A critical review of modern approaches for multidimensional energy poverty measurement
New multidimensional energy-poverty measures are hard to apply globally and hard to accept nationally
Read the published paper ↗doi.org/10.1002/wene.304
Whether multidimensional energy poverty measures can be operationalised
Energy poverty is still tracked globally through binary indicators, recording whether a household has a connection rather than what that connection delivers. A set of newer frameworks sets out to redress these shortcomings by describing access across multiple dimensions and graded levels.
Building these frameworks and operationalising them are different problems. A measure rich enough to capture what a household can do with its energy supply needs detailed data that standard household surveys rarely collect. It also needs thresholds, such as acceptable levels of supply disruption, on which countries have struggled to agree. We review recent efforts at operationalising multidimensional measures of energy poverty, asking what applying them implies for global tracking on one hand and national policy and planning on the other.
How new frameworks define and measure access
We review the Multitier Framework for Measuring Energy Access (MTF), the Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index, Total Energy Access and the Energy Supply Index. We situate them against the earlier access-use framework and the Global Tracking Framework under Sustainable Energy for All. Several reviews of individual frameworks already exist, so we do not attempt another. Instead we review how the new frameworks define and measure distinct aspects of energy poverty and the challenges in applying them. We focus on household energy services, the most developed component of existing measures.
Alongside the frameworks themselves we examine their empirical applications. The largest publicly available survey dedicated to measuring energy access with the MTF covered 8,566 households in selected Indian states. Its authors deviated substantially from the standard MTF dimensions and thresholds, and used subjective responses where objective thresholds proved impractical to collect.
New measures are hard to apply globally and hard to accept nationally
Each MTF matrix, whether for energy supply or for access to a household energy service, provides thresholds for seven dimensions across six tiers (graded levels of service from Tier 0 to Tier 5). That resolution creates difficulties in both directions. Its Access Index weights each tier in proportion to its number, so moving from Tier 0 to Tier 4 counts as twice as beneficial as moving from Tier 0 to Tier 2. The framework's authors themselves note that these tier weights should be evaluated nationally. In the cooking matrix, only Tiers 4 and 5 are consistent with indoor air quality standards that significantly reduce the health risks of cooking emissions. Affordability is not considered below Tier 3 and only rudimentarily defined above it. The Energy Supply Index similarly mentions quality, intermittency and reliability without explicitly defining them.
The Indian application is instructive on both counts. It concluded that the number of tiers should be reduced to four, since finer differentiation was not considered to add value in that context. It also found that nearly 50% of households placed in Tier 0 had an electric grid connection. That finding exposes the inadequacy of the connection-based binary metrics still dominant in global policy discourse.
A global shortlist of dimensions with national thresholds
We find that despite real progress in capturing the multidimensional nature of energy poverty, the new measures are currently too complex to operationalise at the global level and too prescriptive to gain acceptance across diverse national contexts. Substantial challenges remain in both the construction of these frameworks and their application. We argue that global tracking and national planning are distinct measurement objectives, and each needs its own measure.
Two parallel efforts are needed. For global comparison, a subset of key dimensions and a uniform set of indicators should be shortlisted. Every national tracking framework would report this standard set of dimensions, thresholds and tiers to ensure international comparability. National energy planners could then have the freedom and the responsibility to develop a suitably complex, politically and socially acceptable national framework. That framework would apply the dimensions and thresholds best suited to capture energy poverty and its drivers in a given context, while still reporting the standard set for global tracking.
@article{pelz_critical_2018,
title = {A critical review of modern approaches for multidimensional energy poverty measurement},
volume = {7},
copyright = {All rights reserved},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.304},
number = {6},
journal = {Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment},
publisher = {Wiley Online Library},
author = {Pelz, Setu and Pachauri, Shonali and Groh, Sebastian},
year = {2018},
pages = {e304},
}