Applying Social Practice Theory to Understand User Demand in Rural Microgrids

Globally, around 770 million people have no access to electricity, despite electrification interventions. Standalone solutions, such as Solar Home Systems (SHS) are widespread in remote off-grid areas of the Global South (GS), due to ease of installation and general availability of pay as you go subscription models. Compared to SHSs, decentralized microgrids with power sharing allow access to higher levels of access, with negligible additional costs. In this paper, we assess changed energy usage patterns using empirical evidence from an off-grid decentralized microgrid deployed in a Southern Pakistani village. To understand how access to off-grid energy is related to transforming social practices in the rural off-grid context, we employ the three-element approach to social practice and assess how access to energy impacts the elements of social practice - material, meaning and competence - and the linkages between them. We argue that such an approach must be embedded into the technical design of the system, along with business model evolution to increase sustainable energy provision and the social value of energy access.