Ensuring the access to energy is one of the global challenges in our time and one of goals which were stated by the UN Initiative on declaring 2014-2024 years by Decade of Sustainable Energy for All. Currently, more than a billion people worldwide lack access to electricity. In addition, about 2.6 billion people in developing countries use traditional biomass for heating and cooking. In the framework of the UN Initiative, it is expected to ensure universal access to the modern energy services, which means to eradicate completely the energy poverty.

Despite the fact that this problem doubtless refers primarily to the developing countries, it is actual for the Russian Federation. In Russia there are a number of remote and sparsely populated areas, where there are still problems with provision of access to energy. Thus, according to the statistical data, in some regions of Russia (more than 5 regions):

• at least 10% of households in the region have power outages
• at least 5% of the households in the region have faults in the heating system
• at least 15% of households in the region do not have electricity and gas stoves
• at least 40% of households use coal, wood and liquid fuel as a fuel.

It is assumed that the problem of access to energy can be solved in parallel with the development of renewable energy facilities in this region.

ISEDC conducts various studies on the problems of energy poverty, especially in the framework of the UN Initiative "Sustainable Energy for All." ISEDC also provides methodical and expert support on these issues to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation.