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!
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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
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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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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.

What inspired you to get involved in community development, energy access, and micro hydro work?

​I started my career in the early 2000’s, when I joined Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) in 2001. My inspiration to get involved was mainly due to the disparity I saw between the rural and urban populations. I had observed a huge disparity, mainly in terms of basic amenities; urban people were enjoying many facilities including better electricity, education and health facilities, while the rural poor were deprived of all these basic assets, even energy services. I had seen that rural people were compelled to use kerosene and Jharro  (a common plant in Nepal) for household lighting needs.

Being an electrical engineer, I decided it was best to work in the rural energy sector where I could best contribute my knowledge. With my background in electrical engineering, I understand that electricity is the foundation to any and all development activities, which can drive economic activities in rural areas. I believe that rural people have a right to energy services, as do urban people, and energy services can really improve rural quality of life and address the challenges they are facing.

Initially, I started my career promoting solar home systems in rural areas in my work with AEPC, and later shifted toward focusing on sustainable small-scale hydropower. I realized that only installing the energy infrastructure itself -- providing access to electricity -- is not sufficient, because there is a need to make energy systems more reliable and sustainable. This is very important because if the system stops functioning, this creates a burden to rural communities. This is what I found in the field and it is what inspired me to focus on the micro hydro sector, and specifically micro hydropower (MH) sustainability.  ​

Have you faced particular challenges as a woman, in the work that you do? If so, how have you overcome these challenges?

I wouldn’t say I’ve faced any major challenges being a woman, in the work that I’ve done. However, sometimes people ask me “being a woman, don’t you face difficulty in doing technical things?”, or, “don't you feel discomfort in travelling alone to remote areas?”. But, I don’t see this as a major challenge; it’s people’s perception and thinking about women. They think that it’s difficult for women to do these things.

Sometimes, because of the nature of what I’m doing, I have to dedicate a lot of time to my work and it can be difficult to achieve a good work-life balance. I am lucky though, because my family totally supports me and encourages me, therefore I can concentrate on my work. However, it’s not the same situation for all women in Nepal.

It does also remain a male dominated sector. Previously, when my work focused on solar, I would frequently be the only woman in a meeting of 50 people. You can therefore imagine what women’s representation looks like in the sector as a whole. It is slowly changing, compared to the earlier days. Now there are women coming into decision making positions, but their representation is still very low.

What roles have you seen women play in micro hydro projects -- both in implementation and also sustainability?  What greater role can they play?  How can we encourage them?

Women’s representation in MH is still very minimal in Nepal. There are hardly 1 or 2 companies that are really run or managed by women and not more than 20 female engineers in the sector as a whole.

Within the development of an MHP project there is a compulsory quota for women to be represented in the users committee, but women’s participation and voice in the committee remains insignificant. From the program side, when we organize capacity building workshops, we specifically say that at least 1 or 2 women participants per MHP is compulsory, but in reality, very few women participate.

I don’t think there is any doubt that women can play a crucial role both in the implementation and sustainability of MHPs. Women can do all the work that men can do related to the MHP; they can develop enabling policies, carry out feasibility studies, design systems, construct and install the plant, manage and operate the system, and start enterprises using the generated electricity. Women’s involvement can occur throughout, from planning, to installation, to use of electricity.

I believe that if women are looked upon as equal members as men in society, that can increase participation in the MHP sector. We need to break the traditional thinking and perception that women are not capable of doing technical work as well as men. Besides that, I think we have to design working environments in such a way that women can participate. For example, the number of women MHP operators is basically negligible compared to the number of men. Why? Because operators have to stay alone day and night at the powerhouse, which poses security threats for women. But, if we could provide an enabling environment -- for instance, allowing families to live at the MH site -- participation of women could increase. Security and safety need to be given high priority.

For more insights on MHP sustainability, be sure to check out the third edition of our 2019 webinar series, featuring Resha Piya and other experts: Mini-Grid Sustainability: Transitioning to Social Enterprise for Energy and Economic Development.
 
If you enjoyed this Hidden No More interview, sign up below to receive our newsletter, to hear from other women change-makers in the sector!

As you’ll see in the video, community-scale hydropower can bring significant socio-economic and environmental benefits to rural communities. Local practitioners, who have developed lasting relationships with communities, are at the heart of making this happen.

We want to hear your thoughts on how best to leverage local practitioners in achieving  universal energy access with renewable energy mini-grids -- to create impact beyond energy access.

• Have you worked with local practitioners that enable communities to implement mini-grids?  Or are you a local practitioner?  Tell us more!

 

• What unique contributions have you seen local practitioners bring to the energy access sector?  How can they be leveraged to accelerate clean energy access?​

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​REGIONAL OVERLAPS:  AFRICA AND S/SE ASIA

In 2019, through interviews with African practitioners and dialogue among S/SE Asian practitioners supporting African regions, we identified common elements between the two contexts.

​Relevance of Community-Scale Hydropower
​As in S/SE Asia, community-scale hydropower can provide affordable and reliable electricity to enhance rural livelihoods, towards meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Several countries in Africa have significant pico, micro, and mini hydro (<1MW) potential yet there has been minimal implementation, while large numbers of communities remain un-electrified.  As in S/SE Asia, international donors in Africa target solar PV interventions, and non-PV solutions are not as popular. There are however small hydro projects (above 1MW and less than 30MW), developed and owned by foreign companies using foreign technology.  Also, as in S/SE Asia, there is a  geopolitical push for large hydropower despite its environmental and social consequences. This focus on large scale energy infrastructure is mobilizing civil society organizations (CSOs) to make the case for micro hydro and other decentralized renewable energy (DRE) solutions. However, most CSOs do not yet have the knowhow to do DRE project implementation.

