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the flow

SELF-TAUGHT MALAWI MANUFACTURER RECEIVES TEVETA AWARD

5/16/2022

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Malawi-based small-scale hydro entrepreneur, Hastings Mkandawire, recently received an inaugural, prestigious award from the Technical, Entrepreneurial, Vocational Education and Training Authority (TEVETA), called Ngwazi ya Lusu mu Malawi, translated as "The Most Skillful Person in Malawi".  A self-taught engineer, Hastings began manufacturing pico and micro hydro turbines from recycled materials to generate electricity in his village and neighboring communities.  

His first decade in the sector focused on pico hydro projects, developing over 100 units.  During this period he trained over 50 youth and facilitated the formation of a youth group, which went onto installing over 300 units.  Because rural Malawi is less than 5% electrified, the pico hydro units have brought immense benefits to the communities.

Nearing the start of his second decade in the sector, in 2014 Hastings was selected to take part in the Mandela Washington for Young African Leaders (YALI) fellowship program, after which point he established the turbine manufacturing social enterprise,  Mzuzu Institute of Technology and Innovation (MZITI) in 2015.  MZITI has enabled Hastings to spend the last decade focusing on upgrading his pico hydro fabrication skills to micro hydro manufacturing.  The MZITI facility has various metal fabrication equipment, including lathes, welding machines, cutters, etc.  At MZITI Hastings can now manufacture Crossflow and Pelton turbines for micro hydro capacities.  In addition, Hastings supports pico and micro hydro communities in establishing productive end uses, including manufacturing grain mills at MZITI.

With recent support from the Segal Family Foundation, MZITI now has a computer aided design (CAD) center, allowing Hastings to advance his manufacturing.  HPNET is collaborating with Hastings to find ways to develop higher efficiency micro hydro systems at MZITI, and to scale up its implementation to accelerate rural electrification in Malawi.

At the YALI Summit, then US President Barack Obama acknowledged Hastings’ work, saying: “​​In rural Malawi, he saw towns in darkness, without electricity. So now he gathers scrap metal, builds generators on his porch, takes them down to the stream for power, delivers electricity so farmers can irrigate their crops and children can study at night”.  
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Learn more about Hastings’ work in the links below -- keeping in mind that some of the videos are outdated and do not reflect Hastings current phase of development. :)  HPNET will soon feature Hastings in a StreamSide Chats edition -- stay tuned!

  • “YALI Fellow: Hastings Mkandawire Making Electricity” 
  • “Homemade” – a video featuring Hastings’ story
  • “Social Entrepreneur Spotlight: Hastings Mkandawire”
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HINDSIGHT:  MICRO HYDRO IN REGIONS OF CONFLICT

9/20/2021

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​International donor support for rural development (including electrification) in the global South is often implemented in close partnership with national governments.  However, increasingly national governments are the cause of dire conflict situations, involving human rights abuses, mass casualties, and socio-economic fallout from constant violence and lack of safety of civilians.  
The most severely impacted sub-regions within conflict-ridden countries are typically indigenous and ethnic regions that are underdeveloped and off-grid.  It is in these regions that rural development programs, including community-based micro hydro projects, are located. 

​​This year we have been tracking situations in Myanmar, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and others in order to understand the impact of conflict on rural development efforts and vice versa. Below HPNET Manager and Facilitator, Dipti Vaghela, shares her reflections.
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Anglophone rights activist Mancho Bibixy speaking in a 2017 rally in Bamenda, Cameroon. Credit: Phonix22, Wikimedia Commons

IMPORTANCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
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International development partners can better integrate political economy analyses into the design of their programs.  For example, in the case of Myanmar prior to the 2021 coup the country had faced government takeover by the national military thrice since its national independence from the British in 1948.  While the closely monitored 2015 elections were democratic, the NLD government’s victory was a pseudo-democracy since the advantages granted by the country’s constitution to the Myanmar military dictatorship had not changed with the election.
​In spite of the obvious history of national military rule and its restraint on the civilian government, many international multilateral financiers and bi-lateral donors that entered the country after 2013 chose the fledgling national government as their primary client.  The repercussions of this decision are the missed opportunities to strategically use development initiatives as a tool to empower civilians and weaken the junta. Had the country’s political economy been accounted for by international development partners, a looming coup would have been anticipated, and the primary recipients of international support would have been local and non-government actors.  However, doing so would have required international partners to revamp their approaches to build trust with local practitioners.
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Mass demonstration in Yangon soon after Feb. 2021 coup. Credit: Twitter
The situation is similar in Cameroon and Ethiopia, where the conflicts are also rooted within national governments.   When governments begin to commit human rights violations, their international development partners can only simply cut ties with the government, having no institutional leverage to negotiate on behalf of ethnic and marginalized civilians.  However, hindsight analyses can help donors integrate the realities of local and national political economy into future scoping missions and program designs.

