Renewing Energy Access Approaches

• In energy access projects, a successful commons-

based approach results from a winning combination of commons, public regulation, and the market sphere. There are a variety of different situations, but three main models emerge:

− the collective management committee (users’ committee) supervises a local user-manager who provides the service and maintains the facilities. Initial investment comes from

external sources and a contribution from users, in cash or in kind;

− the small local energy operator is monitored by the

community. Initial investment comes from external sources and a contribution from the operator;

− the local services company, responsible for setting up and

providing the service, operates with users’ involvement. Initial investment comes from the company, possibly with external subsidies.

• The biomass energy field features a large range of

natural resource management initiatives that could be described as commons-based approaches. The active involvement of local communities (and not just the local government) in the governance of natural resources allows for a better appropriation of rights and obligations in relation to this governance. In this field, the implementation of commons-based approaches calls for sustainable management principles co-conceived with the users, sufficiently deterrent graduated systems of sanctions, and regulatory frameworks that make room for local adaptation.

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Renewing Energy Access Approaches

Published on Feb 19, 2021

Agence Française de Développement

When it comes to energy access projects (electrificationand thermal energy), approaches introducing a commons perspective can be distinguished by the fact that users play anactive role. This role is constructed “from the bottom,” basing thelegitimacy of operational rules on the proximity of social relations.These approaches may serve to address the recurring problemsre lating to mini-grid maintenance and to fraud and non-payment, as well as those associated with the sustainable developmentof natural resources. They also offer responses to specificchallenges, such as long-term support for the local community, the structuring of an ad hoc governance model, and recognitionby national authorities of the community capacity to organize itself. Thus considered, a commons dimension can be introduced to energy access projects or to those involving the management of vulnerable primary energy sources, such as water or biomass, in various institutional and contractual formats: rather than running counter to public action