What is Productive Use of Energy?

Electricity supply needs to go beyond household use for lighting homes, charging phones or powering household appliances such as radios and TVs. Growing Tanzania’s rural economy requires energy for ‘productive use’ (PUE) – where electricity can power local businesses, provide better health and education services, and drive agriculture production.

What we do

The Energy Change Lab is running a multi-stakeholder process focused around ‘live’ projects, which will enable pioneers in and outside the energy sector to design, test, and learn about interventions that promote PUE. This covers aspects such as conducting PUE assessments, refining the delivery model, introducing support measures to stimulate demand among promising local sub-sectors (e.g. agriculture, forestry, fishing or retail), and the measuring of impacts.

How we work 

We work at two levels: the local level, by providing expert advice and prototyping interventions to improve 2-3 specific energy services; and at the sector level, through a multi- stakeholder process of problem-solving and dialogue, which helps inform the prototypes and spread learning.