Spatial Dimensions of Energy Poverty and Implications for Sustainable Development in Rural South East Nigeria

Energy poverty in rural South East Nigeria, encompassing Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Abia, and Ebonyi States, constitutes a multi-dimensional spatial phenomenon that constrains economic development, reproduces social inequalities, and generates environmental harm from biomass combustion in ways that intersect with Nigeria's national energy transition commitments and the Sustainable Development Goal 7 framework. This study develops a spatially explicit framework for measuring, mapping, and explaining energy poverty in rural South East Nigeria and theorises its structural causes and sustainable transition pathways. The theoretical framework integrates energy geography, development geography, and spatial justice scholarship to conceptualise energy poverty as simultaneously a technical access problem and a politically produced spatial inequality. A multi-dimensional energy poverty index was constructed from seven indicators covering electricity access, cooking fuel quality, productive energy use, energy expenditure burden, reliability, safety, and environmental exposure, derived from household surveys administered to 1,800 rural households across 30 local government areas. Spatial regression and Geographically Weighted Regression models were applied to identify geographic drivers of energy poverty intensity and spatial heterogeneity in predictor-outcome relationships. Scenario modelling assessed the spatial reach and poverty reduction potential of three renewable energy transition pathways: grid extension, standalone solar home systems, and community mini-grid deployment. Results produce the first ward-level energy poverty atlas for rural South East Nigeria, revealing extreme spatial heterogeneity undetectable in national-scale assessments. Geographically Weighted Regression confirms that the determinants of energy poverty are spatially non-stationary across the region, requiring locally differentiated policy responses. This study makes original theoretical and empirical contributions to energy geography and spatial development studies in Nigeria. Keywords: energy poverty, spatial analysis, South East Nigeria, sustainable development, energy transition.