Have you wondered what hydro mini-grids are, and how they differ from other renewables?  
Have you come across a stream and asked how much electricity it could produce?  
Do you know the range of ways mini-grid communities can co-create social enterprises?   
Are you familiar with community hydro and would like a refresher on the fundamentals?   

If so, consider taking advantage of an upcoming virtual training opportunity on the fundamentals of community-scale (<1 MW) hydro implementation! ​

What is the SEEED Accelerator?

Building on 40-years of experiential hindsight on hydro mini-grid sustainability and impact, HPNET developed an initiative called Social Enterprise for Energy, Ecological and Economic Development (SEEED). Earlier this year, we launched the SEEED Accelerator to support practitioners and communities to customize proven sustainability mechanisms to local contexts, enabling climate resilience and socio-economic co-benefits through community-scale hydro. 

The first cohort of the SEEED Accelerator kicked off in August through a partnership with International Rivers.  We are excited to continue advancing the SEEED Accelerator in 2022 with support from Skat Foundation, beginning with the Fundamentals of Community Hydro training. 

What topics will the training cover?

​The Fundamentals of Community-Scale Hydro Mini-Grids training will provide participants with a solid introduction, which can also be useful as a refresher course, on the foundational elements of sustainable community-scale hydropower implementation.  While technical in focus, the training emphasizes climate resilience and other socio-environmental co-benefits.  An engineering or science background can be beneficial but not required.  The modules are as follows:

• Orientation to Hydro Mini-Grids
• Social Enterprise Models for Mini-Grids
• Demand Assessment
• Water Resource Assessment
• Terrain Assessment
• Power Output Design

What time commitment is required?

The training is flexible in design to accommodate your busy schedule.  Participants are encouraged to attend a live kick-off session on February 7, as well as weekly live sessions for Q&A and discussion for each module of the 6-week program.  In between the live sessions participants will be expected to do self-paced learning using the SEEED learning management system. Although optional, the live synchronous sessions will provide a valuable opportunity to connect with experts and peers. They will be planned for morning Sub-Saharan Africa and afternoon/evening Asia Pacific time zones.
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The time commitment for each of the 6 training modules is estimated as follows:

• Kickoff session: 1 hour (Optional)
• Live Q&A and peer-to-peer dialogue: 1 to 2 hours./week (Optional)  
• Self-work: 1 to 2 hours/week (Required)

Registration

Registration is now open! CLICK HERE TO REGISTER no later than February 1, 2021.  All interested individuals are welcome to apply to join the training.  

Other opportunities to look out for

Stay tuned for additional training opportunities coming up in 2022!  We will soon announce registration for two subsequent trainings, taking place in March:

Climate Resilient Solutions to Hydro Mini-Grids: March 21 - 25
We are excited to conduct a 4-day training on leveraging watershed management and Indigenous governance values and ecological knowledge to enable climate resilience of community hydro systems. 

Agroecological Benefits of Hydro Mini-grids: March 28 - 31
How can community hydro electricity and watersheds support sustainable food production?  Learn how and exchange ideas in this 5-day training on agroecological benefits of hydro mini-grids.

​Sign up for our newsletter to stay in the know and feel free to direct any questions to  secretariat@hpnet.org.

​Public, non-government, and private sector actors each play important roles in the small-scale hydropower landscape.  We are often inspired by the tenacity of locally-rooted, private entrepreneurs who are unperturbed by the challenges that come with establishing and running a financially viable business that also serves rural communities.  In this guest blog post, we hear from Mr. Komarudin, an entrepreneur who wears many hats as a manufacturer, developer, technical consultant, and micro hydro champion in Bandung, Indonesia.  He introduces us to his business, Protel Multi Energy (PME), which has been supporting rural energy access for over a decade. 

Protel Multi Energy focuses on the manufacturing of affordable Digital Electronic Load Controllers (ELCs), as well as micro hydro and pico hydro turbines (crossflow and Pelton) for rural electrification all over the world. Besides product manufacturing we also assist villagers and project owners in planning and designing micro hydro schemes. Sometimes we offer technical supervision on construction and installation. We are also able to do turnkey projects under certain circumstances.

