Examining Alternatives: the Energy Services Delivery Project in Sri Lanka

Cynthia Caron, Cornell University

Abstract

Decentralized, renewable energy production is becoming a more acceptable and widely-used form of electricity generation. The World Bank and Global Environment Facility (GEF) are leaders in creating and expanding markets for renewable energy technologies such as solar-home systems and village-level, micro-hydro schemes. In 1997, The World Bank signed an agreement with the Government of Sri Lanka to initiate an Energy Services Delivery (ESD) Project. Stakeholders participating in the ESD Project hold different views of the project based on their location within the project hierarchy. Using an interpretivist methodological approach, I elucidate shared and divergent meaning between two stakeholder groups: private-sector banking officials and end-users. Stakeholder understandings of the project organized themselves around three emergent themes: risk, responsibility and sustainability. Understanding how stakeholders conceptualize these three concepts provides valuable insight into how long-term, cooperative energy policy and delivery services might be designed. © 2002 International Energy Initiative, Inc.