Cooking with Modern Energy in Rural Households of India: A Cost–Benefit Analysis

Between 2016 and 2019, there has been an improvement in the percentage of rural households using clean cooking energy, partly owing to government interventions. However, unclean solid fuels are still the primary source of energy for cooking purposes for about 60% of rural households. One of the foremost reasons for this is the cost of acquiring and using clean energy sources. This paper estimates the cost incurred by a household when switching from solid fuels to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or electricity for cooking, followed by a social cost–benefit analysis of two interventions: universal provision of LPG to all rural households and universal provision of electricity to all rural households. The findings suggest that electricity is a cheaper alternative to LPG at the household level; however, investing in the universal provision of LPG is socially beneficial for the government. Universal provision of electricity for cooking can only become socially beneficial if the proportion of renewable electricity increases, reducing the environmental costs of carbon emissions from coal-based power plants.

2016年至2019年间，使用清洁烹饪能源的农村家庭占比有所提升，这在一定程度上归功于政府的相关干预举措。不过，仍有约60%的农村家庭以非清洁固体燃料作为烹饪的主要能源来源。造成这一现状的首要诱因之一，是获取与使用清洁能源的成本偏高。本研究首先估算了农村家庭将烹饪用能从固体燃料转换为液化石油气（liquefied petroleum gas, LPG）或电力时所需承担的成本，随后针对两项干预举措开展了社会成本收益分析：一是为全体农村家庭统一供应液化石油气，二是为全体农村家庭统一供应电力。研究结果表明，在家庭层面，电力是比液化石油气更为经济的烹饪用能替代方案；但对政府来说，投资推行面向全体农村家庭的统一液化石油气供应举措，具备社会正向收益。若要使面向全体农村家庭的统一电力供应烹饪用能举措具备社会收益，则需提升可再生电力在总电力供给中的占比，以此降低燃煤电厂碳排放所引发的环境成本。