Read More: Cameroon: Impacts of Conflict on Micro Hydro Regions

RESILIENCE OF LOCAL AND NON-GOVERNMENT STAKEHOLDERS

​As the need for rural development has become greater with the pandemic and the humanitarian situations, international donors now seek non-government partners to deploy aid and support in countries of conflict.  However, such a noble approach comes too late -- local non-government actors are forced to focus on maintaining basic safety (ironically from violence caused by the same national governments that were supported by international donors) and economic stability.  
Yet local civil society organizations (CSOs) and local private enterprises continue to be resilient in the face of the conflict.  In Myanmar local CSOs have pooled together to provide aid to ethnic regions destroyed by the national military, micro hydro communities continue to build climate and economic resilience in a devastated economy, and local private sector actors have forged ahead with their promises to electrify communities. In Cameroon and Ethiopia government censorship has prevented access to understanding the plight of impacted rural communities, but it is clear that activists living in the conflict regions are frontline changemakers.

Read More: Myanmar: Community Hydro Resilience During Conflict

While it will be difficult for international aid to support the frontline during conflict, it is still valuable to conduct a hindsight analysis on what alternatives to government partnerships could have been more strategic from a political economy perspective.  From the energy access and local practitioner aspects of rural development, we offer the following hindsight.
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A micro hydro community in Cameroon. Credit: WISIONS
MITIGATING INTERNAL BIASES
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The staff and consultants of international development organizations come with their own biases, based on their professional journeys.  The biases prevent them from fully understanding the political economy aspects of energy access.  For example, they may be more open to a practitioner that is an English-versed extrovert with less experience and not from the local region, than an English-challenged introvert who has an extensive track record and is based locally.  They may chastise the crude appearance of locally developed technology without understanding the constraints it was built under nor the value of the local social capital that resulted.  The presence of such biases during the scoping of a mission and during every engagement between international and local, non-government stakeholders impedes trust-building.  The biases can be countered by acknowledging them and taking support from bridge-building facilitators who can strategize around the strengths, weaknesses, and incentives of the differing international donor, government, and non-government contexts.
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Forebay tank of a community-financed micro hydro project in Shan State Myanmar, functioning since 2005. Credit: D. Vaghela
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A micro hydro, Francis turbine electrifying 150+ households in Shan State, Myanmar, since 2005. Credit: D. Vaghela
TWO-WAY, RESULTS-BASED CAPACITY BUILDING 

Local capacity building is a vital aspect of any development initiative to sustain itself post-implementation.  However, often the approach used by international development partners are not results-based, outcome-oriented, nor linked to implementation.  At times the specific need for knowledge building is not addressed because the international development partner has not taken initiative, effort, and/or lacks skill to understand the local context, and relies only on what its consultants can offer.  Training consultants fly in for some days, constrained on time to build understanding prior to the training activity and conduct follow up.  Participant selection does not prioritize local practitioners; and when it does the targeted actors do not want to attend due to lack of trust and assurance of the training meeting their specific needs.  
Such pitfalls can be addressed with two-way learning between international and local stakeholders, where capacity building includes international actors learning from local practitioners.  In this way local knowledge is valued as much as international knowhow, i.e. local trainers are paid as much as international trainers.  Valuing local expertise is a robust and efficient way to build trust with local stakeholders, which also helps to develop customized, impact-based interventions. Scaled micro hydro contexts embraced two-way learning.  For example, Swiss trainers in Nepal in the early 1990s designed technical capacity building after understanding existing manufacturing skills and facilities, EnDev Indonesia’s management spent weeks in the field to understand the existing situation before iterating their program, and HPNET’s work in Myanmar started with a scoping mission led by local organizations involving foreign partners, and created space for two-way learning with international development organizations.
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Local practitioner for the first time sharing about his 25 years of micro hydro experience to international and government stakeholders, at HPNET's 2014 event in Myanmar, supported by WISIONS. Credit: P. Pawletko
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND?
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As international development partners exit conflict stricken countries, the media’s attention fades, and funding priorities shift, the dire situations on the ground continue to worsen.  The progress of taxpayer-funded, international development interventions is unraveled.  Some donors stay on but must abide by the oppressive regimes’ rules, including not spotlighting the humanitarian crises and not holding the regime responsible.  While addressing post-conflict downstream impact (e.g. refugee crises) is critical, more must be done to integrate political economy analyses and the strengthening of local, non-government entities in development and aid interventions. 
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ETHIOPIA:  REVIVING AND OPTIMIZING HYDRO MINI-GRIDS

12/28/2020

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In addition to Asia Pacific examples that inspire our SEEED initiative, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) through Energising Development (EnDev) Ethiopia is initiating a process to revive micro hydro projects, in order to instill optimization in end use and long-term sustainability using an enterprise-based approach. 

The team leader for the project is HPNET member Bart Jan van Beuzekom, who previously led the formation of EnDeV Nepal’s Micro Hydro Debt Fund, a rare credit line made available to community-based micro hydro.  
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Read on to learn more about EnDev Ethiopia’s efforts to review and optimize hydro mini-grids.