Committed Local Practitioners
The portion of Africa's DRE private sector that is able to access funding and advance is the foreign-run private sector. In addition, there are passionate and committed local practitioners that are innovating and locally manufacturing micro hydro equipment to bring electricity to communities in need, who are not able to access foreign funds.  This is because, similar to S/SE Asia, most government and international initiatives lack the mandate and expertise to identify, engage, and advance local practitioners so that they can also benefit from international resources.  In S/SE Asia there is significant evidence showing that long-term sustainability of micro hydro projects is greatly dependent on how well ownership, management, and financing are anchored at the local level.

Missed Opportunity:  Building onto Existing Local Technical Capacity
Local actors in Africa are paving forward local fabrication of micro hydro technology.  While in a few contexts local fabricators are supported by international partners, e.g. the work of Energising Development (EnDev) in Ethiopia, most local technical capacities have not been leveraged or further built upon.  Therefore, they remain at a nascent stage of development -- limited to the pace of self-learning and self-financing local technology development. Similarly in S/SE Asia, despite considerable international donor investments in micro hydro technology transfer during the last three to four decades, there is now hardly any international support for developing local capacities in design and manufacturing.  The trending focus in both African and Asian Pacific contexts is on kilowatts installed and households electrified, and less attention to who is enabled to do energy access and how, and what implications that has on community empowerment.
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OPPORTUNITIES FOR AFRICA - ASIA EXCHANGE

With the start of the new year, HPNET seeks partnerships to move forward the following areas identified for South-South,  two-way knowledge exchange between African and S/SE Asia regions.

Evidence-based Advocacy
In partnership with local organizations and practitioners committed to advancing community-scale hydropower, HPNET seeks to build the awareness of decision makers in both contexts on mini-grid technology differentiation and on proven thematic solutions,including:

• Policy and Regulatory Frameworks.  African contexts such as Nigeria and Tanzania have established advanced policy and regulatory frameworks for mini-grid development, including interconnection to the main grid.  Experience-sharing from these contexts will benefit S/SE Asia countries seeking to do the same. ​

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• Ownership, Management and Financing Models.  Asian contexts such as Nepal and Myanmar show how different types of ownership, management, and financing models impact the long-term sustainbility and socio-economic impact of projects.  In S/SE Asia the lessons required 30 years of hindsight, however nascent African micro hydro contexts can use the Asian experience to avoid pitfalls and leap frog into appropriate best practices.

 

• Climate Resilience thru Watershed Strengthening.  Rural communities of African and S/SE Asian regions will be among the worst hit as the climate crisis grows.  The watershed strengthening and reforestation aspects of community-scale hydropower increase the climate resilience of micro hydro projects as well as the communities, reducing the impact floods and drought.

Technical Standards and Local Manufacturing
Utilizing the expertise of local manufacturing coaches and experts, HPNET seeks to build the  capacities of local practitioners in both regions to locally design and manufacture electro-mechanical components of pico, micro, and mini hydropower, including various turbines and electronic load controllers.  Technical standards appropriate for different capacities and the local context will be established using lessons related to standardization from African and S/SE Asian contexts.

Local Social Enterprise Development
In partnership with local implementing organizations, HPNET seeks to facilitate the development of projects that are established as local social enterprise.  HPNET's initiative Social Enterprise for Energy, Ecological and Economic Development (SEEED) supports local practitioners and communities to transition toward financially viable projects, where the micro hydro project is run as a social enterprise that also powers productive end use enterprise.

HPNET's approach to South-South knowledge exchange and advocacy bridges local practitioners to multi-stakeholders. 

We start with identifying themes that are important to local practitioners.  We call them work streams.  Here is an overview of our work streams.  

For each work stream we have a 4-step approach (illustrated below) to build collective knowledge and transform it into action that triggers impact at the local level -- by involving relevant multi-stakeholders, including government, donors, financiers, civil society, and researchers.

With the start of 2020, within this approach we are committed to developing news methods for evidence-based advocacy, in order to move forward critical thematic solutions being developed by our work streams. Whether it is solutions for technology development, socio-environmental aspects, or enabling policy, we want to push for change that is groundtruthed at the local level, allowing diverse multi-stakeholders to further understand the challenges and progress of local practitioners.

We look forward to posting further updates as we progress in this direction in the year ahead!
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STEP 1 - CATALOGUE
We starting with cataloging what has already been developed and documented.  We create a database of thematically organized documents, tools, videos, and lists of actors.

STEP 2 - GROUNDTRUTH
To optimally design our in-person exchanges, we first study field realities.  Here you find region-wide and country-specific data collected at the local level.

STEP 3 - EXCHANGE
We carefully design our in-person and online exchanges.  From the steps of cataloging and ground-truthing we are able to invite the appropriate participants for productive dialogue and connection.  

STEP 4 - ADVOCATE
For post-event impact of our exchanges, we follow up with products and strategic support for advocacy aimed at action on the ground.  We nurture partnerships for local capacity building and other ways to empower local actors to self advocate.

​What is an HPNET work stream?
HPNET evolves to the needs and challenges of local practitioners, in order to enable them to advance sustainable pico, micro, and mini hydropower (<1MW).  HPNET's work streams are an opportunity for network members and multi-actor partners from across the globe to synergize in bringing forth South-South knowledge and advocacy outputs to generate local impact.  

Is a work stream the same as a working group?
Work streams were formerly called working groups.  Since many members contribute to more than one or change their focus based on their real time challenges and since the HPNET Secretariat plays a key role in facilitating as different members contribute at different times, we thought it was best to re-name as work streams.  ​More information on how the thematic areas were identified can be found here.

How do they work?
HPNET's internal exchange platform is structured around the nine main work streams, allowing members and partners to contribute or request support on sub-themes of each work stream. In addition to the nine cross-country thematic work streams, members can take part in country-focused work streams, which allow members to strategize toward country-specific impact. Via the online platform and conference calls, the HPNET Secretariat then facilitates collaboration on knowledge and advocacy outputs specific to the needs and challenges expressed by members and partners.  The ​HPNET Secretariat's annual work plans are structured to provide facilitation time to each work stream.

How can I take part in a work stream?
Apply to become a member of HPNET here.  Once you're a member you will be sent a login for HPNET's internal exchange platform, where you can take part in any of the work streams, providing inputs from and/or requesting support for your local context.

