Anchor-based mini-grids: (Political) power beyond technology? The case of a mini-hydro scheme in Rural Zambia

Abstract

An innovative approach to rural electrification advancement has been the development of the anchor-based business model for mini-grids, which adopts a novel approach to delivering electricity to different rural customer segments to achieve a commercially viable project. Mini-grid research focusing on the anchor-based model is gaining traction within the scholarly literature. However, studies largely examine the technical and economic aspects of anchor-based systems and lack an intricate focus on their social and political elements, particularly with respect to understanding the post-implementation development reality of operationalised anchor-based mini-grid projects in achieving sound and equitable electricity access.

Through a qualitative study, this paper presents the results of a case study of a hydro anchor-based mini-grid in remote rural Zambia, that examines the outcomes and proceedings that materialised within the district following the mini-grid's implementation, from a social perspective. Key stakeholder interviews and ethnographic techniques were employed to collect data from the suite of social actors that reside within the mini-grid system, and thematic analysis and critical realism were analytical methods employed to gain insights into the workings of the system, interrelations of the actors, and the underlying mechanisms at play. The results demonstrate that power structures and dynamics, as well as gender and cultural ideologies, are two important mechanisms at play, where various forms of power are particularly significant elements that permeate from the anchor-based system and political power itself is inherent to the anchor-based system.