“Don't cook or iron with it”: Heterogeneities and coping strategies for accessing and using electricity in the informal settlements of Kampala, Uganda

Abstract

Uganda has one of the highest energy access deficits in the world, so low-income households improvise to access electricity, often through heterogeneous infrastructure arrangements. This study investigated energy heterogeneity in Uganda's informal settlements, expressed through the coping strategies that households adopt to access and use electricity. The paper is based on fieldwork conducted in Nakulabye slum, Kampala over a period of two months in 2022. We find ubiquitous multiplicity of electricity infrastructures and access options in the as households ration electricity, practice energy stacking, use illegal connections, or forego grid access. Such coping strategies offer households convenience, cost-savings and flexibility, but over prolonged periods of time, they can become the primary means of accessing electricity. This may cement the disenfranchisement of informal settlements from the grid, obscure the energy challenges they face and spur complacency in service provision and policymaking. The grid remains the idealized electricity source for most households, and future energy landscapes will likely feature the grid supplemented through coping strategies that reveal the energy expectations and practices of the urban poor. Augmented with existing measures, coping strategies portray a more accurate picture of energy access, demand, and consumption in informal settlements and advances our understanding of these issues. This can inform effective service provision that is attuned and responsive to the urban poor's energy needs and promote an equitable urban agenda.