A study developed by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the World Resources Institute, the World Bank and others estimates Ethiopia’s untapped mini hydro potential (< 1MW) to be 267.5 MW.  Tapping this potential can help to address the 67% of Ethiopia’s rural population that is unelectrified.  Towards providing energy access to the 60 million people that remain unelectrified across the country, EnDev Ethiopia has been actively advancing small-scale hydropower through project implementation and capacity building, in partnership with the Ethiopian Ministry of Water and Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE) and the GIZ Green People’s Energy for Africa (GPE) initiative.

EnDev Ethiopia supported the development of five micro hydro projects (MHPs) from 2013 - 2016, with the aim to enhance rural livelihoods through productive end use.  Two of these sites are operating at limited capacity, while three have stopped operating.  Implemented on a cost-sharing basis with local partners to pilot MHP management by cooperatives, EnDev Ethiopia is committed to reviving and optimizing all of the projects. The five MHP sites are located in the regions of SNNPR and Oromia, as shown on the map below.
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MHP Site Locations in SNNPR and Oromia, Ethiopia. Credit: Google Earth.

​The five MHP mini-grids feature the following key data:
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Credit: GIZ.
The initial phase of the effort involved field visits to understand the social, technical, and management issues faced by each of the projects.  The next phase, as detailed in the released ToR, focuses on structured data collection to assess reviving and optimizing the project focusing on the following assessments for each project.
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​Technical assessment.  The condition, functionality, operation records, safety, flow data, and electricity generation, units sold, and costs will be assessed, along with assessment of whether extending the distribution to nearby villages is feasible.

Management assessment.  The details of the MHP management roles and responsibilities; tariff collection; business model strengths and weaknesses; disputes; and the management aspects of the cooperative.

Productive end use assessment. Skillset for enterprise management, productive end use opportunities, regional best practices, catalog of end uses optimal for each cooperative, business plan for increasing load factors and revenue generation, appropriate micro finance institutions, and opportunities for scale up.

Social assessment.  Impact of electricity access on gender aspects, equitable decision making, and social service institutions.
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EnDev Ethiopia’s initiative to rehabilitate and optimize micro hydro projects for economical and technical resilience are commendable and will lead to in-depth best practices for new project implementation and rehabilitating existing mini-grids.  We look forward to following up with an update on the outcomes!
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MADAGASCAR:  MICRO AND MINI HYDRO INITIATIVES OF THE ASSOCIATION DES INGÉNIEURS POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT DES ENERGIES RENOUVELABLES (AIDER)

12/21/2020

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The electrification rate in Madagascar remains very low, averaging 15 percent nationally, 8.1 percent in rural areas and 60.7 percent in urban areas. While biomass, diesel, and fossil fuels dominate the energy mix across the country, there exists a great potential for small-scale hydro systems. Only 1.9 percent of Madagascar’s hydropower potential has been utilized, and yet hydropower generates approximately 68 percent of the electricity in the country.  Its economy depends on tourism and the cultivation of paddy, coffee, vanilla, and cloves, which could be further enhanced through increased energy access.

Small-scale hydropower also presents great potential for ecosystem restoration in Madagascar. Healthy watersheds are critical to sustainable community-based hydropower, as mature forest cover ensures consistent stream-flow, mitigates erosion, and builds resilience against the impacts of climate change.  As such, hydro mini-grids are a nature-based solution that promotes watershed strengthening. Investment in nature-based solutions like small-scale hydro can play a critical role in building climate resilience and safeguarding biodiversity in Madagascar, where more than 90% of original forests have been lost.

One of the leading small-scale hydro implementation organizations in Madagascar is the Association des Ingénieurs pour le Développement des Energies Renouvelables (AIDER).  Read on to learn about AIDER’s efforts to advance small-scale hydro in Madagascar.

Established in 2008, AIDER is an association of about 20 multidisciplinary engineers working in the field of renewable energy in Madagascar. AIDER works on studies, design and implementation of hydroelectric and solar power plants. AIDER works in partnership with the Agency for the Development of Rural Electrification (ADER), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Tany Meva Foundation, the Institute for Energy Management (IME) at the University of Antananarivo, the Higher Institute of Technology of Antananarivo (IST), the Group for Research and Technological Exchange (GRET) and the Albert Schweitzer Ecological Centre (CEAS).
Two 7.5 kW micro hydro systems in Andriantsemboka. Credit: AIDER
Switchboard for one of two 50 kW MHPs in Sarobaratra. Credit: AIDER
Mini hydro in Amboasary – Anjozorobe. Credit: AIDER
Locally-developed micro hydropower

AIDER has built eight MHPs, ranging from 7.5 kW to 100 kW, electrifying a total of about 450 households in rural municipalities of the Analamanga and Atsimo Andrefana regions.  Five of the projects are owned and operated by AIDER.  All of the systems use turbines that have been locally manufactured by AIDER, thereby having generated local employment.  In addition to providing reliable electricity to households, the MHPs power town halls, police stations, clinics, churches, schools, and street lighting. ​
Partnership for feasibility and design studies

Since 2009 AIDER has carried out approximately 30 studies for micro hydropower projects (MHPs), including hydrological studies.   In 2018 AIDER began collaboration with the Swiss Resource Centre and Consultancies for Development (Skat).  On behalf of GIZ’s Renewable Energy Electrification Project (PERER) in Madagascar, Skat partnered with AIDER to conduct the following.  

