Meghalaya is one of India’s eight states making up the country's rich bio- and ethnically-diverse northeastern region. Since 2013 HPNET members have worked to advance community-scale hydro in Meghalaya for last-mile energy access:
Below Mr. Ramasubramanian Vaidhyanathan (“Rams”), who has long been committed to the sub-region, provides a brief and exciting update on the most recent technical developments brought forth by a partnership between HPNET members VillageRES and Pt entec Indonesia.
- In 2013, International Rivers and the Nagaland Empowerment of People thru EnergyDevelopment (NEPeD) hosted a micro hydro exchange event focusing on NE India, which connected HPNET to the Meghalaya Basin Development Agency (MBDA).
- In 2015, HPNET enabled India practitioners to attend HPNET’s Members Gathering held in Indonesia at the Hydropower Competence Center (HYCOM), connecting them to Pt entec Indonesia.
- In 2016, MBDA and HPNET held a regional exchange in Meghalaya, with VillageRES and PT entec Indonesia as co-facilitators.
- In mid-2019, International Rivers and partners, including HPNET, hosted a tri-country dialogue in Meghalaya, with CSOs and local practitioners from Nepal, Myanmar, and India.
- In late 2019, HPNET supported a reconnaissance field visit to understand field-based challenges to pico hydro scale up in NE India.
- In 2021, HPNET and International Rivers held a three-part virtual exchange focusing on Ganges, Brahmaputra, Meghna, and Salween (GBMS) Rivers, providing regional inspiration from across S/SE Asia and customized capacity building.
- The 2021 event included a special keynote by Mr. Augustus Suting, Special Officer at MBDA.
Below Mr. Ramasubramanian Vaidhyanathan (“Rams”), who has long been committed to the sub-region, provides a brief and exciting update on the most recent technical developments brought forth by a partnership between HPNET members VillageRES and Pt entec Indonesia.
To date an estimated 1000 villages remain unelectrified in the northeastern state of Meghalaya in India, out of approximately 6000 villages. In 2022, MBDA identified about 200+ micro hydro sites for implementation located throughout the state in communities of the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo ethnic tribes. The identified potential for most of the sites was 3 kW. A few had a much higher potential but for this tender, projects were limited to 5 kW.
VillageRES (Village Renewable Energy Systems India Private limited) participated in the tender in partnership with EMSYS Electronics Private limited, a solar energy company based in Bangalore. The consortium was awarded 45 sites located throughout Meghalaya.
VillageRES entered into a manufacturing license agreement with PT entec Indonesia to manufacture their new cross flow turbine design with 150mm diameter runners. The turbine is called CFT 150/21.
The fabrication began in July 2022. Pt entec Director, Mr. Gerhard Fischer, and the team helped us a lot with fabricating the first few pieces – updating drawings, dimensions, a few design corrections, etc. We fabricated the units in the south Indian industrial hub of Coimbatore, in the state of Tamil Nadu.
We are very pleased with the results: the turbines have come out very well made and were cost effective to fabricate. We also tested a few of the turbines at a site in Meghalaya and the performance was fantastic. We will be assessing the performance of this model more thoroughly once all the units are installed.
VillageRES (Village Renewable Energy Systems India Private limited) participated in the tender in partnership with EMSYS Electronics Private limited, a solar energy company based in Bangalore. The consortium was awarded 45 sites located throughout Meghalaya.
VillageRES entered into a manufacturing license agreement with PT entec Indonesia to manufacture their new cross flow turbine design with 150mm diameter runners. The turbine is called CFT 150/21.
The fabrication began in July 2022. Pt entec Director, Mr. Gerhard Fischer, and the team helped us a lot with fabricating the first few pieces – updating drawings, dimensions, a few design corrections, etc. We fabricated the units in the south Indian industrial hub of Coimbatore, in the state of Tamil Nadu.
We are very pleased with the results: the turbines have come out very well made and were cost effective to fabricate. We also tested a few of the turbines at a site in Meghalaya and the performance was fantastic. We will be assessing the performance of this model more thoroughly once all the units are installed.
During the installation process, we found that many of the sites were situated right next to a waterfall and the penstock was installed at nearly a 90 degree angle without any proper support. While it was logical and easier to select sites that had an obvious sufficient head, other aspects, such as the design of the intake structure, penstock route, and penstock support appeared to have been completely overlooked. We realised that the on-site assessment methodology that we utilize in training has to be much more detailed and maybe periodically conducted to continue to build the capacity of the sector’s local personnel. Unless this is carried out, the project sites are prone to failure within a year or two of the installation.
This guest blog post was written by Mr. Ramasubramanian Vaidhyanathan (“Rams”), Director of VillageRES and HPNET Board of Representative Member for India.
He can be reached at [email protected].
He can be reached at [email protected].
