The role of the customers in the diffusion of alternative electricity supply solution in Bangalore: A case study of SELCO bringing its rural solution to an urban niche market

Abstract

The article highlights the emergence of Indian urban customers willing to use alternative electricity supply solutions in the context of a discontinuous public electricity supply service in Bangalore. The research identifies how the off-grid service developed by a social enterprise, SELCO, and initially designed for poor rural customers is slowly reaching the urban upper-middle class customers attracted by its practical use and financial incentive. The article aims to address two intertwined questions: (1) how the service of that visionary company is being diffused into the urban society through the nexus of its potential customers? (2) what are the motivations driving these customers in using off-grid options? The case of SELCO helps us to illustrate this market evolution of solar photovoltaic systems. We observe a built-in corporate entrepreneurship culture of the organization playing an important role in bridging projects into a new context by creating an interactive relationship with their existing and potential customers. A small number of individuals in the organization starts working to understand the needs of the client, and slowly identifies new meanings of its service in an urban context recently explored as a market. This demonstrated development of a niche market constitutes an early signal of the emergence of a social group willing to change its consumption behavior and contribute to the environment through their day-to-day activity.