  • Feasibility of study of the Amabatotoa site, where the options of a 100 kW off-grid project, 2.3 MW grid-connected project, and 6 MW grid-connected reservoir project in the Upper Matsiatra Region 
 
  • Feasibility study of the Ivato off-grid site of 100 kW in the Amoron'i Mania Region 
 
  • Detailed study of the off-grid Sahandaso Mini Hydro Project of 240 kW  in the Atsinanana Region, including developing the MV line plans, single line diagrams, design calculations and cost estimates
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AIDER carried out hydrological analyses, topographical surveys, installation and operation of the gauging stations, installation of pressure probes, and recording tables with iridium antenna for auto data transmission.  It also conducted flow measurements and analysis using the propeller method, conductivity meters, and an acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP).


Topographical survey of cross section. Credit: AIDER
Gauging station at Sahandaso with automatic data transmission. Credit: AIDER
Hydrological station at the Ambatotoa site. Credit: AIDER
Hydrological station at the Ivato site. Credit: AIDER
Flow measurement using the propeller method. Credit: AIDER
Flow measurement with conductivity meter at the Sahandaso site. Credit: AIDER
Mini hydropower for local industry and agri processing

AIDER and SKAT are currently collaborating with CEAS and UNDO to develop a detailed design study for the development of the Andriambe mini hydro project, having a potential of 225 kW and located on the Nanangainana River in Mandialaza. 

The project aim is to provide clean and affordable electricity to three villages, in terms of household needs, critical social infrastructure, and productive end uses, such as carpentry workshops, feed mills, metal workshops and food processing. 

Ginger processing presents a particularly promising opportunity to generate income in the villages. Ginger is currently sold as a raw product to passing traders at a very low price.  Affordable electricity will enable the production of a higher-value product.  
Harvested ginger sold raw. Credit: AIDER
Carpentry workshop. Credit: AIDER
The site’s catchment area is almost completely located within the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. Although part of it is partly deforested for agriculture use, forest conservation will lead to a healthy watershed that is vital  for the sustainability of the MHP. Further, the project will incorporate corresponding awareness-raising activities on appropriate management methods for local communities residing in the catchment area.
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The densely forested catchment area. Credit: AIDER
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MICRO HYDRO UPDATE FROM CAMEROON

8/29/2020

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Rural Solutions RS, founded by Mr. Atud Jonathan Asaah, has been working in the northwest of Cameroon to help increase access to electricity and develop rural economic growth through micro hydro projects.

Despite the high level of insecurity in the northwest of Cameroon due to the civil war that has disrupted major project activities this year, Mr. Asaah shared with us about the latest situation in Bessi Village, where he and the Rural Solutions RS are building a micro hydro intake structure. He also provides recommendations on how to improve energy access in Cameroon.

PictureCredit: Atud Jonathan Asaah
Bessi village is one of the 22 villages that make up the present day Batibo subdivision and is located 45 km from Bamenda, the chief town of the North West region of Cameroon. The geography of the village is hilly with small water resources dotted in almost all the quarters and provide favorable conditions to set up “run-of-the river” type of micro hydro electricity projects for off-grid lighting. This is recommended because it requires basic civil infrastructure.  It should be noted that the parliament deliberated and adopted BILL No. 896/PJL/ in 2011 comprising the Law governing the electricity sector in Cameroon and paved the way for the liberalization of  the electricity sector, since then, there has been a very timid response from private investors especially small scale producers due to poor incentives.

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Credit: Atud Jonathan Asaah
Less than 17% of the Cameroon rural population has access to electricity. For the government to achieve its objective of rural electrification, the production, transmission, distribution and supply of power needs to bring onboard private small scale producers who can produce and sell the energy to the national grid at least at production cost. This will gradually lead to a smart grid system. At the moment, Cameroon is facing an extreme energy shortage and it has put many remote areas into darkness. The present demand for energy has gone far above the production capacity  Like in metropolitan areas, new settlement areas are coming up every day and due to the many bottlenecks to get domestic grid subscription, and some people fall into illegal connections  (“branchements anarchiques”) and falsifying the subscribers’ inventory of the national grid line. Many step down transformers are overloaded giving way to voltage fluctuations.

Cameroon has a unique position within the CEMAC region, an Economic Commission of Central African states, whose principal objective is regional integration for economic growth. Cameroon is also the third country in Africa with the highest hydro potential (after the DRC and Ethiopia) with approximately 23,000 megawatts of exploitable hydro power. At present Cameroon has exploited just approximately 3%. For Cameroon to take an economic advantage of this position, there is a need to strengthen its energy sector to power its industries which inevitably is the locomotive of development.

