One of the early collaborations between MECS in Loughborough and the World Bank’s ESMAP was to create the Cooking with Electricity: a Cost Perspective report in 2020. Through five case studies, this report compares the current and projected costs to the consumer of a range of electric cooking solutions with the costs of cooking with currently widely-used fuels in each context.
The findings showed that eCooking can be a cost-effective option for some consumers in both off-grid and grid-connected settings. While much has changed in the intervening period, the five case studies, covering (large) solar home systems, minigrids and grid-connected eCooking, with and without battery support, remain highly relevant. More recent analysis shows that the assumptions made in the report about typical cooking fuel use in the baseline and for eCooking remain valid. Whilst some parameter values will have changed (eg fuel prices), the report included ranges for most important parameters and current levels still fall within the ranges considered.
The report was developed on the basis of an unpublished techno-economic model developed by MECS, with explicit representation of electricity generation by solar PV, accompanying battery storage and then use of a variety of eCooking devices. The model is described in the report, and the data used for the case studies are included as annexes.