Can I take part in more than one work stream?
Absolutely!  This is the primary reason the working groups are now framed as work streams, whereby HPNET members can contribute to multiple streams on sub-topics that matter the most to their specific work.

Do work streams overlap with each other?
Yes, to some extent and in some cases, because key factors for long-lived micro hydro are interconnected. This is why, while each work stream focuses on specific themes, HPNET's cross-thematic initiatives leverage the overlaps for country-focused activity.  For example, HPNET's Social Enterprise for Energy, Ecological and Economic Development (SEEED) connects the work streams of productive end use, local social capital, watersheds, and access to finance.  HPNET's Earth Voices series connects the work streams of local social capital, environmental impact, productive end use and strategic advocacy.

TECHNOLOGY

Training and Manufacturing Centers
​This work stream focuses on micro hydro local manufacturing centers and training centers that build the capacity of local technicians, fabricators, and engineers to design, build, install, and upkeep their own electro-mechanical systems (i.e. turbine assembly, generator, and load controller).  Since currently micro hydro training and manufacturing centers remain under utilized or under resourced, the current aim of this work stream is to:

• Co-create, identify, or share curriculum to improve the quality of local fabrication, operation and preventive maintenance;
• Facilitate partnerships between members seeking technical knowhow and members who have micro hydro training or manufacturing centers;
• Promote local technology research and development with academia and other multi-actors;
• Develop advocacy and knowledge exchange material to promote local knowledge centers, such as this webinar and these videos from Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar training/manufacturing centers.

Grid Interconnection
International focus on energy access has meant the greater extension of the national grid.  Since most micro/mini hydro projects are typically off-grid, sustainability issues arise with the main grid's arrival. Practitioners across the region are voicing for policies that allow mini-grids to interconnect to the main grid.  In 2016, HPNET organized a practice-to-policy exchange engaging government, developers, and utilities actors from eight countries in the region to learn about pioneering grid interconnection micro hydro projects and to strategize change.  Building on this, the work stream has helped to bring forth grid interconnection policy and projects in Nepal.  In the wake of this progress, it has contributed to evidence-based advocacy. The current aims of this work stream focus on additional solutions to addressing sustainability issues of main grid arrival:

• Resolve techno-institutional challenges to interconnecting multiple micro hydro projects into a single mini-grid;
• Evidence to promote policies and funding resources for alternative business models after main grid arrival (e.g. anchor loads, selling to neighboring villages, incentives to compete with the main grid, etc.);
• Support advocacy and knowledge exchange material, such as this ESMAP publication, HPNET webinar, presentation, UNDP-RERL fact sheet and UNDP-RERL video.

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Load Management and Controllers
The aim of this work stream is to improve the quality and utilization of electricity in micro hydro projects through:

• Establishing technical standards for micro grids, by collating existing standards with best practices based on field experiences and allowing practitioners to develop sourced standards that are specific to their approach and context;
• Improving availability of affordable micro grid controllers and load management technology, such as the Bluebird Open Source ELC and Canary Load Indicator;
• De-mystifying local controllers and additional features to open source load controllers.

SOCIO-ENVIRONMENT

Productive End Use
Micro hydro projects typically receive funding for implementation only.  Once commissioned, projects must sustain themselves financially.  Without financial viability, the governance body of the project cannot fund technical maintenance and repairs.  Financial viability depends on income generated from the micro hydro system, typically as tariff paid by consumers.  Many projects are not financially viable due to poor utilization of electricity, where only lighting is the main load.  This work stream:

• Collates case studies of productive end use on the micro hydro, such as those here and presented in this webinar;
• Analyzes ownership and management models that lead to higher load factors;
• Assesses how financing models impact load factors;
• Supports barely sustainable projects to transition to financially viable projects.

Local Social Capital
This work stream focuses on social transformation aspects of micro hydro development and in turn its impact on the viability and sustainability of micro hydro projects.  Micro hydro developers' capacities are limited to that of their community organizers because project implementation requires a unified and well managed community.  Local change agendas trusted by the village are the key to community-driven project completion and long-term sustainability. They can come from various social sub-groups of the community. The objectives and activities of this work stream are centered on understanding and strengthening local social capital of community-scale micro hydro projects:

• How to ensure projects serve the needs of women and how to measure impact of women leaders on micro hydro sustainability and socio-economic benefits;
• How to promote youth leaders and consumers in micro hydro development;
• How to ensure local developers and NGOs have access to equal opportunities as do foreign developers;
• How to develop projects within social enterprise models;
• Collating the work of local change makers and enabling ways to communicate and scale their work, such as this local capacity building and this webinar.

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Environmental Impact and Watersheds
Environment impact and watersheds are critical but often overlooked aspects of micro hydro development.  Without a sustainable water source there can be no micro hydro project.  Yet funding resources for watershed strengthening are rarely available for micro hydro implementation.  In addition, as climate change worsens, the environmental impact to and from micro hydro projects will be changing.  This work stream focuses on collating best practices to reduce micro hydro impact on the environment and find solutions to strengthen micro hydro catchment areas -- leading to increased climate resilience.  The work stream's current aims are to:

• Understand the challenges and opportunities of HPNET members to integrate environmental impact safeguards and watershed strengthening in their projects;
• Identify knowledge gaps and target the development of specific knowledge products;
• Quantify the impact of climate change on catchment areas, as well as the increased climate resilience of micro hydro projects and communities due to healthy watersheds;
• Develop advocacy material that helps to link multi-actors that focus on nature-based solutions and watershed conservation to micro hydro implementation and practitioners.

POLICY

​Access to Finance
Accessing grants is becoming increasingly difficult and has always been difficult for local practitioners.  In addition, an assessment across HPNET contexts shows that grant-funded projects often have issues in developing high utilization, whereas projects financed through a loan or some other finance have an innate structure for establishing financial viability.  Thereof, this work stream:

• Documents evidence from HPNET contexts that shows how a project is funded or finance impacts its outcome;
• Identifies institutions that provide finance to energy access projects;
• Connects local practitioners to project finance advisors;
• Promotes solutions that enable access to finance, such as enabling the role of local banks, as presented in this webinar.

