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WATCH: STREAMSIDE CHATS - EDITION 1, RECOVERY & RESILIENCE

6/30/2020

Introducing: StreamSide Chats

We’re excited to announce the launch of a new video podcast series: StreamSide Chats! Through this platform we’ll chat with experienced practitioners about the ins and outs of small-scale hydropower and its wide-reaching implications for community empowerment. Join us, as we discuss technology, policy, environment, social impact and other multifaceted aspects of energy access and community-scale hydropower. StreamSide Chats brings together grassroots innovators and international experts, providing firsthand insights from the field, framed within broader, multi-country and multi-thematic analysis.

Edition 1: “Recovery and Resilience” - PART 1

Our first StreamSide Chat kicks off the series with a timely discussion of the centrality of energy access to an inclusive COVID-19 recovery, and the role of micro/mini hydropower in building back more resilient systems. HPNET manager, Dipti Vaghela, chats with decentralized renewable energy specialist, Divyam Nagpal, who shares his thoughts on shaping long-term recovery and resilience through the lens of energy access. The Chat highlights the need to rethink the way we measure impact -- to prioritize long-term objectives and support local actors.

Edition 1: “Recovery and Resilience” - PART 2

In Part 2, Director of Clean Energy at Winrock International, Bikash Pandey, joins the discussion, bringing three decades of experience in policy review, program design and implementation across all decentralized renewable energy (DRE) technologies. We chat about the missed opportunity of micro/mini hydropower as the mini-grid underdog, and best practices for supporting resilient, high social impact solutions providing lessons for the rural economic recovery needed ahead.

Join the discussion!

How do you think COVID-19 recovery and resilience can be shaped from the lens of energy access?
What barriers prevent us from shifting from kilowatts to social impact?

Over the next few days, we’ll be posting these questions and more, in our post-Chat social media forum. Share your insights on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Twitter - @HPNEThydro
Facebook - @hydroempowerment
LinkedIn - Hydro Empowerment Network (HPNET)

In case you missed it

Earlier this year we released a new video, providing a glimpse of how local micro/mini hydro practitioners collaborate with off-grid communities to advance sustainable development.

Check it out, to better understand small-scale hydro, “the underdog” of decentralized renewables, and its proven long-term socioeconomic benefits.

WATCH: Who Are We: The Hydro Empowerment Network (HPNET)

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SIBAT MICRO HYDRO UPGRADE IN DULAO, ABRA, PHILIPPINES

6/25/2020

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SIBAT is a Filipino network and people’s organization advancing community-based renewable energy applications, sustainable agriculture techniques, and water access solutions. We continue to be impressed by SIBAT’s highly integrated, community-based approach to clean energy access, which provides valuable lessons for the sector when it comes to achieving sustainability and socioeconomic impact.

Barangay Dulao Micro Hydro Project

SIBAT’s programs have been severely hindered by movement restrictions and other challenges imposed by the COVID-19 crisis, as has been the case for the vast majority of HPNET’s partner organizations and members. However, with many promising initiatives in the works, the SIBAT team hopes to resume regular operations before long, to commence new activities and resume various ongoing projects.

A significant ongoing initiative is a project led by SIBAT in cooperation with Misereor, to upgrade the micro hydro system of Barangay Dulao, Malibcong Abra. The remote, indigenous community of Barangay Dulao is a 6 hour drive from the nearest town of Bangued, and predominantly consists of rice farmers. Installed in 1995, the Barangay Dulao micro hydro project (MHP) was the first community-based renewable energy system in the province. Construction of the initial system was led by the late SIBAT consultant, Chris Alfonzo, with support from De La Salle University. Running on a 10kW crossflow turbine, the MHP provides 100% coverage in the Barangay, providing electricity to 67 households, a school, a church and a hydro-powered rice mill.

A Community-Based Approach

The Barangay Dulao MHP was implemented according to SIBAT’s participatory approach, with substantive community involvement. The local People’s Organization of Barangay Dulao owns, manages and sustains the system, self-organizing to harness the wide-reaching benefits of the MHP. In addition to powering household lighting, the micro hydro system powers food and crop processing, supporting household needs and expanding livelihood opportunities.

