Authors : Madhusudhan Adhikari, Bharat Raj Pahari and Rajendra Shrestha
Abstract: Electricity is one of the major forms of energy and a pre-requisite for the socioeconomic development of a nation. However, 12% of Nepalese households still lack access to electricity. Standalone renewable energy systems such as micro hydro, solar home lighting and wind energy are considered as ways to accelerate rural electrification. Approximately, 10% of Nepal’s population receives electricity through such standalone systems. This study analyzes the barriers to rural electrification in Nepal. Barriers are identified, analyzed and ranked based on expert’s perceptions using analytical hierarchy process. The experts are classified based on three characteristics: specific expertise, type of organization and years of experience. Areas of expertise include: policy, implementation, user, academic, technical and finance. The selection criteria ensure that opinions from a wide variety of stakeholders are represented. Experts are asked to rank barriers in terms of the cost to remove them, the impact of their removal and the time to remove them. These three factors are ranked by their relative importance. The impact of their removal is adjudged the most important criteria for prioritizing barriers, followed by the cost of removal while the time needed to remove barriers was ranked third. Analysis of the overall ranking of barriers to rural electrification revealed six barriers. In order of their importance, they are: financial, geographical, policy, legal and administrative, social and technological.
Madhusudhan Adhikari, Bharat Raj Pahari and Rajendra Shrestha, 2020. Identification, Classification and Prioritization of Rural Electrification Barriers of Nepal using AHP. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 15: 1844-1850.