The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) 7 lays out the ambitions of universal electricity access. This means 24-hour access to power for all. However, there remained 675 million people without access to electricity as of 2021, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Even if households have access to electricity, it does not always mean they have consistent and reliable access. This indicator tracks the average frequency of electricity service outages per customer by country. In other words, the number of times each year consumers are left without electricity. Average outage frequencies have decreased from 2 times per year in 2015 to 1.6 times in 2020. Data is unavailable for much of Africa and several Pacific islands in Oceania, but among countries for which data exists, outages are most frequent in Niger (288 times per year), Guyana (106), Pakistan (81.6), Uganda (49.8) and Tanzania (46.8). Outages are least frequent in Russia (0.1), Singapore (0.1), China (0.2), France (0.3) and the United States (0.4).
In addition to providing access to electricity, it is essential for countries to ensure that access is consistent and reliable. To this end, investments in reliability that are consistent with a 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) pathway are essential and may look different from country to country. Solutions could include short- and long-duration storage technologies, investments in grid infrastructure, demand management, or other options to balance supply and demand without emitting carbon dioxide.