Nowadays, especially in Indonesia, we are developing many micro hydro projects through Dana Desa (village funds). We often provide support for each stage, starting from site survey, to planning and design, project supervision, supply of equipment and post-installation management. Due to their lack of knowledge and experience, we assist villagers to develop their project as their own responsibility, under our supervision to make sure it runs well with a sustainable approach and reliable equipment.

To learn more about PME and access many useful tutorial videos, visit our YouTube channel!

We are delighted to present the fourth edition of our video podcast series, StreamSide Chats!  The podcast features deep-dive conversations with grassroots innovators and international experts of small-scale hydropower, offering insights from the ground, framed within multi-thematic analysis. 

​In this edition, we take a closer look at social and environmental aspects of community hydro, discussing small-scale hydropower from the perspective of Indigenous communities.  Through the case of a cluster of 12 micro hydro projects in Kalinga Province, Philippines, we explore important connections between community-scale hydro, Indigenous rights and livelihoods, and environmental stewardship. 

We had the privilege to speak with Ms. Jade Angngalao, Coordinator of the Renewable Energy Program at SIBAT.  Jade has worked with micro hydro communities for eleven years, focusing on various technical, social, and environmental aspects.  We learn from Jade how micro hydro is supporting socio-environmental resilience in Kalinga, bolstered by long-standing, robust self-governance structures and traditional ecological knowledge.  Don’t miss this chat, featuring a “streamside” tour of the Balbalasang micro hydro system and community! 

PART A: ​

In Part A, Jade reflects on her experience growing up with micro hydro and shares about the ways in which her social and cultural context influenced her view of ‘development’.  We learn how projects are developed and managed by Indigenous communities in Kalinga province, and discuss how local governance structures and traditional environmental protocols support sustainable energy access, climate resilience, and community development.  Jade shares about key challenges and future priorities, highlighting the opportunity for various stakeholders to support and uplift Indigenous-led, nature-based solutions like the community hydro initiatives in Kalinga.

​​Highlights:

03:44 - Cultural and environmental values
05:41 - Natural resource management
08:48 - First exposure to community hydro
12:04 - A rewarding role
13:40 - Productive end use 
15:48 - Rights and self-governance through community hydro
17:33 - 'Lapat' environmental protocols
21:00 - Governance structure
21:45 - Climate change and watershed restoration
26:00 - Challenges
28:50 - Load management
34:20 - From villages to towns
35:38 - Micro hydro versus the grid
38:05 - Need for government support 
40:00 - Nature-based solutions and climate finance

​In Part B, join us for a tour with Ms. Jade Angngalao, Coordinator of the Renewable Energy Program at SIBAT, Eng. Ver Ian Victorio, Head of Micro Hydro Power Turbine Testing Center, Univ. of Rizwal System, and Eng. Roy Andrada, the Project Manager of the URS-MHP Program.  First, Jade shares an overview of the Balbalasang micro hydro project, including its technical components, evolution, and local impacts.  Next, the team shows us around the project, chatting with key community members along the way.  From a computer lab at the local high school, to hostels and a carpentry workshop, the tour offers a glimpse into the various community assets enabled by the micro hydro system.

Highlights:

02:11 - Project location and governing body
02:53 - Technical layout, components, and evolution
04:30 - Project funding
05:03 - Community contribution of labor and land
05:21 - Productive end use and impact on local economy
06:43 - Social services end uses
07:58 - Household end uses
08:23 - Load Management
09:15 - Opportunity to upgrade the system
10:15 - Community-initiated fund for upgrade
11:09 - System running for two decades
11:46 - "StreamSide" tour of the project!

In case you missed it

Check out earlier editions of StreamSide Chats on our YouTube channel.  
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• In Edition 1 we spoke with decentralized renewable energy specialist, Divyam Nagpal, and Director of Clean Energy at Winrock International, Bikash Pandey.  We discussed the role of micro hydro in contributing to long term rural economic recovery and resilience in the pandemic era.  