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AFRICA AND ASIA:  INTER-REGIONAL EXCHANGE

1/19/2020

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HPNET was founded with a focus on S/SE Asia, and over the last few years we have had practitioners from Africa reach out to us and become active members. ​In 2019 we dedicated a work stream to take a closer look at the challenges faced by our members and other local actors in Africa, realizing the issues are similar to those in S/SE Asia.  As 2020 unfolds, we aim to find ways to support and learn from local practitioners in Africa.  ​
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​REGIONAL OVERLAPS:  AFRICA AND S/SE ASIA

In 2019, through interviews with African practitioners and dialogue among S/SE Asian practitioners supporting African regions, we identified common elements between the two contexts.

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Relevance of Community-Scale Hydropower
​As in S/SE Asia, community-scale hydropower can provide affordable and reliable electricity to enhance rural livelihoods, towards meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Several countries in Africa have significant pico, micro, and mini hydro (<1MW) potential yet there has been minimal implementation, while large numbers of communities remain un-electrified.  As in S/SE Asia, international donors in Africa target solar PV interventions, and non-PV solutions are not as popular. There are however small hydro projects (above 1MW and less than 30MW), developed and owned by foreign companies using foreign technology.  Also, as in S/SE Asia, there is a  geopolitical push for large hydropower despite its environmental and social consequences. This focus on large scale energy infrastructure is mobilizing civil society organizations (CSOs) to make the case for micro hydro and other decentralized renewable energy (DRE) solutions. However, most CSOs do not yet have the knowhow to do DRE project implementation.

Committed Local Practitioners
The portion of Africa's DRE private sector that is able to access funding and advance is the foreign-run private sector. In addition, there are passionate and committed local practitioners that are innovating and locally manufacturing micro hydro equipment to bring electricity to communities in need, who are not able to access foreign funds.  This is because, similar to S/SE Asia, most government and international initiatives lack the mandate and expertise to identify, engage, and advance local practitioners so that they can also benefit from international resources.  In S/SE Asia there is significant evidence showing that long-term sustainability of micro hydro projects is greatly dependent on how well ownership, management, and financing are anchored at the local level.

Missed Opportunity:  Building onto Existing Local Technical Capacity
Local actors in Africa are paving forward local fabrication of micro hydro technology.  While in a few contexts local fabricators are supported by international partners, e.g. the work of Energising Development (EnDev) in Ethiopia, most local technical capacities have not been leveraged or further built upon.  Therefore, they remain at a nascent stage of development -- limited to the pace of self-learning and self-financing local technology development. Similarly in S/SE Asia, despite considerable international donor investments in micro hydro technology transfer during the last three to four decades, there is now hardly any international support for developing local capacities in design and manufacturing.  The trending focus in both African and Asian Pacific contexts is on kilowatts installed and households electrified, and less attention to who is enabled to do energy access and how, and what implications that has on community empowerment.
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OPPORTUNITIES FOR AFRICA - ASIA EXCHANGE

With the start of the new year, HPNET seeks partnerships to move forward the following areas identified for South-South,  two-way knowledge exchange between African and S/SE Asia regions.

Evidence-based Advocacy
In partnership with local organizations and practitioners committed to advancing community-scale hydropower, HPNET seeks to build the awareness of decision makers in both contexts on mini-grid technology differentiation and on proven thematic solutions,including:

  • Policy and Regulatory Frameworks.  African contexts such as Nigeria and Tanzania have established advanced policy and regulatory frameworks for mini-grid development, including interconnection to the main grid.  Experience-sharing from these contexts will benefit S/SE Asia countries seeking to do the same. ​
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  • Ownership, Management and Financing Models.  Asian contexts such as Nepal and Myanmar show how different types of ownership, management, and financing models impact the long-term sustainbility and socio-economic impact of projects.  In S/SE Asia the lessons required 30 years of hindsight, however nascent African micro hydro contexts can use the Asian experience to avoid pitfalls and leap frog into appropriate best practices.
 
  • Climate Resilience thru Watershed Strengthening.  Rural communities of African and S/SE Asian regions will be among the worst hit as the climate crisis grows.  The watershed strengthening and reforestation aspects of community-scale hydropower increase the climate resilience of micro hydro projects as well as the communities, reducing the impact floods and drought.

Technical Standards and Local Manufacturing
Utilizing the expertise of local manufacturing coaches and experts, HPNET seeks to build the  capacities of local practitioners in both regions to locally design and manufacture electro-mechanical components of pico, micro, and mini hydropower, including various turbines and electronic load controllers.  Technical standards appropriate for different capacities and the local context will be established using lessons related to standardization from African and S/SE Asian contexts.

