​​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.

​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 
​

Did you miss our fourth quarterly webinar, ​Mini-Grid Planning: Integrated Energy Planning for Rural Electrification? You can now watch it below!

SPEAKERS
​

​DR. CATHERINA CADER
RESEARCH UNIT OFF-GRID SYSTEMS
REINER LEMOINE INSTITUTE, GERMANY 
​
Dr. Catherina Cader is an expert in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and rural electrification planning. She has been working at Reiner Lemoine Institute since 2012 and is part of the Research Unit Off-Grid Systems. She is particularly interested in rural electrification planning in countries of the Global South with consideration of renewable energy. Catherina holds a PhD in Geography from Justus Liebig University Giessen. For her dissertation she conducted research on rural electrification planning in Nigeria. Her PhD project was supported by a scholarship from the Reiner Lemoine-Foundation. She also holds a Master of Science in Geography from Philipps University Marburg and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Management from Justus Liebig University Gießen. Through field visits and self-developed trainings on the use of GIS for rural electrification planning, Catherina has great expertise on the political, geographical, economic, and technical challenges of local energy supply situations. By developing and applying GIS-based methods, she brings the spatial component into RLI research using open source software. Catherina has experience as a project manager in several projects – her work has taken her to various places including Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Nepal, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
​

THEMATIC DISCUSSANT
​
DIPTI VAGHELA
​NETWORK FACILITATOR AND MANAGER 
HYDRO EMPOWERMENT NETWORK (HPNET) 
​
Dipti Vaghela is the co-founder and manager of the Hydro Empowerment Network (HPNET), a south-south knowledge exchange platform that advances policy, technology, and socio-environmental aspects of small-scale hydropower across ten countries since established in 2013. Dipti brings sixteen years of experience in developing decentralized renewable energy solutions for rural electrification in S/SE Asia, bridging communities, local entrepreneurs, field-based NGOs, policy makers, and funding agencies. In 2016 she was awarded a Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship, placed at the Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar (REAM). Based in Myanmar, she supports and learns from Myanmar’s indigenous micro/mini hydropower, biomass energy, PV-irrigation practitioners. Dipti holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Science in Environmental Studies from San Jose State University.
​

The ​11th of January 2018 was an eventful day for the Nepali micro hydropower community. On that day, the 23 kW Syaurebhumi micro hydro plant, in Nuwakot, got hooked up to the national grid. It became the first micro hydro plant (MHP) in the country to be interconnected, opening the door for other MHPs to follow. For Nepal, dotted with more than 3000 MHPs aggregating to about 35MW installed capacity, of which about 5MW is now un-utilized due to the arrival of the national grid, this interconnection pilot is an important step towards revitalizing defunct MHPs.

The Journey to Grid Interconnection

The journey to the interconnection was neither simple nor short. The idea of connecting MHPs to the national grid is not new in Nepal, having been mooted as far back as 2006. By 2015, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and the Alternative Energy and Power Centre (AEPC) had agreed to the MHP grid interconnection in principle. NEA, which is the sole utility in Nepal, is responsible for the implementation of all grid based electrification under the Ministry of Energy, while the AEPC tends to renewable energy-off grid electrification under the Ministry of Population and Environment. So, the in-principle agreement of the two responsible agencies was a significant step in the direction of MHP grid interconnection. However, in spite of the in-principle agreement, matters moved forward slowly because ‘the reluctance of the NEA reflected in the directives of senior NEA management was not conducive for grid connection’, according to Jiwan Mallik, one of the individuals who worked closely on the interconnection effort. The reluctance was based on a number of question-marks concerning the technical robustness and safety of such an arrangement, as well as the managerial entanglements.  Although AEPC worked steadily to address these concerns, by first drawing up a ‘Micro Hydro Projects Interconnection Equipment Standards and Specifications’, and then performing a financial viability study for grid connection, a pilot was still not forthcoming.

