Since 1993, Yamog Renewable Energy Development Group, Inc. has been working with rural, indigenous populations to improve socio-economic and environmental well-being in Mindanao, Philippines. Since its inception, Yamog has championed a holistic approach to rural electrification and development, leveraging co-benefits of clean energy solutions to catalyze sustainable positive change in marginalized communities. 
 
Currently, although operations have been significantly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Yamog has several promising, ongoing initiatives underway. Two significant projects were initiated in 2020, and the Yamog team is hopeful that progress on these initiatives will pick up  later this year. 

Sustainable Energy and Safe Drinking Water in Davao Occidental

One of Yamog’s main ongoing projects centres around the promotion of a locally-operated electricity and water supply system in Sitio Danao, Barangay Pangaleon Municipality of Malita Province of Davao Occidental-Mindana, Philippines. Funded by Misereor-KZE Germany, this project will establish a 26 kW capacity micro hydro system in Sitio Danao. 

The Yamog team is grateful for the contributions of HPNET Board Member Gerhard Fisher and company from Pt Entec Indonesia, who fabricated the turbine and electro-mechancial equipment for this project. Following up on a collaboration facilitated by HPNET in 2018, and knowledge exchange activities in 2019, Pt Entec and Yamog continue to collaborate to advance high quality micro hydro equipment in community based projects in Mindanao. 

Through this project, Yamog aims to improve the quality of life of the Tagakaulo tribal community, via a participatory approach to community development. Substantive community involvement is prioritized, in order to harness local social capital and build the community’s capacity to manage and sustain the project. This collaborative, participatory approach is very much in line with the local culture, reflecting the spirit of “bayanihan” (communal activities). 

Community collaboration has been central, not only in the establishment of the MHP, but also in the promotion of watershed protection and restoration in the Tagakaulo’s ancestral land. The community association, watershed committee and volunteers have collectively carried out resource mapping and planning to mitigate and prevent further environmental destruction and strengthen the watershed ecosystem. They aim to conserve 390 hectares of the watershed, plant 5,000 fruit-bearing and native trees and establish a community-managed nursery, mandating that each member of the community association plant 5 trees every year. To date, they have successfully transplanted around 30% of their total target number of trees. 

Yamog, furthermore, aims to promote gender equity through the project, and women have played an important role in activities thus far. One of the project’s core activities focuses on developing sustainable livelihoods for women, to respond to the gendered impacts of energy poverty and limited economic opportunities, and to leverage the valuable role that women play within community development. The community association’s general assembly also voted for a woman to be their chairperson, acknowledging her strong leadership capabilities. 

The project team has not yet been able to install the electro-mechanical equipment for the MHP, as their engineers aren’t able to travel to the beneficiary community due to COVID-related restrictions. However, Yamog hopes to complete installation by September or October 2020, so that the community will have electricity access before Christmastime.

Last month, practitioners from Philippines and Malaysia gathered for a training session on Pelton micro hydro turbine fabrication. The session was the second part of a two-part training organized by HPNET and Sibol Ng Agham At Teknolohiya (SIBAT), to strengthen local capacities in fabrication and manufacturing.

The training responded to the knowledge exchange needs of HPNET Members in the Philippines and Malaysia who require skills to design and build Pelton micro hydro turbines.

Following an online training in November, the in-person training ran from December 2 - 7 and was held at SIBAT's Center for Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technology (CREATech) in Capas, Tarlac, Philippines. The overall aim was for participants to acquire knowledge of the design, manufacturing and testing of Pelton turbines, including fabrication of the Pelton runner assembly.
Participants benefited from an opportunity for hands-on learning, in addition to technical and theoretical presentations. 

Within Pelton Turbine Design, sub-topics covered included:

• Single and multi jet turbines;
• Vertical and horizontal axis turbines;
• Direct and belt drive systems;
• Net head calculations and shaft calculations;
• Pelton runner sizing;
• Bearing and belt selection;
• Other components.

The resource person for this training was HPNET Member Mr. Ajith Kumara from Simple Engineering, a senior micro and mini hydropower specialist based in Sri Lanka. Mr. Kumara has extensive experience training practitioners in design and fabrication aspects of various electro-mechanical components of small-scale hydropower.

This training was made possible by SIBAT, WISIONS and Simple Engineering.

HPNET members in Indonesia and the Philippines are joining forces to provide high quality micro hydro equipment to community-based projects in Mindanao.

The ASEAN Centre for Hydropower Competance (HYCOM) and Pt Entec Indonesia, both global experts for micro hydro technology transfer, are supporting the Yamog Renewable Energy Development Group, Inc., the pioneering NGO committed for nearly three decades to providing electricity to marginalized communities in Mindanao, to explore establishing local manufacturing of cross-flow turbines.  

After multiple online exchanges, in June 2019 HPNET Board members Gerhard Fischer and Ardi Nugraha visited Yamog in Davao City to gauge the local team's capacity for local manufacturing.  Then in October 2019, Yamog's technical leads visit Pt Entec and HYCOM in Bandung, Indonesia to better understand quality standards practiced in Indonesia.  The collaboration is gradually moving toward the goal of locally manufactured cross-flow turbines in Mindanao.