Integrated Energy Planning
Although there is evidence showing the advantages of mini-grids versus the central grid and analysis on how interconnecting mini-grids to the central grid has benefits for both, most energy access resources in the global South are spent on grid extension.  Hydro mini-grids are particularly advantageous, providing 24-hour reliable electricity, typically at lower LCOE and costs per kW than most other types of mini-grids, and leading to lower tariffs for rural consumers and greater end use.  Despite their obvious advantages, in most developing contexts decentralized renewable energy mini-grids continue to be framed as “pre-electrification” solutions at par with solar home lighting, or “not as important as the central grid.”  To address these gaps this work stream advocates for integrated energy planning to scale up mini-grids with the following activities:

• Spotlight the work of local energy planners that are developing techniques and programs for integrated energy planning, as in this webinar;
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and access to mapping tools for mini-grid planning;
• Develop advocacy and knowledge tools to the make the case for integrated energy planning.​

Strategic Advocacy
Although micro hydro interventions have been around for many decades, it is currently an underdog in the mini-grid context, which is dominated by solar PV mini-grid development.  Therefore, this work stream focuses on awareness-building of multi-stakeholders on the cost-benefit of community-scale hydro and on the themes mentioned above, in the following ways: 

• Online advocacy through webinars, videos, and other multi-media;
• Bi-lateral exchange between local practitioners and relevant multi-actors;
• ​Multi-lateral round tables to address challenges and opportunities for specific contexts.
• Advocacy at international conferences and events through panel discussions and presentations, such as this 'Deep Dive Session' at the Asia Clean Energy Forum 2019.

Last quarter we launched our new feature series, Earth Voices, to put a spotlight on indigenous micro hydro communities who are sustainably managing communal resources and successfully empowering themselves through energy access. 

This quarter, we chose to feature the community of Kampung Buayan, a remote village located in the Ulu Papar region of Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo.

[See Malay translation below; Lihat terjemahan Bahasa Melayu di bawah.]

Nagaland is one of the "seven sisters of India," the seven northeastern states of India, endowed with a multitude of indigenous communities, rich biodiversity and extensive hilly forests.

Earlier this month in Nagaland with support from WISIONS, HPNET organized a knowledge exchange visit for Ramasubramanian Vaidhyanathan, the Board of Representative Member for India also known as "Rams", to share his micro hydro expertise with practitioners at Nagaland Empowerment of People through Energy Development (NEPeD).

NEPeD has a well established approach and direction to do sustainable micro hydro projects. Moreover, due to NEPeD's work doing in-house manufacturing at their CERES facility, it is well positioned to support local practitioners and advance the sector throughout Northeast India. This visit aimed to support NEPeD in building on its considerable achievements

Through decades of work on micro hydropower initiatives in Eastern Ghats of India and elsewhere globally, Rams has earned the title of "micro hydro guru" within the network. He supports training, design and manufacturing of Pelton, crossflow, and pump-as-turbines, along with system-wide implementation aspects.

​The exchange visit endeavoured to synergize NEPeD's committed efforts to Rams' several decades of expertise, in order to advance sustainable micro hydro sector in northeast India. More specifically, the purpose of the visit was to:
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• Assess casting facilities and raw material availability;
• Assess the fabrication workshop and team at Centre for Excellence for Renewable Energy Studies (CERES);
• Assess what other turbines could be fabricated with the present infrastructure
• Visit one or two sites to assess the implementation issues, ownership model, revenue generation, etc.

Rams gave a positive assessment of the casting facilities and availability of raw material. He has reported back that the CERES has a well equipped fabrication workshop with CNC operated lathe and milling machines, an arc welding machine, angle grinder and cutting machine. Casting fabrication is outsourced to the neighbouring institution, the Nagaland Tool and Training Centre. The aluminum castings for the runner buckets and the PMG cores are sourced from Guwahati foundries.

As for his assessment of the CERES fabrication workshop and team, Rams shared that the workshop is well positioned to fabricate turbines of up to 50 kW, and that the team is highly motivated and experienced in the installation of turbines. Moreover, in addition to the fabrication centre, there is a test rig available to test turbines, ram pumps and electric load controllers (ELCs). 

Rams found that with the existing infrastructure, Pelton turbines and cross-flow turbines can easily be fabricated at CERES up to a capacity of 50 kW. He advised that larger units can be taken up once the team gets hands-on experience on the 50 kW scale.

In addition, communities supported by NEPeD do horticulture that can have significantly greater local economic benefits with electricity-based processing.  Enabling this requires the NEPeD pico hydro systems to be upgraded to micro hydro capacities that can generate enough electricity for horticulture livelihoods. HPNET's facilitation of multi-stakeholders to move forward in this direction is a part of our initiative Social Enterprise for Energy, Ecological and Economic Development (SEEED).

Based on the outcomes of the visit, we foresee NEPeD upscaling its capacities as well as playing an important role as a regional practitioner advancing the micro hydro sector in northeast India.

Earlier this month, Hivos together with HPNET member Hydropower for Community Empowerment in Myanmar (HyCEM), and local civil socieity organizations conducted an event in Shan State, Myanmar on "Decentralised Renewable Energy (DRE) Field-Based Capacity Building for CSOs and Community Leaders".

The event followed up on an action plan activity laid out in July 2019 at the Multi-Actor Meeting to Advance Community-Centric Hydropower for Rural Livelihoods and Reforestation, organized by Hivos, HyCEM and HPNET member the Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar (REAM). Workshop attendees had identified a need to facilitate a field-based exposure, capacity-building and solution-finding workshop to bring together non-state actors, namely local DRE entrepreneurs, local civil society and village electrification committees, for collaborative learning and exchange. 

