Indigenous community preferences for electricity services: Evidence from a choice experiment in Sarawak, Malaysia

Providing indigenous communities with electricity services requires an understanding of preferences to ensure that electrification schemes are congruent with the communities’ specific development pathways. We contribute to the literature by using a choice experiment to rank and quantify household pr...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gevelt, T. van, Holzeis, C. Canales, George, F., Tariq, Zaman
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier Ltd. 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/16715/
_version_ 1848838121123217408
author Gevelt, T. van
Holzeis, C. Canales
George, F.
Tariq, Zaman
author_facet Gevelt, T. van
Holzeis, C. Canales
George, F.
Tariq, Zaman
author_sort Gevelt, T. van
building UNIMAS Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Providing indigenous communities with electricity services requires an understanding of preferences to ensure that electrification schemes are congruent with the communities’ specific development pathways. We contribute to the literature by using a choice experiment to rank and quantify household preferences for electricity services in two indigenous villages in Sarawak, Malaysia. Specifically, we disaggregated electricity services into five attributes: private use for household appliances and lighting, public use for community facilities, productive use for income generation, the operator model and the monthly tariff. We found that the most value was placed on the operator-model underpinning the provision of electricity services and that there was a strong preference for a community-based model over a utility-based model. Interestingly, our results suggest that the preference for a community-based operator model may be related to the experience of using electricity for productive uses. We contend that our results demonstrate the importance of social and institutional challenges to providing electricity services to indigenous communities in Sarawak and highlight the need for the state utility to engage with indigenous communities to overcome these challenges.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T06:50:31Z
format Article
id unimas-16715
institution Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-15T06:50:31Z
publishDate 2017
publisher Elsevier Ltd.
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling unimas-167152022-09-29T03:15:55Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/16715/ Indigenous community preferences for electricity services: Evidence from a choice experiment in Sarawak, Malaysia Gevelt, T. van Holzeis, C. Canales George, F. Tariq, Zaman T Technology (General) Providing indigenous communities with electricity services requires an understanding of preferences to ensure that electrification schemes are congruent with the communities’ specific development pathways. We contribute to the literature by using a choice experiment to rank and quantify household preferences for electricity services in two indigenous villages in Sarawak, Malaysia. Specifically, we disaggregated electricity services into five attributes: private use for household appliances and lighting, public use for community facilities, productive use for income generation, the operator model and the monthly tariff. We found that the most value was placed on the operator-model underpinning the provision of electricity services and that there was a strong preference for a community-based model over a utility-based model. Interestingly, our results suggest that the preference for a community-based operator model may be related to the experience of using electricity for productive uses. We contend that our results demonstrate the importance of social and institutional challenges to providing electricity services to indigenous communities in Sarawak and highlight the need for the state utility to engage with indigenous communities to overcome these challenges. Elsevier Ltd. 2017 Article PeerReviewed Gevelt, T. van and Holzeis, C. Canales and George, F. and Tariq, Zaman (2017) Indigenous community preferences for electricity services: Evidence from a choice experiment in Sarawak, Malaysia. Energy Policy, 108. pp. 102-110. ISSN 0301-4215 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517303452/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.05.054
spellingShingle T Technology (General)
Gevelt, T. van
Holzeis, C. Canales
George, F.
Tariq, Zaman
Indigenous community preferences for electricity services: Evidence from a choice experiment in Sarawak, Malaysia
title Indigenous community preferences for electricity services: Evidence from a choice experiment in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_full Indigenous community preferences for electricity services: Evidence from a choice experiment in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_fullStr Indigenous community preferences for electricity services: Evidence from a choice experiment in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Indigenous community preferences for electricity services: Evidence from a choice experiment in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_short Indigenous community preferences for electricity services: Evidence from a choice experiment in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_sort indigenous community preferences for electricity services: evidence from a choice experiment in sarawak, malaysia
topic T Technology (General)
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/16715/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/16715/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/16715/