A colleague of mine has spent fifteen years on and off working on remote small-scale hydropower in Afghanistan. These villages (~ 100 families) can afford installations that give each house ~50 W. Enough for lighting, maybe some small electronics, but even a small heating element (300 W) is way too big. An induction oven draws 1200 W per element...

But lighting is a game changer for these people. For instance it means kids can read after sunset, improving literacy and education in general.

Another interesting thing he told me: they still use fluorescent tube lights in all new installations, and have no plans to switch to LEDs. The reason is that LED bulbs are compatible with incandescents, so whenever a bulb breaks, people will replace it with the cheapest bulb they find (i.e. incandescent), and that will not only reduce the efficiency, but overload the power "grid". So fluorescents win in the long run.