The objectives of the event were three-fold:

• Support Htan Hla Pin, Myaseti, and Myiang to increase energy access in their micro hydro systems
• Increase awareness of Mon, Kayin & Shan participants on mini-grid design & implementation
• Explore areas of collaboration between local CSOs, DRE entrepreneurs and DRE village communities

On December 12th, participants gathered for sessions on Energy Demand and Resources and DRE Solutions and Technologies. The workshop opened with a participatory mapping activity followed by presentations and interactive discussions for each sub region.

On the second day of the workshop, participants split up to attend site assessments, discussions and visits in different villages. One group was led by ENACT who ran Minigrid Game workshops in a nearby village to facilitate discussion and consensus-building for their community energy systems. ​

Overall, the workshop was effective in supporting collaborative dialogue among non-state actors -- an important outcome for advancing an inclusive DRE sector in Myanmar. ​

The Hidden No More feature series was designed to spotlight women change-makers who have transformed gender barriers, and made impactful contributions to energy access for marginalized communities.

For this 4th edition, we reached out to Koto Kishida, former Malaysia Program Manager at Green Empowerment and strong advocate for sustainable rural development. Through this conversation, we gained insight into Koto’s experience as a female leader working at the intersection of energy access and natural resource management. 

Our conversation shed light on watershed protection and enhancement -- an important, yet undervalued, area of micro hydropower (MH), which Koto has been tirelessly working to promote. Koto recognizes that MH incentivizes communities to protect the catchment area ecosystem; by motivating watershed strengthening, micro hydro projects (MHPs) can play a key role in building climate resilience in rural communities. 
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Read on to learn why Koto is committed to promoting environmental conservation in community energy projects, and to gain insight into her journey as a woman energy practitioner.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Koto Kishida. I am a Japanese citizen but have spent the majority of my life in the United States. In the last few years I lived in Malaysian Borneo, first as a volunteer in 2016, and then as the Malaysia Program Manager for Green Empowerment (GE) from 2017-2019. As some of the readers may know, GE is an HPNET Member, a US based NGO that works on rural sustainable development in Latin America and SE Asia. Most of the work GE has done in Malaysian Borneo has been in the area of rural sustainable development focused around energy access. GE has been supporting local NGOs such as PACOS Trust and TONIBUNG to install community based micro-hydro and solar mini-grid projects.
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​How did you start your career?

For most of my professional career, I worked for Oregon State's environmental protection agency, first analysing environmental samples and later working to minimize loss of forest cover and reduce polluted runoff from agricultural and forest land uses to protect water quality through policy and regulations. A large part of my work involved analyzing how much vegetation/forest cover was needed to sufficiently protect the aquatic environment. Having worked on both regulatory and voluntary programs to comply with environmental regulations, I came to understand the critical roles the local communities play in protecting the environment. 

I had traveled to SE Asia in the early 2010's and was drawn to rural communities where people lived traditionally. While traveling I saw rapid development as well as emerging environmental issues. This is when I began having the desire to support local communities who had a more sustainable vision for development in their communities. I reached out to a number of NGOs that worked on environmental issues, with my desire to volunteer during my sabbatical planned in 2016. One of the NGOs I contacted was Green Empowerment. At the time, GE was working with its main partner organization, TONIBUNG, to explore opportunities to access funds for conservation. In 2016 I traveled to Sabah in Malaysian Borneo to develop TONIBUNG's monitoring program as GE's volunteer. 
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During my stay in Malaysian Borneo working with rural communities, I saw the day-to-day as well as long term struggles indigenous people faced there. My main take-away from the experience in Malaysian Borneo was the same as I had learned in Oregon — the success of conservation efforts depended on the local people's desire and ability to continue living in their community in a sustainable manner. There is a need to create a space for the community members to figure out the future they want for themselves. Our only role as practitioners is to facilitate the discussion and provide support as requested by the community. ​

Even though there are success stories, engaging women during planning meetings and recruiting them to join committees do not always become a priority during project implementation. I attribute this to the capacity of NGOs we work with. Some of the partner organizations we worked with had a limited number of female staff, and the project managers had challenges with the construction of infrastructure alone, such that gender balance was not a major consideration. And I think our local partners value meeting the communities where they are. For cultural reasons or the particular situations that the communities are in, if they do not have female representatives in leadership positions in the MH Committee, that does not mean progress has not been made. 

I did not make a significant impact on addressing the gender issues while working with TONIBUNG, other than some isolated successes. I have tried to understand the reasons why certain jobs are filled by men only, and challenges women face at the workplace, in order to understand my priorities for how to address these challenges. For TONIBUNG, I encouraged their staff to be inclusive of women when working with communities, and questioned their sexist comments or jokes when I heard them. I also participate in groups and discussions with others who raise gender issues, and promote local and indigenous women to speak at professional conferences. ​

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

Last month, practitioners from Philippines and Malaysia gathered for a training session on Pelton micro hydro turbine fabrication. The session was the second part of a two-part training organized by HPNET and Sibol Ng Agham At Teknolohiya (SIBAT), to strengthen local capacities in fabrication and manufacturing.

The training responded to the knowledge exchange needs of HPNET Members in the Philippines and Malaysia who require skills to design and build Pelton micro hydro turbines.

Following an online training in November, the in-person training ran from December 2 - 7 and was held at SIBAT's Center for Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technology (CREATech) in Capas, Tarlac, Philippines. The overall aim was for participants to acquire knowledge of the design, manufacturing and testing of Pelton turbines, including fabrication of the Pelton runner assembly.
Participants benefited from an opportunity for hands-on learning, in addition to technical and theoretical presentations. 

Within Pelton Turbine Design, sub-topics covered included:

• Single and multi jet turbines;
• Vertical and horizontal axis turbines;
• Direct and belt drive systems;
• Net head calculations and shaft calculations;
• Pelton runner sizing;
• Bearing and belt selection;
• Other components.

The resource person for this training was HPNET Member Mr. Ajith Kumara from Simple Engineering, a senior micro and mini hydropower specialist based in Sri Lanka. Mr. Kumara has extensive experience training practitioners in design and fabrication aspects of various electro-mechanical components of small-scale hydropower.

