Globally 1.456 billion people (18% of the world’s population) do not have access to electricity, of these 83% live in rural areas. And less than 10% of the rural population has access to electricity. In South Africa, because of the electrification drive since the late 1980’s, the electrification rate has increased considerably to about 75%, which is considerably higher than the average for the African continent which is about 45%. But there are still about 1.5 million households located in remote areas, which are unlikely to be connected to the grid in the near future. So the focus during this conference will be on assisting the Electrification process and extending the options available to especially the rural population.