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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.

Picture
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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MANAGEMENT APPROACHES FOR SUSTAINABLE HYDRO MINI-GRIDS

8/29/2020

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We are glad to have Mr. Bikash Uprety, Technical Advisor at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH to kindly share his thoughts on micro hydro management models, with a focus on Nepal's experience.

PictureCredit: Bikash Uprety
​In his recent Linkedin article, he explores four different management models, namely the community-based model, the cooperative model, the private management model, and the leasing model.

​Moreover, he also outlines strategies and three phases of planning to effectively implement micro hydro projects.

The full text of the article can be accessed here.

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MALAYSIA: OPERATORS TRAINING FOR THE KOBULU MICRO HYDRO PROJECT

8/12/2020

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TONIBUNG, TObpinai NIngkokoton koBUruon KampuNG (Friends of Village Development), is an indigenous-lead non-profit organisation dedicated to the development and promotion of renewable energy and appropriate technology in Malaysia.  To advance its mission, Tonibung has established the Center for Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technology (CREATE) in Kota Kinabalu.

In July 2020, the Tonibung team conducted a training for 9 village operators and community members of the Kobulu Micro Hydro Project. Supported by the WISIONS initiative, the training aimed to enhance the operators’ skills on micro hydro load management, using hands-on and do-it-yourself knowledge tools developed for operators and communities.

The objectives of the course included: 
​
  • Provide training on how to use the Electronic Load Controller (ELC) Simulation Tool, which simulates how the ELC operates as households use different electrical appliances simultaneously.
  • Provide training on how to use the Canary Chic Load Indicator
  • Provide training on  troubleshooting the ELC
  • Provide foundational civil, mechanical, and electrical skills related to micro hydro
Credit: Tonibung
Credit: Tonibung
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FROM STAND-ALONE SYSTEM TO DISTRIBUTED GENERATION: GRID INTERCONNECTIVITY IN NEPAL

8/10/2020

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In January of 2018, the Syaurebhumi 23 kW micro hydro system was connected to the national grid in Nuwakot, Nepal, making it the first grid interconnected micro hydro project (MHP) in the country.  This pilot project emerged from a government policy for grid interconnection of MHPs of less than 100kW capacity; the policy attempted to respond to the widespread abandonment of MHPs, which was occurring as the national grid expanded into previously off-grid service areas.

​​NEW PAPER: Micro Hydropower in Nepal: A Journey from Stand-alone System to Distributed Generation

The publication is an excellent example of multi-stakeholder collaboration -- between government, utility, private sector, academia and international development actors.  Contributions came from individuals at the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), Renewable Energy for Rural Livelihoods, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), ECN part of TNO and Preesu Electronics P. Ltd..  The authors are all HPNET members who have contributed to our Grid Interconnection Work Stream. Through the data provided in the publication the authors wish to bring greater attention to load control and protection technology -- specifically for interconnected micro/mini hydropower (<1MW), which is often overshadowed by technology developments in large hydro or solar PV controller technology.

Multi-Actor Participation for Successful Grid Interconnectivity

The multi-actor collaboration that brought this paper to fruition echoes the broader, integrated approach to energy planning in Nepal, which has played a vital role in the country’s grid interconnection success thus far.  For grid interconnection to become a successful reality, there must be collaborative participation from local and national governments, minigrid developers (including local communities), utilities, donors and researchers.
 
A fragmented approach, lacking multi-actor participation, often hinders progress toward successful policy for grid interconnectivity.  Taking note from Nepal’s approach, an integrated, multi-stakeholder approach could further advance grid interconnection efforts in Myanmar, Pakistan, Indonesia and other countries across S/SE Asia.
Click here to access the paper on Energypedia.

​Abstract:

Nepal is known for its successful rural electrification efforts through community owned and managed standalone micro hydropower projects (MHP) that have helped transform its rural economy. Unfortunately, as soon as the national grid reaches a micro hydro catchment area, things start falling apart. For various reasons, people’s preference is the grid and eventually switch over from MHP which then lies idle and ultimately abandoned. A recent survey carried out by the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) shows that about 8% of the MHPs in Province 1 have shut down. The number of abandoned plant would be much larger if MHPs of less than 10kW capacity are also considered. Thus, the Government of Nepal came-up with the policy for grid interconnection of MHPs of less than 100kW capacity. This opportunity of transforming a standalone system to grid connected system has several advantages for both the utility grid and the MHP, the grid gets power injection near the load centers whereas MHP earns additional revenue. The technological difference between grid interconnection of MHP and other hydropower projects shall be discussed in detail in the Nepalese context. A MATLAB simulation analysis is presented to demonstrate the technical viability of the interconnection in the 11kV feeder line. Moreover, financial and economic analysis of the grid interconnected systems is also discussed. This paper also focuses on how droop features of Electronic Load Controller (ELC) could have managed the proportional load sharing among the MHP plants if such ELC with droop features were available.

Authors:

Jiwan Kumar Mallik, AEPC/RERL - jiwan.mallik@aepc.gov.np
 
Satish Gautam, AEPC/RERL - satish.gautam@aepc.gov.np 
 
Surendra Mathema, Preesu Electronics P. Ltd. - surendramathema@gmail.com
 
Binod Koirala, ECN part of TNO, Netherland - binod.koirala@tno.nl
 
Hitendra Dev Shakya, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) - hitendradev@hotmail.com 
​
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