• In Edition 2 Bikash Pandey spoke with Ashoka Fellow and micro / mini hydro developer Bir Bahadur Ghale from Nepal, where over 3000 small-scale hydro projects have been developed, supporting local job creation and economic resilience, even in the aftermath of the devastating 2015 earthquake.

• In Edition 3 we focused on Pakistan’s unique small-scale hydro sector, which has been scaled up over several decades.  We spoke with Sherzad Ali Khan, the Coordinator of the Aga Khan Development Network (or AKDN) for Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral regions.  We discussed gender-aware planning, productive end use, successful management practices, grid interconnection, climate finance and more. 

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to stay updated on future releases!

Was there a particular person or situation that inspired you to focus on renewable energy and community hydro?

I became part of a movement, doing advocacy work in objection to big dams.  The World Bank was funding huge dams in the Northern part of the Philippines.  Well, the objection was led by communities.  They fought over several years and the people won, and the World Bank withdrew from the area.  It wasn’t only the dams, but issues related to logging as well.  When Ferdinand Marcos was president, under martial law, he allowed his cronies to exploit the resources up in the mountains, the watersheds.  And again, the Indigenous people in that area resisted and they won – the big corporation withdrew from the area.  So, I witnessed this and that, of course, was immense and very important to me.  I realized that only the people can make change.  Actually, it was a tribal community (the Butbut tribe) who articulated and requested  that a small-scale hydro be built in their community, as the alternative to the big dam. They realized the importance of hydropower, but at a scale that would not hurt them, that would not displace communities.  So they provided us the insight on what to do and that was the birth of the community-based micro hydro.  Reflecting now, I think that was, in fact, a key element of our framework for renewable energy development. 

So, basically, it was in that region where the micro hydro work started.  We provided the technical support and the community contributed as well, and that became our framework going forward.  And we leveraged this to reach out to funding agencies such as the UN Development Programme Small Grants Program and the Department of Energy, who then supported a number of our projects.  Then that experience in that area inspired other tribal, Indigenous communities in the North to build similar systems, which in turn set an example for other Indigenous provinces to do the same.

I built a team of effective people.  Not all were engineers; we especially paid attention to involving people from the ground.  In time they all learned the theories behind the civil works.  And, most importantly, we built all of the micro hydro components locally.  We were in collaboration with a university in the North, who had good people who understood community-based work.  There was one very good engineer, who has since passed away, who  really provided strong, technological knowledge to our team, who we are very thankful for.  

That was a period in the Philippines when policies were being drawn up to embark on renewable energy.  We advocated for a community-based approach, but the government was influenced by the big energy companies coming in.  So we continued our work even without policy to support us and, in the Cordillera Region, we built 27 micro hydro systems in collaboration with the communities and with local government units who recognized the role of the communities.  The people, women, men and even children, came to do the physical construction work.  The micro hydro organizations were built coming from the collective work in construction,  and each organization formulated and enforced the policies to maintain and sustain the plant over these many years.  The community organization provided the guidance to manage and sustain the micro hydro.  Certainly, women have important roles to play in managing the micro hydro organizations, such as enforcing policies, and collectively sustaining the waterways and hillsides along these. 
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Following a period of rehabilitation after some 10 years or more, all the projects there are further improved and made to function up to the present, delivering the required energy per household and per community, providing 24-hour lighting, use of household appliances and powering livelihoods.  

​So we started with resisting the big dam and won.  And then the anti-logging struggle also played an important role in making the people understand the importance of defending their forests.  In that province, where most of the micro hydro projects were implemented, the communities experienced a learning process around watershed protection.  This strengthened the lappat system, the traditional system of forest protection in the indigenous communities.  With that understanding of the need to protect the water source to enable electricity generation, the communities have been able to sustain their systems for more than 20 years now. 

What kind of changes have you seen in the sector since you started out?