Local Social Enterprise Development
In partnership with local implementing organizations, HPNET seeks to facilitate the development of projects that are established as local social enterprise.  HPNET's initiative Social Enterprise for Energy, Ecological and Economic Development (SEEED) supports local practitioners and communities to transition toward financially viable projects, where the micro hydro project is run as a social enterprise that also powers productive end use enterprise.
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WATCH:  WEBINAR ON INTEGRATED ENERGY PLANNING

12/12/2019

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Did you miss our fourth quarterly webinar, ​Mini-Grid Planning: Integrated Energy Planning for Rural Electrification? You can now watch it below!
 This webinar highlighted integrated energy planning initiatives from African and Southeast Asian contexts, including Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malaysian Borneo.

The webinar covered:
  • The basic criteria for a robust integrated energy planning process
  • Examples of country-wide and sub-region programs in Africa and Asia that are advancing integrated energy planning and their hindsight
  • Voices of a diverse set of energy planning practitioners – including a private utility, national government, international development partner, and scientific research institute
  • Tools and processes for integrated energy mapping, modelling, and planning
    Challenges and potential solutions that require further support and strategy.

This webinar was made possible by Wisions and Energypedia UG. 
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JOIN US: DEC. 10 WEBINAR ON INTEGRATED ENERGY PLANNING

12/3/2019

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Join our webinar this month on integrated energy planning! 

MINI-GRID PLANNING: INTEGRATED ENERGY PLANNING FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION
DATE:  TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2019
TIME:  10 AM CET / 2:45 PM KATHMANDU / 5 PM KUALA LUMPUR
REGISTER HERE
The Hydro Empowerment Network seeks to provide a spotlight on energy planning practitioners that are advancing integrated energy planning for rural electrification. This webinar – the 4th in our series – will feature integrated energy planning initiatives from African contexts and S/SE Asian contexts, including Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malaysian​ Borneo.

The webinar will include:

  • The basic criteria for a robust integrated energy planning process
  • Examples of country-wide and sub-region programs in Africa and Asia that are advancing integrated energy planning and their hindsight
  • Voices of a diverse set of energy planning practitioners – including a private utility, national government, international development partner, and scientific research institute
  • Tools and processes for integrated energy mapping, modelling, and planning
  • Challenges and potential solutions that require further support and strategy.

Presentations will be followed by a Q/A session open to all participants.   

​Learn more about our 2019 Mini-Grid Webinar Series, hosted by WISIONS and energypedia here!

WEBINAR BACKGROUND

Although mini-grids are often boxed as a “pre-electrification” intervention, there is increasing evidence showing that mini-grids can achieve grid parity.  Further, in countries that allow mini-grids to feed in electricity to the central grid, mini-grids have actually made the central grid more reliable!


Hydro mini-grids especially meet these scenarios, providing 24-hour reliable electricity, typically at lower LCOE and costs per kW than most other types of mini-grids, and leading to lower tariffs for rural consumers. Thereof, hydro mini-grids are generally financially viable for motorized loads (e.g. agri processing productive end use) and for feeding into the central grid.

Despite their obvious advantages, in most developing contexts decentralized renewable energy mini-grids continue to be framed as “pre-electrification” solutions at par with solar home lighting, or “not as important as the central grid.”  Often mini-grid development is housed in a separate and less influential ministry, while the central grid authorities have ultimate power and financial resources. Such a fragmented approach leads to:
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  • Redundant electrification interventions, and therefore wasteful use of funding resources
  • Confusion on timing of arrival of the central grid, which severely hampers the scale-up of mini-grids
  • Abandoned mini-grids and loss of investment upon the arrival of a reliable central grid
  • Business-as-usual of an intermittently reliable central grid, typically powered by fossil fuels or large hydro, in today’s age of climate crisis.

However, the reality is that all solutions for energy access are equally important to meet the growing energy needs of rural communities.

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SPEAKERS
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​DR. CATHERINA CADER
RESEARCH UNIT OFF-GRID SYSTEMS
REINER LEMOINE INSTITUTE, GERMANY 

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Dr. Catherina Cader is an expert in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and rural electrification planning. She has been working at Reiner Lemoine Institute since 2012 and is part of the Research Unit Off-Grid Systems. She is particularly interested in rural electrification planning in countries of the Global South with consideration of renewable energy. Catherina holds a PhD in Geography from Justus Liebig University Giessen. For her dissertation she conducted research on rural electrification planning in Nigeria. Her PhD project was supported by a scholarship from the Reiner Lemoine-Foundation. She also holds a Master of Science in Geography from Philipps University Marburg and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Management from Justus Liebig University Gießen. Through field visits and self-developed trainings on the use of GIS for rural electrification planning, Catherina has great expertise on the political, geographical, economic, and technical challenges of local energy supply situations. By developing and applying GIS-based methods, she brings the spatial component into RLI research using open source software. Catherina has experience as a project manager in several projects – her work has taken her to various places including Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Nepal, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
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CHRISTOPHER WESLEY AJAN
SARAWAK ALTERNATIVE RURAL ELECTRIFICATION SCHEME (SARES) 
SARAWAK ENERGY, MALAYSIA