HPNET facilitated the start of collaboration between PT Entec and Yamog in 2018 and the network has benefited immensely from the ongoing contributions of both organizations. It is great to see continuous knowledge exchange (often self-initiated, as in this case) between these long-standing HPNET Members.

This week, the SIBAT and CREATech team, from Luzon, Philippines, took the initiative to complement their 25 years of micro hydro development in the northern Philippines with a learning visit to Tonibung and CREATE’s work in Sabah, Borneo Malaysia.  Tonibung has been the pioneer of community-based micro hydro systems in Malaysia for 25+ years, focusing on indigenous communities and social enterprise.  Tonibung closely collaborates with Green Empowerment.  HPNET's collective knowledge has been greatly enriched by the active membership of all five organizations.

The SIBAT team took time to understand Tonibung’s local manufacturing developments and their approach to linking MHPs to social enterprise for scaling productive end use.

The team visited Longkogungan village and Kalanggaan village, along with Tonibung staff members Bill Baxter and Willery Larry, and Green Empowerment staff member Dan Frydman.

Here is what SIBAT engineer Ms. Benazir Bacala has to say about the recent visit:

“Visiting the sites of Tonibung made me appreciate more the work of NGOs. It was an adventure that we could never forget, risky hiking,  lots of crossing rivers...Very inspiring how Tonibung and its staff were also able to reach those villages in remote areas to provide sustainable energy to the communities and their efforts and dedication to help the people.

We learned a lot about their MHP with Pelton turbines, both direct couple and belt-driven systems, that were locally manufactured at CREATE.”

For more journeys of women micro hydro practitioners in our Hidden No More  series, please sign up below to receive our newsletter!  ​

To commemorate International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples this quarter, marked annually on August 9 by the United Nations, we are introducing Earth Voices to spotlight indigenous micro hydropower (MH) communities across the region who are sustainably managing communal natural resources and successfully empowering themselves through energy access. 

​Indigenous communities of South and Southeast Asia are highly diverse, with unique traditions, languages, religious/spiritual beliefs and social structures. One commonality is the link between environmental conservation and indigenous heritage. Indigenous communities play a vital role in safeguarding the region’s rich biodiversity and forest ecosystems. They are often deeply reliant on ecosystem services, and carry an intricate understanding of local ecological relationships.

Written by Lara Powell, HPNET Communications Coordinator

HPNET and WISIONS hosted a Deep Dive Workshop at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) 2019, entitled Hydro Mini-Grids in the Asia-Pacific: Scaling Inclusive
Enterprise-Based Approaches.  Special thanks to the ACEF team, our speakers, and WISIONS for making the rich dialogue possible!

The agenda and speaker bios can be found here.  Watch the videos below!  Or listen to the audio here.

Part 1 - Examples and Opportunities for Enterprise-based Hydro Mini-Grids
Moderator:  Divyam Nagpal
Panelists:  Bir Bahadur Ghale, Hydro Concern Ltd., Nepal; Satish Gautam, UNDP Renewable Energy for Rural Livelihoods, Nepal; Sandra Winarsa, Hivos Southeast Asia; Meherban Khan, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) Pakistan, and Dipti Vaghela, Hydro Empowerment Network

In partnership with the WISIONS of Sustainability Initiative and Energypedia, we are conducting a 4-part, quarterly webinar series on hydro mini-grids -- starting this month.   Join us!  Details below.

Renewable energy mini-grids are a cost-effective and reliable solution for energy access. Within the technologies available for mini-grids, micro/mini hydropower (MHP) has added advantages. It's techno-economic characteristics, such lower levelized cost of electricity, per kilowatt cost, and no need for battery storage, make it economically viable for grid interconnection and productive end use applications.

​Because MHP hardware can be manufactured locally and maintained by local actors, MHP development imparts local skills and jobs, which can evolve into local MHP enterprises. In addition, MHP strengthens catchment area and watershed protection, in turn increasing the climate resilience of vulnerable communities in hilly regions.

The number of hydro mini-grids in rural areas of Asia, Africa, and Latin America far exceed other types of mini-grids. As a proven technology with an extensive track record, micro and mini hydropower is the focus in this mini-grid webinar series. The objective of the series is to facilitate exchange among diverse actors advancing small-scale hydro, and promote approaches that lead to long-term success and optimal local benefits. Each of the four webinars will respectively provide insight on MHP reliability, sustainability, financing, and planning for scalability.

WEBINAR 1, MARCH 28, 2019
MINI-GRID RELIABILITY:  THE ROLE OF TRAINING CENTERS FOR MICRO/MINI HYDROPOWER
Watch here:​

The 10 poorest provinces of the Philippines are located on the island of Mindanao.  As with other marginalized places in our world -- where rural, indigenous populations face social exclusion, frustration, and hopelessness in the face of extractive and inequitable economic and political systems -- portions of the island are controlled by separatist movements, with innocent indigenous communities caught in the crossfire between the government and the rebels.  The situation exacerbates efforts to bring infrastructure for basic needs (e.g. potable water and electricity) and magnifies the innate challenges of rural development work in developing contexts.

