For utilities that are actively trying to connect rural customers, last-mile distribution and rural grid extension are notoriously difficult and expensive, in addition to existing system reliability issues and line loss rates.

Simply put, they either don’t face or cannot meet a universal service mandate through business-as-usual operations, leaving more than 600 million potential customers across the continent on the table and in the dark, including 110 million living directly beneath existing grid infrastructure.

Emerging market utilities need to understand the impact of digitized, decarbonized and decentralized technologies on their electrification strategies. In many service territories, they have not been given a choice to ignore these changes, as the penetration of private pay-as-you-go solar home systems are already making a dent in targeted customer expansion strategies.

Full article: Greentechmedia