HPNET'S INTERMEDIARY ROLE
​
​A small but vital nudge that tipped the NEA policymakers in favour of MHP grid interconnection came in the form of HPNET’s Practice-to-Policy Exchange for Grid Interconnected Micro and Mini Hydropower in South and Southeast Asia workshop held in Sri Lanka, in January 2016. Hosted by pioneering organizations Janathakshan and Energy Forum in Sri Lanka, the workshop had been targeted at policymakers, utilities, and developers of eight countries. The Nepal contingent was drawn from all three sections.  This exchange was exactly what they needed. Within five weeks of the Sri Lanka workshop, the attendees held a follow-up workshop on the 4th of March in Lalitpur, in order to build on the confidence gained from the Sri Lankan evidence of the feasibility of grid interconnection.  In late March 2016, the NEA entered into a Power Purchase Agreement with two MHPs on a pilot basis. One of these was the Syaurebhumi MHP.

​The Syaurebhumi plant was a classic case of an off-grid MHP plant thwarted by the arrival of the national grid. It had been completed in 2013, but as the national grid arrived during its construction, and as the community opted to be serviced by the national grid, the plant lay idle. After the interconnection on the 11th of January, the plant was kept under observation for a period of 15 days.  The outcomes of the period were analysed by a Test Witness Committee comprising officials of both NEA and AEPC, and were found satisfactory. As of 1st of February, 2018, the Syaurebhumi MHP has started commercial operation. 

FINANCIAL VIABILITY
​
The costs to interconnect the Syaurebhumi MHP to the central grid, ~$30,000, was provided as a one-time subsidy from the Government of Nepal for piloting grid interconnection.  Future MHP interconnections will not be subsidized.  The current PPA for the MHP is based on the same rates and conditions as those for bigger hydropower projects up to 25MW. Even with those figures, the Syaurebhumi MHP can earn an annual income of nearly $10,600.  If this pilot is successful, it can rejig the antagonistic relationship of MHPs and the national grid into a complementary one. It can also reframe MHPs from being the only recourse of remote villages to being an active contributor of clean energy to the country. What is more, it can also become a feasible business avenue for local entrepreneurs. 

Mibi Ete
​HPNET Member

​At the United Nations SE4ALL Forum in May 2015 there was much good discussion on mini-grids.  Anytime the mini-grid technology was specified, it was assumed to be solar PV.  However, there are other -- unsung but proven mini-grid technologies that have long provided electricity -- such as micro hydropower, biomass gassifiers, and small-scale wind.  Needless to say, during the four-day event attended by 2000 persons and a multitude of speakers, we were ecstatic to hear at least one member of a high-level panel highlight micro hydropower!  The panelist was from the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), working across 30 countries on an array of sustainable development projects.  

AKDN's evolution began with the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) established in 1982.  Since then, AKRSP has been committed to the remotest (and likely some of the most beautiful) high altitude regions -- the Northwest Frontier (Chitral) and Baltistan -- where living conditions are harsh and communities are resilient.  AKRSP has blazed trails in this region, literally.  With ample glacial melt waters in the region and little electrification, community micro hydropower became a flagship of AKRSP's multi-faceted, participatory rural development approach, focusing on social, economic, and institutional development.  AKRSP's approach and achievements have justifiably won the prestigious Ashden Award and the Global Development Network's Japanese Award for Most Innovative Development Project.​

​Scalability using a Participatory, Iterative Approach
 
AKRSP's guiding philosophy has been that marginalized communities have an innate potential to manage their own development.  In fact, AKRSP was the first to facilitate community-owned and managed infrastructure in Pakistan, including micro hydropower, irrigation channels, and roads.  In its earliest projects, AKRSP observed the gap between public sector services and village households.  Thereof, at the core its approach has been the development of village-level organizations (VOs) that are capable of interfacing with local government agencies.  As AKRSP's lead Miraj Khan writes, "VO's, when informed and empowered, can negotiate and better bargain for these [public] services on behalf of their members, than otherwise fragmented and powerless rural societies."  Khan attributes its achievement of nearly 200 community-based micro and mini hydropower projects to community organizations.  He also attributes the scaled success to a "living design" and "learning by doing" between AKRSP and the communities, where the program was iteratively  improved based on the lessons of each project. 