Mr. Christopher Wesley Ajan joined in 2012 Sarawak Energy, the utility responsible for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity for the state of Sarawak in Malaysia.  He currently serves as Manager in the Rural Electrification Department with focus on community based stand-alone solar power station.  He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia and is a certified On-Grid and Off-Grid Photovoltaic Designer (SEDA-Malaysia). He presently leads the planning and implementation of the Sarawak Alternative Rural Electrification Scheme (SARES), a Sarawak State Government initiative to provide basic electricity supply to remote villages in Sarawak. To date, SARES has successfully completed 222 villages with total of 5,320 households. Awards received by SARES include: ASEAN Energy Awards 2019 – Off-grid Power Category; PowerGen Asia 2019 – Solar Power Project of the year; Alliance of Rural Electrification (ARE) Award 2018 – Winner RE project by Government in Africa, Asia and Latin America category.
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DR. VICTOR OSU
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION FUND
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION AGENCY, NIGERIA


Dr. Osu is presently the Senior Adviser (SA) to the Executive Director (Rural Electrification Funds in the Rural Electrification Agency; towards enabling and fostering investments in Rural Electrification Planning and Development, linking private developers with access to finance from the government and private investors. He is  responsible towards the mobilization and operationalization of the Rural Electrification Fund (REF), with an objective of providing, promoting and supporting access to reliable electric power supply for rural economic development via the deployment of off-grid technologies (Mini-grids and SHS) within the context of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) delivery model. Victor is currently coordinating the implementation of over 10 mini-grids and 18,000 solar home systems installation for rural communities across the country with facility support from the rural electrification grant. He is currently administering the Mini-Grid Acceleration Scheme (MAS) and Interconnected-Mini-Grid Acceleration Scheme (I-MAS) programs, with 9.3 million Euros, funded by the European Union and the German government through Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeil (GIZ) to provide energy access to 32,000 Nigerians. A key focus within the project is the facilitation of productive use of energy through backward integration and Key Maker Model to spur rural economic development. He received a B.Sc. in Computer Economics from the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, an M.Sc. in Energy Management from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen in Scotland and his Ph.D. in Sustainability Transition and Governance also from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.​

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MODERATOR

RANISHA BASNET has more than 5 years of experience in knowledge management in the off-grid sector. She has worked with many national and international organizations to develop different knowledge products (webinars, database and knowledge portals) and also designed campaigns to raise awareness about the trending off-grid energy topics. Currently, she is writing her master thesis on “ Gender and Renewable Energy Mini Grids” and is attending the master program, Renewable Energy Engineering and Management at the University of Freiburg, Germany.​

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THEMATIC DISCUSSANT
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DIPTI VAGHELA
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NETWORK FACILITATOR AND MANAGER 
HYDRO EMPOWERMENT NETWORK (HPNET) 

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Dipti Vaghela is the co-founder and manager of the Hydro Empowerment Network (HPNET), a south-south knowledge exchange platform that advances policy, technology, and socio-environmental aspects of small-scale hydropower across ten countries since established in 2013. Dipti brings sixteen years of experience in developing decentralized renewable energy solutions for rural electrification in S/SE Asia, bridging communities, local entrepreneurs, field-based NGOs, policy makers, and funding agencies. In 2016 she was awarded a Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship, placed at the Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar (REAM). Based in Myanmar, she supports and learns from Myanmar’s indigenous micro/mini hydropower, biomass energy, PV-irrigation practitioners. Dipti holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Science in Environmental Studies from San Jose State University.
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HYDRO MINI-GRIDS:  A CATALYST FOR ACCELERATING RURAL ELECTRIFICATION IN CAMEROON

10/8/2019

5 Comments

 
We are glad to have HPNET Member Mr. Atud Jonathan Asaah from Cameroon, as a guest blogger to share his views on the potential and impact of hydro mini-grids in his country.

Africa harbors one of the world’s best renewable energy resources which can be used to harness electricity. Unfortunately, in 2012 the International Energy Agency announced that about 590 million people in Africa live without access to electricity. Meanwhile, a similar report in the same year quoted that there were 1.5 billion people around the world that don’t have access to electricity.

From the two reports cited above, it can be seen that Africa alone had approximately 40% of those living in darkness in the world. Even though this report is 7 years old, there may be little change as regards the proportion of Africans living in the dark today because in most of these African countries, the grid extension program has been very slow. ​
Cameroon

In Cameroon for instance, less than 17% of the rural population has access to electricity (USAID, 2019) despite the fact that it has the second largest hydropower potential in Africa. There is persistent power outages throughout the country especially in the dry seasons when water levels are low.  About 90% of population living in these non electrified rural areas use biomass (firewood) for cooking, heating and lighting meanwhile others use kerosene lamps. 

