Electricity supply and use among rural and peri-urban households and small firms in Nigeria

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive survey dataset from Nigeria, detailing energy access, appliance use, and preferences among rural and peri-urban households and small firms, aiming to inform future energy solutions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, representative dataset on energy access in Nigeria's non-urban regions, enabling diverse research on energy modeling and policy development.

Findings

Data covers 3,599 households and 1,122 small firms across three zones.

Provides insights into appliance ownership, energy supply quality, and usage patterns.

Suggests avenues for modeling energy needs and integrating renewable solutions.

Abstract

Improving access to energy services among the underserved requires understanding the status quo in energy access and estimating future energy requirements of energy service provision. In this paper, we present a novel survey dataset collected in 2021 within the framework of the PeopleSuN project. Across three Nigerian geopolitical zones, a total of 3,599 households and 1,122 small and medium-sized enterprises were surveyed. The sample is representative of grid-electrified regions of each zone, excluding urban centres. Our surveys collect data on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, energy access and supply quality, electrical appliance ownership and usage time, cooking solutions, capabilities, and preferences. We encourage academic use of the data presented and suggest three avenues of further research: (1) modelling appliance ownership likelihoods, electricity consumption levels and energy service needs in un-electrified regions; (2) modelling the integration of decentralised renewable and battery storage solutions to address high usage of diesel generators in peri-urban regions; (3) exploring broader issues of multi-dimensional energy access, access to decent living standards and climate vulnerability.