This training was made possible by SIBAT, WISIONS and Simple Engineering.

SPEAKERS
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​DR. CATHERINA CADER
RESEARCH UNIT OFF-GRID SYSTEMS
REINER LEMOINE INSTITUTE, GERMANY 
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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.
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THEMATIC DISCUSSANT
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DIPTI VAGHELA
​NETWORK FACILITATOR AND MANAGER 
HYDRO EMPOWERMENT NETWORK (HPNET) 
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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.
​

HPNET members in Indonesia and the Philippines are joining forces to provide high quality micro hydro equipment to community-based projects in Mindanao.

The ASEAN Centre for Hydropower Competance (HYCOM) and Pt Entec Indonesia, both global experts for micro hydro technology transfer, are supporting the Yamog Renewable Energy Development Group, Inc., the pioneering NGO committed for nearly three decades to providing electricity to marginalized communities in Mindanao, to explore establishing local manufacturing of cross-flow turbines.  

After multiple online exchanges, in June 2019 HPNET Board members Gerhard Fischer and Ardi Nugraha visited Yamog in Davao City to gauge the local team's capacity for local manufacturing.  Then in October 2019, Yamog's technical leads visit Pt Entec and HYCOM in Bandung, Indonesia to better understand quality standards practiced in Indonesia.  The collaboration is gradually moving toward the goal of locally manufactured cross-flow turbines in Mindanao.

HPNET facilitated the start of collaboration between PT Entec and Yamog in 2018 and the network has benefited immensely from the ongoing contributions of both organizations. It is great to see continuous knowledge exchange (often self-initiated, as in this case) between these long-standing HPNET Members.

This week HPNET Manager Dipti Vaghela and HPNET Member Kapila Subasinghe from DFCC Bank took part in the Deep Dive Energy Access Using Innovative Mini-grid Solutions. Asia Clean Energy Summit (ACES) at the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW).  Dipti presented on the panel "Challenges and Risks in Deploying Renewable energy Mini-Grid Technologies" and Kapila presented on the panel "Innovations in Finance."   Read more here.

Micro hydro development in Indonesia started around 1991 with the support of GIZ (German international cooperation). Later on, Energising Development (EnDev) Indonesia implemented many MHP projects until 2014, with Entec AG Swiss / PT Entec Indonesia as consultants. 

The ASEAN Hydro Competence Centre (HYCOM) was inaugurated in 2011 and is jointly operated and managed by PT Entec Indonesia and the Technical Education Development Centre Bandung (TEDC). In addition to PT Entec and TEDC, HYCOM was established with the support of:

• ASEAN Center for Energy (ACE) and GIZ
• Entec AG
• Renewable Energy Platform Swiss (REPIC)
• University FH Technik (Zurich)

HYCOM works to promote small-scale hydropower and disseminate know-how in the sector. Offering hands-on training and application oriented research, HYCOM endeavours to improve the implementation and operation of small-scale hydropower installations worldwide. To date, HYCOM has conducted about 40 trainings and workshops with 350 participants from 25 countries, and has hosted approximately 500 visitors from all over the world.

​This quarter HYCOM conducted three knowledge transfer activities, which are described below by guest bloggers and HPNET Board Members, Mr. Gerhard Fischer and Mr. Ardi Nugraha.

Guest blog post written by Mr. Gerhard Fischer (Director of PT Entec Indonesia and HYCOM, and HPNET Board of Advisors Member) and Mr. Ardi Nugraha (Senior Manager of PT Entec Indonesia and HYCOM, and HPNET Board of Representatives Member for Indonesia).

They can be reached at office@entec.co.id 

We are glad to have HPNET Member Mr. Atud Jonathan Asaah from Cameroon, as a guest blogger to share his views on the potential and impact of hydro mini-grids in his country.

Africa harbors one of the world’s best renewable energy resources which can be used to harness electricity. Unfortunately, in 2012 the International Energy Agency announced that about 590 million people in Africa live without access to electricity. Meanwhile, a similar report in the same year quoted that there were 1.5 billion people around the world that don’t have access to electricity.

From the two reports cited above, it can be seen that Africa alone had approximately 40% of those living in darkness in the world. Even though this report is 7 years old, there may be little change as regards the proportion of Africans living in the dark today because in most of these African countries, the grid extension program has been very slow. ​

This low rate of rural electrification (17%)is due to a series of factors:

• Cameroon has a population of above 24 million people and 45% of these people live in rural areas. These rural areas are organized in small villages mostly located in geographically difficult topography that makes it very expensive for grid extension in terms of distribution infrastructures. In most cases, the terminus of the grid line maybe too far from the village.
• The initial demand in most of these villages is usually very small and the national grid company may find it not cost effective.

On the other hand, these villages are naturally endowed with unlimited renewable energy resources on the spot which include abundant rivers, streams, wind and the sun that could constitute reliable sources of electricity for these remote communities. Law N ° 2011/022 of 14 December 2011 of Cameroon governing the electricity sector in its Article 29 provides for conditions to own private power production units but there is still a very timid entry of private investors in the energy sector, which therefore calls for more awareness from government to lure these partners into synergy to meet up with the demand.
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Cameroon is found within CEMAC-The Economic community of Central African states and the most populated country and acting as the economic hub of this block. Its energy sector remains a major prerequisite to meet up its economic giant position within this economic block which is considered a regional integration used as a tool for economic growth. The government cannot achieve this energy objective alone via its current  grid extension program.

WAY FORWARD

Most of the villages of these rural areas have been naturally endowed with renewable energy resources like the sun, wind and small streams which can be used to harness their energy on the spot.  The more stakeholders fold their arms and see this poor population continue to live in the dark, the more villagers rely heavily on biomass -- cutting down trees in the forest to collect wood and produce charcoal for cooking and heating, kerosene lamps used to provide lighting, petrol and diesel will be used to power standby generators.

