Abstract— The democratization of Brazil in the early 1990s set off a process of economic development and social inclusion, leading to the creation of a burgeoning middle class eager and able to purchase goods and services, including high-quality electric power. However, social stratification is not enough to address and define the behavior of these new customers. The diversity of behavior found in this new social group impacts the utilities companies’ operations in terms of increased of non-technical losses. The culture of non-payment for public services elevates total losses to levels higher than 50%. The inclusion of this new middle class is fundamental to the reduction of the non-technical losses. To achieve this, the utility companies face a threefold challenge: (i) to fully include the group (in social, electrical and digital terms); (ii) to maintain them as regular customers in compliance with the contractual obligations implied in the electricity supply; and (iii) to educate them around energy efficiency. Unlike most developed countries, the energy efficiency programs in Brazil and in other developing countries seek to teach methods of rational use of energy mainly for new electricity customers. However, this is not a simple issue and one of the most difficult issues is creating sustainable energy efficiency programs to guarantee that new customers are able to pay for the amount of energy they use. Through the VI Energy Efficiency Program, created by Change through Digital Inclusion (CDI) for Light, a Brazilian Electricity Utility operating in Rio de Janeiro State, these new included customers can make savings upwards of 47kWh/month per customer, representing a 22% saving in energy. Index Terms— energy efficiency, energy inclusion, digital inclusion, reduction in non-technical losses, social inclusion. Manuscript received September 24th, 2011; revised October 24th, 2011. José Edimilson Canaes, from CDI (Rua Marques de Abrantes 147, CEP 22230-060, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, phone: +55-21-82079260, e-mail: ed.canaes@cdi.org.br). Mr. Canaes holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Campinas (1980). He completed his Masters at the Institute of Electrotechnical and Energy (IEE) of the University of Sao Paulo in 2006. He is currently completing his PhD at the IEE. Canaes is Director of Operations at Change though Digital Inclusion (CDI), an NGO dedicated to empowering people through technology. CDI has presence in 13 countries and has directly impacted the lives of over 1,300,000 people worldwide. Canaes is also Director of R&D at Signalcard Technology and Industry and Trade Ltd. He has experience in electrical engineering, specializing in automation electric electronics and industrial processes. Canaes has patents and publications in national journals. Jose Aquiles Baesso Grimoni, from USP University of Sao Paulo (Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, Trav. 3, nº 158, Predio da Eng. Eletrica, CEP 05508-900, Cidade Universitaria, Sao Paulo, Brazil, phone: +55-11- 99067997, e-mail:aquiles@pea.usp.br). Mr. Grimoni is graduated in Electrical Engineering (1980), MS in Electrical Engineering (1988), Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (1994) and associate professor (2006) at Polythecnic School of University of Sao Paulo. He was the vice-director form 2003 until 2007 and director from 2007 until 2011 of Institute of Electrotechnical and Energy of USP. He is currently an associate Professor at Polythecnic School of University of Sao Paulo since 1989. He is reviewer of the journals: IEEE Journal Latin America, Neurocomputing (Amsterdam), IEE Proceedings Generation Transmission & Distribution, Journal of Agroinformatica, International Journal of Systems and Power & Energy, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. I. INTRODUCTION Founded in 1995, Change through Digital Inclusion (CDI) uses technology as a medium to fight poverty, stimulate entrepreneurship and create a new generation of “change agents” (CANAES [8]). Through its 821 CDI Community Centers in Brazil and abroad (CDI operates in 13 countries including the UK and Jordan), the organization “transforms lives and strengthens low-income communities by empowering people with information and communication technology”. Most CDI Community Centers are located in low-income communities in both rural and urban areas. There are also centers in prisons, institutions for the physically or mentally disabled, indigenous and river-based communities, and juvenile detention centers. The centers offer ITC courses, employment programs and Internet Cyber Cafes for research, to use online government services or for business use. In 2008, CDI created for Light – Rio de Janeiro’s utility company- a tailored educational program addressing the sustainable use of electricity. The program was implemented in CDI Community Centers in Rio de Janeiro, located in many of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. The main goal of the Light Project, which was implemented from October 2009 to November 2010, was to develop solutions for the sustainable inclusion and formalization of non-paying users of the electricity network. The creation of sustainable energy efficiency programs is, for most Brazilian utilities, a new experience. The traditionally programs are implemented in the form of short projects in each community. One of the most important issues is to perform actions to guarantee that new electrical energy customers have the ability to pay for their consumption, while maintaining a good quality of life and ensuring that their consumption is environmentally sustainable. This paper presents the Light Energy Efficiency Project; lays out its contribution to scholarly and professional work; describes the main issues Brazilian utilities face in low- income communities and the methodology used by CDI to develop and implement the project; in addition to discussing the results obtained by the project. II. LIGHT PROJECT Light supplies electricity to around 6 million customers, while suffering from commercial losses of around 40% in low voltage distribution, a level which it desperately needs to decrease. The losses are mainly due to non-official connections to its networks and fraudulent practices in low- Analysis and Development of Sustainable Solutions for the Inclusion of Low-income Customers in the Electric Power Network Jose Edimilson Canaes, Jose Aquiles Grimoni Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists 2012 Vol II, IMECS 2012, March 14 - 16, 2012, Hong Kong ISBN: 978-988-19251-9-0 ISSN: 2078-0958 (Print); ISSN: 2078-0966 (Online) IMECS 2012