The total energy production of Cameroon in 2016 stood at 8108 GWh with  47% coming from hydro electricity alone. Other sources include thermal and fossil fuels.
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This low rate of rural electrification (17%)is due to a series of factors:
  • Cameroon has a population of above 24 million people and 45% of these people live in rural areas. These rural areas are organized in small villages mostly located in geographically difficult topography that makes it very expensive for grid extension in terms of distribution infrastructures. In most cases, the terminus of the grid line maybe too far from the village.
  • The initial demand in most of these villages is usually very small and the national grid company may find it not cost effective.

On the other hand, these villages are naturally endowed with unlimited renewable energy resources on the spot which include abundant rivers, streams, wind and the sun that could constitute reliable sources of electricity for these remote communities. Law N ° 2011/022 of 14 December 2011 of Cameroon governing the electricity sector in its Article 29 provides for conditions to own private power production units but there is still a very timid entry of private investors in the energy sector, which therefore calls for more awareness from government to lure these partners into synergy to meet up with the demand.
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Meeting community leaders on a potential micro hydro site in Bessi village, NW Cameroon. Credit: A. Asaah
The demand for electricity in Cameroon is on a severe rise to power homes and the industries and is expected to continue growing rapidly. To greatly alleviate this energy deficit, these villages needs to be assisted to develop their local energy production units while the national grid is decongested to cover mostly metropolitan/industrial areas. The government is taking steps to increase its energy market via the creation of the Rural Electrification Board and in the long term rural electrification master plan, energy production is expected to step up via the development of diesel and hydro mini-grids. ​
Cameroon is found within CEMAC-The Economic community of Central African states and the most populated country and acting as the economic hub of this block. Its energy sector remains a major prerequisite to meet up its economic giant position within this economic block which is considered a regional integration used as a tool for economic growth. The government cannot achieve this energy objective alone via its current  grid extension program.

WAY FORWARD

Most of the villages of these rural areas have been naturally endowed with renewable energy resources like the sun, wind and small streams which can be used to harness their energy on the spot.  The more stakeholders fold their arms and see this poor population continue to live in the dark, the more villagers rely heavily on biomass -- cutting down trees in the forest to collect wood and produce charcoal for cooking and heating, kerosene lamps used to provide lighting, petrol and diesel will be used to power standby generators.

We cannot sit and watch these practices when at the same time we intend to mitigate the green gas effect which is causing global warming (climate change mitigation). Renewable energy using indigenous resources like those listed above can play a catalyst role in this energy revolution. Reference is made  here to small-scale hydroelectricity systems, solar systems, and wind power. This will lead to bringing the sources of energy back to the community level- a participatory approach to energy generation which gives local communities greater autonomy over the infrastructure.

Many of the people who lack access to electricity in Cameroon live in these villages with sufficient sunshine, abundant streams and rivers that flow throughout the year and in most cases have hills that provide the necessary gravity to rotate a micro hydro turbine.

Creation of community micro hydro power stations

These are micro power stations that have maximum capacity of up to 100 kW and are easily managed by the community. Those communities, which are isolated or found far off the national grid, can be powered by these independent power units which involve harnessing small water sources usually in hills that are flowing under the natural influence of gravity with minimum civil construction infrastructure. The water is tunneled through a pipeline (penstock) to rotate a turbine connected to a generator to produce electricity. The penstock builds up pressure from the water that has traveled downwards from a hill. The electricity is then sent to the village community for household consumption or sold to the national grid. The construction of a community micro hydro project requires community mobilization especially at the civil phase. The local community needs to be well aware on the importance of the scheme​.
Community battery charging units

These are small hydro power plants of few watts up to 5 kW which can be used to charge DC batteries at the community level. These batteries are later used with inverters to obtain AC current which is used to power domestic appliances.
Community-based micro hydro repair workshops

The main difficulty encountered in most cases in running micro hydro systems is the lack of a ready supply of affordable turbine parts and the lack of domestic manufacturing capacity.  The presence of local technical workshops that can fabricate simple components needed to run the system is vital for the sustainability of the project. Most of the remote micro hydro systems in Africa have been closed down because of lack of spare parts for its components.  Lack of local fabrication workshops poses a great challenge for rural electrification.​
​Africa is losing more forest than any continent and making it more vulnerable to climate change. This seems to be the right moment for policy makers to intervene via promotion of these community-base micro hydro schemes -- which will not only protect our forests but equally improve on the livelihood of these rural population.​

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By HPNET Member Atud Jonathan Asaah

Atud Jonathan Asaah is a multi talented Cameroonian who holds a Bachelor of science degree in accounting and a master of business administration in Accounting and finance from the University of Buea in Cameroon. He has eleven years experience as an accountant in a banking environment. He has a lot of passion for engineering and has successfully carried out a series of experiments in the field of engineering, especially electronics and electrical engineering, the most successful being the construction of a 15 kW micro hydro system to power his village.

Mr. Assah is the founder of RURAL SOLUTIONS, a social group dedicated to using renewable energy to light rural communities. His role as a social media renewable energy activist has earned him recognition from similar groups in other countries currently working in synergy to fight global greenhouse gas emissions.

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