We cannot sit and watch these practices when at the same time we intend to mitigate the green gas effect which is causing global warming (climate change mitigation). Renewable energy using indigenous resources like those listed above can play a catalyst role in this energy revolution. Reference is made  here to small-scale hydroelectricity systems, solar systems, and wind power. This will lead to bringing the sources of energy back to the community level- a participatory approach to energy generation which gives local communities greater autonomy over the infrastructure.

Many of the people who lack access to electricity in Cameroon live in these villages with sufficient sunshine, abundant streams and rivers that flow throughout the year and in most cases have hills that provide the necessary gravity to rotate a micro hydro turbine.

Creation of community micro hydro power stations

These are micro power stations that have maximum capacity of up to 100 kW and are easily managed by the community. Those communities, which are isolated or found far off the national grid, can be powered by these independent power units which involve harnessing small water sources usually in hills that are flowing under the natural influence of gravity with minimum civil construction infrastructure. The water is tunneled through a pipeline (penstock) to rotate a turbine connected to a generator to produce electricity. The penstock builds up pressure from the water that has traveled downwards from a hill. The electricity is then sent to the village community for household consumption or sold to the national grid. The construction of a community micro hydro project requires community mobilization especially at the civil phase. The local community needs to be well aware on the importance of the scheme​.

Community battery charging units

These are small hydro power plants of few watts up to 5 kW which can be used to charge DC batteries at the community level. These batteries are later used with inverters to obtain AC current which is used to power domestic appliances.

Community-based micro hydro repair workshops

The main difficulty encountered in most cases in running micro hydro systems is the lack of a ready supply of affordable turbine parts and the lack of domestic manufacturing capacity.  The presence of local technical workshops that can fabricate simple components needed to run the system is vital for the sustainability of the project. Most of the remote micro hydro systems in Africa have been closed down because of lack of spare parts for its components.  Lack of local fabrication workshops poses a great challenge for rural electrification.​

​Africa is losing more forest than any continent and making it more vulnerable to climate change. This seems to be the right moment for policy makers to intervene via promotion of these community-base micro hydro schemes -- which will not only protect our forests but equally improve on the livelihood of these rural population.​

This week, the SIBAT and CREATech team, from Luzon, Philippines, took the initiative to complement their 25 years of micro hydro development in the northern Philippines with a learning visit to Tonibung and CREATE’s work in Sabah, Borneo Malaysia.  Tonibung has been the pioneer of community-based micro hydro systems in Malaysia for 25+ years, focusing on indigenous communities and social enterprise.  Tonibung closely collaborates with Green Empowerment.  HPNET's collective knowledge has been greatly enriched by the active membership of all five organizations.

The SIBAT team took time to understand Tonibung’s local manufacturing developments and their approach to linking MHPs to social enterprise for scaling productive end use.

The team visited Longkogungan village and Kalanggaan village, along with Tonibung staff members Bill Baxter and Willery Larry, and Green Empowerment staff member Dan Frydman.

Here is what SIBAT engineer Ms. Benazir Bacala has to say about the recent visit:

“Visiting the sites of Tonibung made me appreciate more the work of NGOs. It was an adventure that we could never forget, risky hiking,  lots of crossing rivers...Very inspiring how Tonibung and its staff were also able to reach those villages in remote areas to provide sustainable energy to the communities and their efforts and dedication to help the people.

We learned a lot about their MHP with Pelton turbines, both direct couple and belt-driven systems, that were locally manufactured at CREATE.”

For more journeys of women micro hydro practitioners in our Hidden No More  series, please sign up below to receive our newsletter!  ​

Most of the population lives in the southern Union Councils where the natural conditions and the natural resources (forests, arable lands in the valleys, irrigation infrastructure) are the best. In the northern Union Councils and more mountainous valleys, natural resources are scarce and limited to vast shrub pastures and small plots in the valleys for agri-/horticulture.  In these areas, livestock including a few local sheep and goat breeds, is important for the subsistence households. But due to remote location and limited development interventions, opportunities for diversifying subsistence farming and linked livelihoods are almost negligible. This makes them extremely vulnerable to external stresses by natural hazards or socio-economic instability.

Evolution to Social Enterprise

Over time, the MH projects implemented by AKRSP have grown in size and impact. Initially,  systems were relatively small, providing electricity solely for lighting and small appliances, and often operating only for night-time use. Today, much larger systems are being implemented, with implications for community development that go beyond basic electrification. This development is the result of a decision to shift to a community enterprise approach.

The community-based mini hydropower utility companies (CBMHPUCs) can be understood as “community enterprises” with both commercial as well as social aims and objectives, i.e. “to create sustainable wealth for the community; and to create social benefit for the community”. This means to deliver fairly priced quality services in a sector that neither the public nor other private sector covers. In comparison to other models (e.g. trusts and co-operatives) the organizational functions and operating style are driven by business methods and practices. Furthermore, its regulatory and other reporting requirements are more robust. Thus they distinguish themselves from the otherwise rather informal operating patterns of community-based organizations or maintenance committees mostly applied in regard to micro and small MHPs. Nonetheless, the central feature of the CBMHPUCs set up by AKRSP remains the same as with other community-based organizations: they are basically owned and controlled by people who live in a defined locality, who constitute a community of interest and who, in this case, may share the rights over the water used for the electricity generation. 

The new approach of AKRSP for formation and regulation of the community based Utility Companies in Hydro power is to register with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) under Companies Ordinance (1984). The objective of the CBMHPUCs is “to establish a financially viable and sustainable hydro power business by providing affordable and reliable electricity with improved service quality and profitability”.

Three of the main CBMHPUCs designed with this new enterprise-based approach approach are CBMHPUC Yadgarh (800 kW), Shandur (500 kW) and Ozhor (500 kW). These plants have been operational since January 2017 and were designed to provide enterprise opportunities for small industries and to eradicate poverty. The CBMHPUC Yadgarh was initially planned to cover some 14 settlements, which by now has increased to 17, with some 1127 households or 8404 people to be serviced. The CBMHPUC Shandur covers three villages or 16 settlements and some 854 to 1161 households or around 6,043 people.12 CBMHPUC Ozhor covers some 21 settlements and 1200 households or 9208 people (see table 1). The electricity generated through the MHPs is distributed via village-scale mini-grids.

