World Bank Economics of Household Cooking Using Electricity in Nepal

Summary

2025 World Bank policy research paper on household electric-cooking economics in Nepal. It is used here to verify that the latest reviewed source still describes electric-cooking adoption as below one percent of households rather than providing a newer annual uptake series.

Key Findings

• The report states that electricity has been used for cooking in less than one percent of Nepali households.
• It identifies unprocessed solid biomass as the primary cooking fuel for approximately 60% of households.
• It compares cooking technologies and fuels across Nepal's topographical regions from private and social-cost perspectives.
• It finds electricity cheaper than fossil fuels on average, but costlier than biomass from a private-cost perspective; when PM2.5 external costs are included, electricity becomes the cheapest option except for biogas.

Relevance

Supports Domestic Electricity Demand Distribution and Decision Dossier — Electric-Cooking Evidence Gate and Pilot by confirming that the 0.5% electric-cooking statistic remains a low-adoption baseline rather than a superseded figure in the current reviewed source set. It also provides a primary analytical basis for comparing household cooking costs; it does not establish the design or outcome of a Nepal-wide electric-cooking programme.

Limitations

• Not an annual adoption series. The report corroborates sub-1% electric-cooking uptake but does not provide a newer nationally updated household share to replace the 2021 baseline.
• Economics focus. The report is primarily a cost-economics study, not a statistical yearbook or household energy census.
• Modelled economics, not a programme evaluation. It does not establish appliance prices, local feeder reliability, cooking-time load shape, subsidy incidence or results from a nationwide rollout.