In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 640 million people are served by health care facilities that either lack electricity access or have unreliable service. Updated information on health facilities is scarce, but critical for decision-makers, enabling them to identify opportunities and formulate policies, strategies, plans, and programs. Assessing electricity needs at the facility level is key for evidence-based decision-making and impactful electrification programs.

This technical note introduces a methodology to estimate electricity requirement ranges for health care facilities, especially unserved and under-served facilities. It combines a bottom-up approach to assessing the electricity requirements at the facility level with a geographic information system (GIS) based analysis. The methodology is applied to a case study for existing facilities in Uganda in close collaboration with the Ugandan Ministry of Health and the Energy Sector GIS Working Group. Outputs of the analysis are also integrated into Energy Access Explorer, where they can be overlaid with information on current and potential supply, and made available for a dynamic, multicriteria prioritization analysis and the development of customized reports. This methodology will provide a data-driven, integrated approach to planning for the expansion of energy services in health care.