This video from SIBAT offers a glimpse of the community-based approach implemented in the Barangay Dulao system, which follows the approach of SIBAT’s broader Community-based Renewable Energy System (CBRES) program:

25 Years of Community-Based MHP in Abra

As the pioneer of micro hydro projects (MHPs) in Abra, the Barangay Dulao system served as a model which was later replicated in more than 10 barangays and sitios across the province. The MHP thus initiated a turning point for the indigenous people of Abra, bringing clean and reliable energy access with multifold benefits for community development. The micro hydro communities now have improved access to information via televisions and radio sets, students can extend their studies into evening hours, women’s burden is reduced with access to electric appliances, and income opportunities are expanded via MHP-powered livelihood activities.

The communities who own and manage the systems have collectively worked to maximize the socioeconomic returns of their local resources, with continuous technical support provided by SIBAT. The robust infrastructure and ongoing support offered by SIBAT is complemented by the community-based, participatory approach described above -- a combination that has proven its efficacy and impact in Abra over the past quarter-century.

System Upgrade

After 25 years of operation, the Barangay Dulao system is in need of repair and rehabilitation. The system currently operates 8 hours per week, with several downtimes due to lack of water and malfunctioning electromechanical components. Thus, the main objective of the upgrade is to provide stable power for 24 hours operation within a week, through the improvement of existing technical components.

The SIBAT team consulted the community People’s Organization (PO) regarding the technical needs of their MHP. The PO suggested: canal improvement, to mitigate downtimes by improving the efficiency of water entering the turbine; upgrading electromechanical components inside the powerhouse (e.g. upgrading generator capacity); and installing an electronic load controller (ELC) to regulate peak hour loads and produce reliable electricity that can accommodate more micro hydro-powered enterprises in the future.

The final plan for the MHP upgrade integrates the results of the community consultation and the findings of the SIBAT technical team. The project will facilitate improvements to civil, electro-mechanical, and mechanical components of the system, as well as installation of an ELC. SIBAT will lead the electro-mechanical and electrical components, and the community and Barangay LGU will lead the civil works. Implementation of the ELC will draw on expertise which the SIBAT team continues to expand and refine, including through collaboration with regional partners, such as their 2019 knowledge exchange with Tonibung, in Malaysia. The project team hopes to complete commissioning for the Dulao MHP upgrade this year.

See here for more information on SIBAT’s work advancing community-based, small-scale hydropower in the Philippines.

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YAMOG UPDATE: COMMUNITY-BASED MICRO HYDRO IN DAVAO AND MINDANAO

6/15/2020

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Electro-mechanical equipment contributed by Pt Entec Indonesia. Credit: Yamog.

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.

Sustainable Energy Project in Mindanao

Another ongoing project at Yamog is called “Improving the Lives of People in Off-Grid Communities in Mindanao through the Provision of Sustainable Energy”, funded by the European Union and Misereor-KZE Germany. This project will establish 6 MHPs and 2,876 solar home lighting systems, serving 4,000 poor, mostly indigenous, households in Mindanao.

The project has four key components: Installation of an energy mix of solar power and micro hydropower; holistic approach in water resource management through a community-driven forest protection initiative; development of local people’s management and technical capacities, and promoting good local governance; and providing a physical center for technical servicing, research and training.

For the last component, Yamog is in the process of setting up the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Technologies (ReSET) Center, where practitioners will learn how to fabricate turbines and other electro-mechanical MHP components, as well as other renewable energy technologies (solar, wind, biogas). The ReSET Center will serve as the hub of renewable energy development in Mindanao, where Yamog will also conduct research and trainings to pass on the RE technologies to grassroots communities.

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the flow

WATCH: STREAMSIDE CHATS - EDITION 1, RECOVERY & RESILIENCE

SIBAT MICRO HYDRO UPGRADE IN DULAO, ABRA, PHILIPPINES

YAMOG UPDATE: COMMUNITY-BASED MICRO HYDRO IN DAVAO AND MINDANAO

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