Energizing Myanmar
Myanmar has the opportunity to significantly enhance energy access, starting from a situation where energy consumption per capita is among the lowest in the world. Two-thirds of the population is not connected to the national electricity grid, and 84 percent of rural households lack access to electricity. The lack of affordable and reliable power is a key constraint to the delivery of vital services such as health, education and finance for rural populations, and for private sector development and job creation more broadly. Also, access to modern fuels for cooking (such as liquefied petroleum gas) is limited to urban areas. Consequently, traditional biomass (wood and animal dung) is widely used and accounts for about 70 percent of primary energy consumption. The Government’s National Electrification Plan aims to electrify more than 7 million households and achieve access to electricity for 36 million people by 2030. Achieving this objective (which is also the UN SDG7 in Myanmar) is vital to poverty reduction and shared prosperity.