We use the term “energy poverty” to refer to poor access to modern energy services – especially household access to electricity and clean cooking methods. The accompanying graphic vividly demonstrates one aspect of energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the International Energy Agency, only 31% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa has access to electricity, the lowest level in the world. Residential electricity consumption in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, is roughly equivalent to consumption in New York. In other words, the 19.5 million inhabitants of New York consume in a year roughly the same quantity of electricity, 40 TW-hr, as the 791 million people of sub-Saharan Africa.
The energy poverty in Burundi is much worse than the average across Africa, with less than 5% of the population of Burundi having access to electricity. Large parts of Burundi have no access to electricity, and the parts that do have access regularly experience blackouts – sometimes for a majority of the time.