Reducing the cost of rural electrification: a key to improve the quality of life in rural areas in developing countries

The cost of rural electrification is high worldwide and, as a result, the utilities worldwide are reluctant to extend their services in the rural areas. The onus of providing electricity to rural area in such circumstances falls finally on the government or government owned utilities. Due to high cost and significantly low benefit, the benefit cost ratio (BCR) is considerably low and sometimes less than unity in case of rural electrification schemes. This paper demonstrates a very simple method of controlling the cost of the rural electrification in one hand and at the same time improving the benefit for the utility.