​Inclusive Ownership:  How it Works

The MHPs were established through hybrid financing, i.e. a combination of “donor model” and “cash model”. The costs for large parts (including the technology, T&D system) were covered by donor money – in the case of the CBMHPUC Yadgarh and CBMHPUC Shandur, from the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC), and in case of the CBMHPUC Ozhor from the PPAF. This was complemented by equity from AKRSP and the communities. Community households contributed between PKR 6000 and 9000 and the minimum contributions per community were set at PKR 10 Mil. for each project. With the transformation of the units into public limited companies, the initial investments of the community members were converted into shares and transferred on individual persons. The value of 1 share was set at 100 rupees.

Accordingly, the CBMHPUCs still follow the “cooperative model” in the sense that the community members (partially) own the MHP.  Now each CBMHPUC has between 1000 and 1600 shareholders from the community. 

Micro Hydro Success Cases

Case Study 1 - Electricity Utilization

Thirty years old Muhammad Nasir is the eldest son in his family and is a resident of Raman Laspur. He is living with his father, mother, 3 brothers, a daughter and a son. His son is a student in CBS School in a playgroup class. 

His father is pensioner in Chitral Scout.is one younger brother is in the army and the other is in Chitral Scout. His youngest brother is doing labour work. 
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Before Muhammad was going to other districts for labour work, but when AKRSP started construction of MHP in the area, his father asked him to come home. When he came home, his father sent him to Gilgit to learn some skills; Muhammad got training on stove making, tool sharpening and welding. 

When the new MHP became operational he came to the village of Raman and opened a shop where he started welding, stove making and tool sharpening. Muhammad sells his one stove at Rs. 3500 and sharpens one tool at Rs. 50. He said “I feel very satisfied and happy about my profession and what my father has decided for me”.
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With his earnings, he buys all the raw materials like welding rods, sheet teen and coal for heating up different tools in forge. In the start he was using a manual method for blowing coals in the furnace, but now he has bought an electric blower and electric wheel sharpening stone. 
With his income, he also pays his son’s school fees and helps his father in buying food and other necessities. After deducting all the expenses, he is getting net profit of Rs. 8000. Muhammad is also providing job opportunities for the unemployed in this area. He said due to electricity access, our standard of living improved and we can see that poverty is reducing gradually. 

Social Inclusion

One of the basic rationales for rural electrification is that it enables households to switch from lower quality and especially from carbon-based fuels such as fossil and bio-fuels to electricity for various energy services. This switch is expected to generate a range of social, environmental and economic benefits, not least if the electricity stems from renewable energy sources. Essentially, benefits from rural electrification through renewable energy resources are obvious. Common links between (renewable) energy use and  components of poverty are beneficial effects on health, education, the environment and income. 

For example, the use of electricity may lead to health benefits, such as reduced exposure to hazardous pollutants and reduced air pollution; eliminating drudgery associated with collecting fire wood may improve the health condition, above all of women and children who most often carry out this task; access to electricity may enable vaccination and temperature-adequate medicine storage (through refrigerators). 

The use of electricity may also involve educational benefits, by reducing drudgery and thereby freeing up time for study: enhanced lighting can enable to studying at night; furthermore, electricity may also assist to narrow the digital divide through Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). 

Environmental benefits may encompass a reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels and biomass; reduced use of wood for fuel may lead to a mitigation of deforestation; application of renewable energy promotes climate protection.

Lastly, income benefits may mean, among others, increased productivity and profitability of agricultural methods leading to better farm/household revenues; enterprise development through electrification can create jobs; mechanization in industry can lead to higher productivity and lower consumption costs; small-scale energy systems in rural areas may generate local industry or enterprises; the use of more efficient electric appliances.  

Women-Centric Approach

The typical workload of women in the Chitral region is extreme. Apart from caring for the children and the households, they look after the animals and assist their husbands in crop husbandry. If collecting firewood is substituted by an electric oven women may save 1 h/day; if washing is electrified (eventually in a village bath and washing house) they may serve 1- 2 hrs/day; and if wool weaving is outsourced to a collective unit, they may save up to 3 hrs/day. With some electrical appliances in the households for cooking, for heating/cooling (which could be facilitated by some better insulation of 1 – 2 rooms or refrigerators) and for home maintenance, as well as collective ventures for women in washing and ironing, weaving or of processing of milk and gardening products etc. the women’s workload can be considerably reduced.Moreover, saved hours in the household could be used for improved education and socio-political activities (which AKRSP investigates & supports in MH projects).

Most importantly, women will receive equal benefit from the project in terms of dividend, they will be part of the governing body and involved in decision making (i.e tariff designing, investment plan, etc). In AKRSP supported projects, women are involved as investors, shareholders and owners of the plant.​

Guest blog post written by Mr. Meherban Khan, Coordinator for Utility Companies - Hydro Power Development at Aga Khan Rural Support Program and HPNET Board of Representative member for Pakistan.

He can be reached at meherbanakrsp@gmail.com or meherban@akrsp.org.pk.

To commemorate International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples this quarter, marked annually on August 9 by the United Nations, we are introducing Earth Voices to spotlight indigenous micro hydropower (MH) communities across the region who are sustainably managing communal natural resources and successfully empowering themselves through energy access. 

​Indigenous communities of South and Southeast Asia are highly diverse, with unique traditions, languages, religious/spiritual beliefs and social structures. One commonality is the link between environmental conservation and indigenous heritage. Indigenous communities play a vital role in safeguarding the region’s rich biodiversity and forest ecosystems. They are often deeply reliant on ecosystem services, and carry an intricate understanding of local ecological relationships.

Written by Lara Powell, HPNET Communications Coordinator