Bolivia : rural electrification

By 1979, all distribution networks were completed, except in the La Paz region. Power was supplied to 42,000 consumers and was used primarily for residential lighting. Although demand outpaced supply, consumption per household was lower than projected and irrigation and industrial use was negligible. The preponderant positive impact of the projects was social. Household lighting improved the physical quality of life for 7% of Bolivia's rural population. Electric light was more convenient, less expensive, safer, and healthier than previous lighting sources such as kerosene and candles. Unfortunately, electrical power did not appear to play a catalytic role in economic development nor was it a precondition for it. Excessive technical design standards increased capital and operating costs of the systems. The premature termination of project financing for the initial hookups resulted in disproportionate exclusion of the poor from project benefits. The urban-rural rate structure, although beneficial, provided insufficient revenues for utilities to expand the rural systems. In addition, the absence of an aggressive promotion program, including a mechanism to mobilize financing by beneficiaries, resulted in a smaller number of residential and productive consumers than might otherwise have been possible. Several lessons were learned: (1) Similar projects should be located where a demand for productive use is evident from the productive use of other forms of energy. Alternatively, if the project purpose and probable impact is purely social, the system should be designed to maximize household connections. (2) Designers should introduce cost constraints into technical standards by allowing choices to be made by host-country technicians and by those who will be concerned with the utility's revenue-earning operations. (3) Electrification projects should be linked to other development activities. (4) A vigorous promotional program to teach rural people how to obtain and make productive use of electric service is recommended.