There are more and more people in the science and technology sector, including students and professionals, who are interested to volunteer and come with us to the field and take part. ​

​In addition, the government’s energy programs are very strong and they look down at what we’re doing; but in recent years we’ve been able to show the economic impact of our approach.  In 2018, we convened a conference addressing the impact of about 20 years of work.  Looking back, earlier on a number of us were working on advocacy in our organization but not very systematically. Of course, we wrote papers and convened big, national conferences, especially at the start when we were trying to promote our work nationally; but now there is evidence we can leverage, standing side by side, something we can show the big systems of the government. 

A few years back you established a new organization called RESILIENCE. Can you tell us about RESILIENCE and what led you to initiate it?

So, this was after my work in SIBAT.  I thought of broadening the focus to embrace climate change because that is a very big threat to societies and it will have a very adverse impact on resources, and even on the micro hydro systems that we were advocating for.  SIBAT already focused on sustainable agriculture, so we had that framework for addressing how different issues are connected, but climate is something that had to be addressed.  So I organized RESILIENCE with a few people, but it will take us some more years to develop.  With the pandemic it really had slowed down due to movement restrictions; but once the situation improves we will get back to it.  And it will involve connecting with organizations that focus on climate change and us contributing our strength in sustainable agriculture, in watershed management, as well as renewable energy.  It has yet to take off strongly, but the concept is there.
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Why is climate resilience important in micro hydro communities?

Well, it's for the protection of the systems themselves against landslides, the lowering of the water level – all those aspects that affect the resources in the communities.  Now communities are seeing an increase in specific impacts of climate change, such as typhoons and landslides.  When these things happen we have to rehabilitate the systems, strengthen the civil works, and strengthen the role of the communities in conserving the forests and maintaining the water channels.  In micro hydro communities, climate resilience encompasses a lot – the lives of the people and the protection of their innovations, successes and achievements.
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We’ve heard from other colleagues in the Philippines how Indigenous communities have long traditions of environmental stewardship.  How does that come into play?

We have seen many communities that lead in this – they have formulated community policies that govern watershed management, including the cutting of trees and protection of resources in the watershed area.  But there are communities that still have to formulate theirs. So the traditional system that’s at the forefront of sustainable watershed protection is called lapat, which is a very important policy that people hold sacred and that they abide by. That is a great tradition being sustained up until now, but not all communities have done that.  And only Indigenous communities have that; others should learn from them.

What challenges have you faced as a woman practitioner? How did you overcome these obstacles? 
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​Of course, men dominate this field, but I am intrinsically strong and I have to keep showing that strength in order for other women to be strong.  So, I have built small women’s groups in the city and while in the rural areas.  And I have tried to show by example that you can speak, that you can act, that you can contribute to the discussion and take the lead where you are needed to take lead. I think mobilizing women is my strength.  When I go to a rural community, the first people I engage are the older women.  

You have to keep yourself strong and not be intimidated, by organizing more women to add to their number in the field.  And I've seen my former students really take strides in leadership in community work.  So reflecting back, I think it’s about leading by example.  I am also a member of the national women's organization here; I was part of building it during my younger days.  So the importance of the role of women is very strong in me.  

What do women leaders have to offer in energy access efforts? 

Access to energy has an impact within households on women and children.  Women are really impacted by everything that energy is used for inside the home, because of the care work that they do.  So, I have seen rural women speaking very strongly for the sustaining of the micro hydro, and even taking a strong role in the physical maintenance of the hillsides, keeping the water channels clean.  They're quite strong in that because it has an impact on their life.  Electricity reduces their work in the household, it allows the children to study longer hours, and they can go to the fields with less risk because there is light outside the homes.  

Traditionally, women are often not present at community meetings and instead stay home to care for the kinds.  But when it comes to rural electrification, we’ve seen that women are quite strong in community meetings.  The mothers come even together with the children and that provides insight into the importance of energy access to women, and the important role of women within these innovations.
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What solutions could we employ to address gender challenges in the sector?

