To realize the full benefits of electrification, coordinated cross-sectoral solutions will be needed, such as reduced energy costs, total energy use, emissions, and water use. These reductions should be developed in parallel with efforts to optimize and exploit the flexibility and efficiency for the power grid, improving energy security and reliability. This can lead to advancements in community health, safety and productivity.
Forward-looking electrification pathways must address technology and policy challenges in a range of sectors to deliver such gains. Efficient electrification requires solutions to address:
distributed (local) energy generation and storage needs;
the need for local grid flexibility, adaptation and upgrades;
the development of analytical tools to assess regional and individual electrification project needs; or
the growth of policy solutions that coordinate across sectors to reduce adoption barriers and incorporate diverse user perspectives and which are tailored to local socio-economics, environmental and health conditions, and cultural concerns.
In other words, the vast majority of these common challenges towards efficient electrification are also inherently local in nature. Thus, cross-sectoral electrification pathways must therefore be built at the community level, one community at a time, and scaled and expanded accordingly.
