Joint Optimal Planning of Electricity and Modern Energy Cooking Services Access in Nyagatare

Abstract

In 2019, there were 759 million people globally without access to electricity and 2.6 billion people lacked access to clean cooking. Cooking with electricity could contribute to achieving universal access to energy by 2030. This paper uses geospatially-based techniques—a computer model named REM, for Reference Electrification Model—to show the impact of integrating electric cooking into electrification planning. Three household scenarios were analyzed: one for providing basic electricity access with no electric cooking; another for cooking with electricity; and the third for cooking half of the meals with electricity and half with another fuel, with a clean stacking process. Results of the application of REM to the three scenarios were obtained for the Nyagatare District, Rwanda. The case study showed that electric cooking substantially changes the mix of technologies and the total cost of the least-cost electrification plan. It also showed that electric cooking can be cost competitive compared to LPG and charcoal in grid-connected households and can reduce greenhouse emissions. Stacking with energy-efficient electric appliances provides most of the benefits of full electric cooking at a lower cost and is a pathway worthy of further consideration.

A Comprehensive Approach to the Governance of Universal Access to Sustainable Energy

“…It will involve not only long-term operation and maintenance [18,30], but also the replacement and upgrading of existing assets to provide low-cost, efficient, adequate, and modern quality of service for both grid expansion [31][32][33] and off-grid electrification with mini-grids, solar kits, and other stand-alone systems [34][35][36]. It must also enable productive and community services and be compatible with reaching upper levels of clean electric or gas heating and cooking [37,38], allowing the transition from one technology of supply to the next [39] as demand grows or changes, requiring an ambitious "think big" approach that is comprehensive and integrated from multiple perspectives [26,40,41].…”

“…Current cooking practices have significant barriers to the transition to modern cooking technologies [6]. These barriers include economic disparities, underdeveloped and ineffective policies, inadequate promotion of modern stoves and alternative fuels, lack of a comprehensive multi-technology approach at the household level, lack of robust national planning [38], and challenges for women to influence public discourse. In particular, economic hardship is the primary barrier to access to modern cooking, as those with greater purchasing power tend to choose modern technologies.…”

Editorial for Special Issue: “Clean Energy Innovations: Challenges and Strategies for Low and Middle Income Countries”

“…However, despite this statistic, ESMAP identifies 4 billion people that do not have access to modern energy cooking services, and suggests that 3.2 billion of these do have access to grid or off-grid electricity. Sánchez-Jacob et al [13] elaborate on this and consider whether the additional loads created by cooking might cause problems for the grid. They model three scenarios in Rwanda: a Basic Scenario-to meet just the basic services in a household; a Complete Scenario-basic services and electricity for cooking the entire daily cooking load; and a Stacking Scenario-basic services with half of the daily cooking load, carried out with energy-efficient electric appliances, and the other half with another cookstove.…”

“…This Special Issue contains research on other fuels. In Čukić et al [13], the authors describe how the National Master Plan of Rwanda is seeking to promote the scaling up LPG. They point out that 90% of Rwandans use biomass, and that the government seeks to focus on LPG as its modern energy cooking service, in order to move towards the SDG7 universal access target.…”