Well, the livelihood opportunities that energy access enables should be more accessible to women.  And during my time in SIBAT we worked on innovating on some machines so that women can handle them easier, with less physical strength required.  And when it comes to maintenance of the powerhouse, women can do that.  So first help develop a fair opportunity for them to be part of what is supposedly a men’s domain, especially in livelihood matters.  You can develop a specific approach to address that; maybe a women’s committee can be formed among other committees in the community, in order to address women’s particular needs.  It’s important to look at technical matters, as well as the broader impacts.  Always consider how women are affected and strengthen these aspects. 

Within SIBAT, I have advocated for technical training for women and, although we have more men, we do have women engineers.  But renewable energy development is not just technology and from the start of designing a program you have to look at the projected impact.  So, you should not leave out the participation of women, especially in designing their livelihood paths.  For example, sugar cane pressing, which is traditional in the mountain areas – with electricity they can develop the sugar industry, beyond just pressing.

Food is important to rural women, it is important to households.  So agriculture can also be strengthened by micro hydro, for instance by enabling electric machines and equipment.  Such activities have always concerned women in particular because of their role in sustaining the household.   

​What brings you hope for the future?

Again, that there will always be change.  And I know if people can really work together then they can encourage the authorities to involve them.  Right now during the pandemic, when the roles of local people are being addressed, there should be room made for community-based initiatives to build the change. I know that in my more than 30 years in this, when I began as a student activist in a small corridor of the university doing science, there had been great changes already.  But not very structurally.  But you could see the people’s minds do change. 

And our efforts in micro hydropower development should – at least up to the municipality level – make them realize that community-based efforts should be a big, big part of the Philippines national program for development.  In the mountains of Abra in Kalinga, there are 30 micro hydropower systems, not resulting from the initiative of the government, but from the initiative of the people. And there are those coming to a realization that this is something that they should study and perhaps multiply.  My hopes for that are high.​

Is there anything we have missed about your journey that you would like to share with our readers?

I look forward to seeing what big collective efforts will come about through the work of RESILIENCE, looking at all aspects, from water, to energy, economics, agriculture.  That’s something that I hope to be a part of.  

Earlier this quarter, we learned of the successful testing and commissioning of the 200kW Bom Kohla Mini Hydropower project in Lukla, Nepal, made possible by Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), ADB and the Lukla community.  We offer our congratulations to HPNET members at AEPC who contributed to this project, enabling reliable, affordable, clean energy.

For a glimpse of the project – situated in the foothills of Mount Everest – and the team that brought it to fruition, check out this post from HPNET Member, Jiwan Kumar Mallik.  Jiwan currently holds the position of Solar Power Expert under the AEPC’s Renewable Energy for Rural Livelihood (RERL) program.
 
Stay tuned for further updates on the implementation of the Bom Khola Mini Hydro project, coming soon!

Electronic load controllers (ELCs) are a critical component of micro hydropower systems, which keep turbines, generators, and the energy they produce within safe operating ranges, as loads are switched on and off.  ELCs can prevent damage to appliances and micro hydro components and even mitigate fire and electrical hazards.  Despite their important role, ELCs are generally the least understood component of micro hydro systems.  Equipment selection can be particularly challenging if practitioners are unfamiliar with the different types of ELCs and their relative merits. 

To help demystify ELCs and ease the equipment selection process, our Controllers and Load Management Work Stream has developed an easy-to-follow factsheet.  This “Basics of Electronic Load Controllers (ELCs)" tool provides a useful background on electronic, automatic and manual flow control, with pointers on their relative cost and suitability in different contexts.  Specific types of ELC designs are further illuminated, as well as ballast/dump load types and control methods, commissioning checks, and useful questions to ask of suppliers.   

Check out the “Basics of Electronic Load Controllers (ELCs)" at this link.

We extend our thanks to Work Stream contributors Ajith Kumara, Bob Matthews, Dan Frydman, Jiwan Kumar Mallik and Rams Vaidhyanathan.

For more useful tools, check out our Micro Hydro Toolkit for Practitioners, which includes a DIY ELC Simulation Tool designed to help train local operators!