connections and lack of consumer friendly policies in slums. The lack of supplies and sub-standard services is a barrier for legal connections resulting in illegal connections in informal settlements (Mimmi and Ecer, 2010;Scott et al, 2003).…”

“…There have been studies discussing legality of connections and theft (Depuru, Wang and Devabhaktuni, 2011;Smith, 2004;Mimmi and Ecer, 2010), consumption (Vanin, Graca, Higa, Droichi and Goldemberg, 1983;Alam et al, 1998;Shresha, Kumar, Martin and Dhakal, 2008;Mestl and Eskeland, 2009) and access (Dhingra et al, 2008;Gulyani and Talukdar, 2008;Karakezi, Kimani, and Onguru, 2008) to energy in developing countries, more broadly, with a focus on low income communities.…”