In March 1993, a small, young, and local group of alternative development professionals came together with the mission to improve the socio-cultural, economic, and environmental well-being in rural Mindanao, by promoting the sustainable utilization and management of appropriate renewable energy sources and other natural resources.  Versed in technical, ecological, and social aspects of sustainable rural development, the group was called Yamog, translating as dew drops in the Cebuano language. 

Distinct from the conventional community development approaches at the time, the pioneers of the Yamog Renewable Energy Development Group, Inc., pursued a path that was anchored on renewable energy as a springboard towards positive, meaningful and enduring change at the grassroots level, to end decades of deprivation.  It pioneered utilizing renewable energy, not only to lessen the dependence of poor communities on fossil fuels, but also to offer it as a vehicle for marginalized communities to become sustainable.

When Yamog was established 20-years ago, nearly half of Mindanao was un-electrified.  Even now Mindinao's largest city faces daily blackouts lasting 12 hours.  Yet, the nearly 2500 households that have electrified their villages with Yamog's help do not have to rely on the central grid and can access 24/7 electricity.  Yamog continues to facilitate other communities in rural Mindanao and Visayas in generating their own electricity from micro hydro or solar power.​

The effectiveness of Yamog's work is rooted its integrated approach to community-based micro hydropower.  In each project, Yamog's long-experienced staff of 7 are committed to instilling the environmental, institutional, social, and technical aspects that are critical to the project's life.

Involvement of local government

A key aspect to Yamog's work is facilitating communities to generate support from the leaders of their barangay (the most local administrative unit) for watershed strengthening and micro hydropower implementation.  Although challenging, this process has resulted in community hydropower units that have greater vested stake from the local government, and a paved path for the community to reach out to local officials regarding other village development needs. Support from local government can also help establish productive use for community income generation from micro hydropower, e.g. financing of agro processing units such oil mills and rice hullers.​

With a small team, instead of quantity of projects Yamog's work has focused on process and quality to ensure long-term sustainability.  Every year the team typically commits to 1-2 projects and implements them with utmost care, focusing on the elements explained above. 

While larger organizations, with greater number of staff and funding, can easily implement many projects in parallel, they can be prone to frequent staff turnover and prioritizing targets over processes.  In some cases this has led to micro hydropower units that are not long-sustained and soon need rehabilitation.  In this context, HPNET takes inspiration from Yamog's steady and process-focused momentum to establish community micro hydropower. 
​
To give you a glimpse of the Yamog's work in action, below is a brief case study of Lubo village's micro hydropower project.
​

Case Study:  Sustainability of Lubo Micro Hydro Project -- Two Years Later 
​
The residents of Sitio Lubo continue to enjoy the benefits of having a 35-kilowatt micro-hydropower system. Since the renewable energy project was handed-over by Yamog to the Lubo Renewable Energy Community Association (LURECDA) in June 2013, the lives of the people in this isolated and marginalized community have steadily changed for the better.
 
Situated deep in the highlands of Barangay Ned, Lake Sebu in the province of South Cotabato, Sitio Lubo is an off-grid community inhabited by mostly Christian peasant settlers. It is about 65 kilometers from Koronadal City, South Cotabato.  It is populated by 150 households who, for many decades, have been resigned to their dismal fate of being deprived of opportunities that would improve their socio-economic situation. No one among them could have imagined that their vast water resource would someday lift them up from their collective sense of hopelessness and helplessness.

In the realm of integrated approaches to community-based micro hydro, we take inspiration from SIBAT, a country-wide Filipino network and people's organization advancing community-based renewable energy applications, sustainable agriculture techniques, and water access solutions.

Organization Evolution
​
SIBAT's Filipino name, Sibol Ng Agham At Teknolohiya, translates as a wellspring of science and technology.   In 1984, several non-government organizations, including science and technology leaders  of the country, synergized to help alleviate the struggles of rural communities with the use of appropriate technology   The endeavor established SIBAT as a network to coordinate capacity building for organizations that develop technology for rural areas.  Over the next decade SIBAT led the country's movement for sustainable agriculture, in empowering communities to return to organic farming with improved techniques.  In 1994, SIBAT began capacity building work on rural energy and water solutions.  

Challenges

With 30 years of commitment to rural communities, SIBAT's work faces the following challenges and opportunities:

Practice-to-policy

In the late 90’s and onward, SIBAT joined efforts for policy development on sustainable  agriculture.  It participated in the crafting of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Organic Agriculture Law which took effect in 2012. While the law is in place, it lacks mechanisms to strengthen the small-scale, organic farmer.  SIBAT faces a similar uphill in reforming the country's renewable energy law, so that small and community-based power producers are part of the national strategy. To scale community-based energy projects, SIBAT seeks to change the current Renewable Energy policy. Towards this goal, it has taken the lead in facilitating partnerships and exchange events among practice, policy, advocacy, and academic stakeholders.