For communities beyond the economic reach of the main grid within the planning horizon, mini-grids are the right answer. The mistake is treating them as a separate sector with separate standards, separate data and separate institutions — because the main grid arrives eventually, and when it does, incompatible mini-grids become stranded assets and political problems.
Build for interconnection from day one
Interconnection-ready mini-grids share three properties. Their distribution assets are built to the national utility’s construction standards, so the wires and transformers survive the handover. Their customers are metered and registered to the same standards as utility customers, so the customer base transfers cleanly. And their assets exist in a register the utility can absorb — which is where a shared platform pays off.
Handled this way, the mini-grid operator’s exit is a transaction rather than a crisis: the generation assets are revalued against grid supply, the network assets transfer at a verifiable condition, and the customers keep their lights on through the change.
The planning consequence is that mini-grid programmes belong inside distribution planning, not alongside it. The same register, the same standards, the same reporting. Electrification is one network under construction, at different speeds in different places.