Energy Access and Reliability in Bangladesh

In 2022, Bangladeshs official electricity access rate reached 99.4%, a remarkable increase from 66% a decade prior. But soaring fuel prices, rising temperatures, and economic instability have pushed Bangladeshs power sector into crisis, leading to unprecedented load shedding and power outages that are crippling life and reversing hard-won gains in social and economic welfare. The impacts of the power crisis are likely to fall most acutely on already marginalised communities. Despite their significance, the precise geographic incidence and seasonal variability in power outages is not well understood. Drawing on remote sensing technologies, demographic datasets, and advanced computational algorithms, we will introduce new high resolution data on energy access and poverty, empowering research on the impacts of the current energy crisis.