​When AKRSP's model proved its success at scale, it was not long until mainstream development actors requested AKRSP's support to replicate the model.  For example, the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP), also an Ashden awardee, came into being when USAID and the Pakistan government partnered with AKRSP.  Such replication has further scaled up AKRSP's model, with VO's still at its foundation.

Leveraging the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
 
While the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is one way for community-based decentralized renewable energy (DRE) projects to become financially viable, in practice few DRE developers have been able to meet the complex application requirements and the institutional bundling of smaller, kilowatt projects into substantial megawatts.  In 2009, AKRSP became one of the few to successfully leverage CDM using a community-based approach, initiating a 7-year program involving 90 micro hydropower projects with a total capacity of 15 MW for rural electrification.  The program, costing USD 17.42 million, has started to build AKRSP'S Community Development Carbon Fund, approved under the CDM efforts of Pakistan.  For this AKRSP has an Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) with the World Bank. The CDM project will generate an estimated 612,342 tCO2eq (ton carbon dioxide equivalent) of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) in the first 7-year crediting period, with the option of renewing for two additional 7-year periods. As of now, 42 projects are in operation and 10 have been commissioned this year, all generating CERs.  For the remaining 38 projects, AKRSP is seeking support for capital costs.   Further details on the program can be found here.

From Micro to Mini-Grids
 
Based on the overall progress of micro and mini hydropower in Pakistan, AKRSP has observed that most of the investment in the sector, particularly for the peripheral villages, focuses only on power generation, without addressing the issues of diversified demand of downstream users that has resulted from the change in economic conditions.  AKRSP's sees great opportunity in linking increased power generation with economic and commercial activities in the main load centers for creating greater socio-economic development of the area. The productive use of energy by communities, with special focus on enterprise and income generating activities, will lead to the rapid growth of the local economy.

To address this, AKRSP has concluded that although scattered and small villages with sufficient water flow and feasible sites naturally provide an easy option to construct a small unit for each village, in some villages the power generation is merely enough for lighting purpose.  Yet in other villages, due to availability of more water, the units generate more power than needed. This situation has pushed AKRSP to think about developing a new system for improved power management and more productive use of energy created by micro hydro project with varied capacities. AKRSP’s new hydro development strategy entails increasing power output (capacities and efficiency) and connecting multiple small units for stable supply of electricity into a mini-grid, thereby creating greater economic opportunities by using micro hydropower.  Similar efforts have been initiated in Indonesia, Myanmar, and Nepal.  This video from Nepal explains technical aspects.

AKRSP estimates that 2.3 MW of micro hydropower can be transformed from micro to mini-grids, benefiting 24 villages in two valleys of northern Pakistan.  AKRSP has recently installed two mini hydropower units, of 500 kW and 800 kW, in Laspur and Yarkhun valleys of Chitral District, along with establishing two local utility companies for the operation and maintenance of these systems.  AKRSP will conduct a feasibility study  for connecting these units into a mini-grid that can provide power to more communities.  The Laspur and Yarkhun valleys also include smaller mini-hydro units, ranging from 100-300 kW, where feasibility studies are being conducted for both mini-grids and grid inter-connectivity.  
 
Other HPNET members have identified grid inter-connectivity and inter-linking multiple micro hydropower projects into mini-grids as prime priorities for sustaining the work of local practitioners. Local developers fuel local economies and provide better post-installation operation and maintenance services.  HPNET looks very forward to learning from AKRSP's vision and firsthand experience to connect micro hydropower units at the sub-valley level, then at the valley, and finally with the national grid.  While this is a common sense goal, most governments and international donors in the region are not familiar enough with its significance, especially as a viable alternative to destructive and inequitable, central-grid based power sources, such as coal and large hydropower, for rural electrification.
 
No doubt, in time, AKRSP will prove the viability of its vision for interconnected micro hydropower mini-grids, and HPNET will be ready to assist in transferring its know how to the region.   More information and research on AKRSP's work can be found here.
 

By Nauman Amin and Dipti Vaghela