| Author | Lipu, Molla Shahadat Hossain |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.ET-13-10 |
| Subject(s) | Energy consumption--Bangladesh
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| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Energy |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Energy is a crucial input to promote socioeconomic development. In Bangladesh, about 96 million people (59%) do not have access to electricity and143 million people (88%) still depend on biomass for cooking. Though issues related to energy access in the rural areas have been well recognized and documented, the urban poor living in slum areas with lack of access to clean and modern sources of energy have not been addressed comprehensively. The main objective of this study is to assess the current status of energy access in the slum areas of Dhaka and provide recommendations to address the barriers to enable energy access. The study is mainly based on field survey covering 185 households of the four major slum areas of Dhaka, literature review, and stakeholder interviews. Electricity (90.3%) is the main source of lighting in most of the slum areas of Dhaka. Slum households who do not have access to electricity use keroseneas a primary fuel. Electricity supply in slum households are connected either by pole meter (62%) or shared meter (27%). The urban poor pay the electricity bill by equipment type (84%) or agreed sum (16%) which is three times higher than regular tariff rate. Besides, the price not only depends on equipment type but also differs depending on the areas. Weighted Average Index (WAI) was used to measure the user satisfaction on electricity and firewood. Urban poor are not happy with the amount of power supplied by the system, availability of electricity and billing method. Firewood(68%) is the main cooking fuels used by the majority of urban poor followed by natural gas (32%). Urban poor are not happy with the price, smoke emitted from the firewood but they prefer firewood as they can purchase on daily basic and taste preference. Energy poverty line, defined as the threshold points at which energy consumption begins to rise with increases in household income. The objective is to determine if the energy poor are also income poor and the study suggests that 38% of slum households are energy poor, while 56 % are income poor. Many barriers are also identified through this research where urban poor face problems in accessing legal energy services due to illegal settlement, lack of explicit policy on energy and housing, lack of dedicated institution, the pervasive role of Mastaans, poor infrastructure and lack of monitoring and evaluating system. Barriers specific recommendations are suggested based on the experiences from the field visit and the best practices outside Bangladesh are also identified. |
| Year | 2013 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Energy Technology (ET) |
| Chairperson(s) | Kumar, Sivanapan; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Dhakal, Shobhakar;Marpaung, Charles O.P.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2013 |