In many countries poor people’s energy access is yet to be given sufficient priority and fails to be acknowledged as a key enabler in improving health, education, and other community services. As a contribution to creating a new energy narrative, the Poor people’s energy outlook (PPEO) highlights what matters to poor people. It prioritizes their perspectives and those of practitioners working with them. PPEO 2013 focuses on delivering energy at community level, illustrating the difference that improved energy services and supply can make to health, education and infrastructure, including access to water, and street lighting. The report makes the case for energy for community services; encouraging greater investment in, and integration of, this often neglected area of energy provision and will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand better the interaction between energy access and community services, both energy sector professionals and development practitioners alike.