Technical Overview

The civil engineering and electro-mechanical equipment of the Salido Kecil MHP, although built ~100 years ago, is an engineering masterpiece and a benchmark for high-quality hydropower projects even for today. The system is equipped with Siemens & Schuckert generators, Pelton turbines, and first-generation Hansen & MAN mechanical jet deflectors, all from Germany.
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• Civil work infrastructure.  A 2.2 km long power channel -- partially in an earth-covered tunnel, with 4 long aqueducts and a pair of parallel gravel sedimentation basins near the intake, and a pair of parallel de-sanders near the forebay -- provide the perfect water quality for the operation of the electro-mechanical system.  With a head of 110 m, the cast iron penstock is 342 m long and 600/700 m in diameter, with lead-sealed joints.

 

• Electro-mechanical system.  The system has 3 generators direct-coupled at 750 RPM to 3 different Pelton turbines, each of 400 kVa capacity. Each turbine has 2 runners on the shaft, with 4 nozzles. In total, there are 6 runners and 12 nozzles. Eight nozzles are on/off type and 4 nozzles are adjustable, in order to fine tune the water level at the forebay tank during the dry season.  The system is equipped with synchronizing jet defector control at each nozzle.  The design output of the system was 600 kW.

Project Timeline
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• Early 1900s:  The project was constructed by Dutch engineers to provide electricity to a nearby gold mine.
• 1940s:  Japanese military occupied the plant for its own use.
• 1950s:  The Indonesian civil war resulted in the abandoning of the project, during which the penstock was extensively damaged from extreme floods in West Sumatra.
• Early 1960s:  PT. Anggrek Mekar Sari (AMS) repaired the system and obtained government permission to operate and sell electricity to the local grid of the utility, PLN. 
• 1960s - 1990s:  AMS’ attempt to sell electricity to the neighboring city of Painan and later to a local cement factory failed due to PLN connecting the area to the West Sumatra grid.   
• 1995:  During a period of large government subsidy for diesel, PLN connected a diesel-powered plant to the same local grid, and AMS was forced to disconnect the Selido-Kecil Mini Hydro from the local grid.  
• 1995 - 2005:  To survive financially, AMS sold electricity to its own ice factory, utilizing the one last functional turbine.  entec AG from Switzerland conducts field assessments and an investor search to rehabilitate the entire system of 3 turbines.  
• 2006:  After much difficulty in finding investors due to the policy situation, entec AG decided to invest on its own and secured a loan from the Triodos Development Bank in the Netherlands.
• 2006 - 2007:  PT entec Indonesia (a subsidiary of entec AG)  jointly with AMS, on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis,  started the rehabilitation of the “Unit 2” turbine, resulting in an output of 315 kW.
• 2008 - 2009:  The “Unit 1” turbine is rehabilitated. The project obtains the Gold Standard Verified Emission Reductions (GS-VER).
• 2011 - 2012:  The “Unit 3” turbine is rehabilitated, requiring the ice factory to close.
• 2013:  All 3 units are rehabilitation and operational, generating 780 kW, instead of the expected design output of 1000 kW, due to losses in the penstock.

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Source for timeline:  Rehabilitation of the Mini Hydro Power Plant PLTA Salido Kecil, Feasibility Study, Entec AG Switzerland, 1999
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Feed-In-Tariff Challenges

There are two schemes of power purchase agreement in Indonesia’s energy administration: excess power and independent power.  Unfortunately it was not possible until now to change the Excess Power Purchase Agreement (EPPA) applied during the operation of the ice factory to an Independent Power Producer Agreement (IPPA), and the tariff is still very low.  From 2005 until 2018, it was IDR 441 (USD 0.45 / kWh in 2005). From 2018 until today, it has been IDR 470 IDR (USD 0.32 / kWh ), which is a fraction of the IPPA tariff in the region (about USD 0.61 / kWh). 

Considering the inflation, the USD 0.45 in 2005 is equivalent to USD 0.60  today and not USD 0.32 US.  So the actual tariff paid is again being lowered every year. Without an increase of utility tariff, history may repeat, and the operation in some years will again not be profitable. Moreover, in the last 3 years the power plant has been disconnected for some months due to administrative issues and it has been causing a huge income loss.
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Since September 2019 the power plant has been interconnected again. However, the following observations were made:
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• The power plant is on the end of a transmission line branch. More and more consumers are connecting, and the voltage is often dropping in the peak power times below 200V. This causes an overheating of the generator and transformer, and the generator must be disconnected in the peak hour. This triggers another voltage drop to 190V of the grid and reconnection is technically only possible at around 11pm or when the voltage is above 215V.  

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• The operation of Salido MHP reduces the transmission loss of the utility in our power line to the distribution transformer for about 10% of our production. This is not considered in the paid tariff- the opposite is the case– we need to switch off during peak hours because the voltage is too low.​

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​​Watersheds and Climate Resilience

​There are a number of accounts of negative impacts of climate change in rural communities where our members work. Many of the communities have known the importance of healthy watersheds, as they are the source of drinking and irrigation water, as well as timber and non-timber products that provide food and livelihood. 
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Those communities have traditional rules to sustainably manage their natural resources. HPNET members who work on local community-based hydropower also understand that building resilient watersheds is key for the communities to sustain and regulate stream flow, secure clean drinking and sanitation water, as well as forest resources that could support sustainable rural development.  Gram Vikas’ work in Odisha, India is one such example.

Watersheds and Micro Hydro
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In addition, healthy watersheds are the foundation to sustainable community-based hydropower that is also highly beneficial socio-economically.  

Hydropower requires a consistent water supply to generate electricity year-round. Seasonal fluctuations in stream-flow, as well as topography and changes in forest cover all impact a system’s energy output, making some systems more vulnerable. When the forest above hydropower intake is logged, the retention capacity of the soil and stream-flow is altered.  This could result in greater variability between wet and dry season flow rates, and increase the risk of flood and landslides that could damage hydropower structures.  Increased siltation can also clog intakes and wear down turbine runners, incurring additional maintenance costs.
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Maintaining and establishing mature forest cover alleviates the impacts of seasonal variability in flow, reduces landslide risks, and can help build resilience against the impacts of climate change. The potential for the communities to access stable sources of electricity provides communities with hydropower an added incentive to protect their watersheds.  Community-scale hydropower reinforces environmental traditions by incentivizing watershed strengthening, which, in turn, enables reliable and sustainable power supply. (Examples of this can be found in our feature series, Earth Voices)

Less than 17% of the Cameroon rural population has access to electricity. For the government to achieve its objective of rural electrification, the production, transmission, distribution and supply of power needs to bring onboard private small scale producers who can produce and sell the energy to the national grid at least at production cost. This will gradually lead to a smart grid system. At the moment, Cameroon is facing an extreme energy shortage and it has put many remote areas into darkness. The present demand for energy has gone far above the production capacity  Like in metropolitan areas, new settlement areas are coming up every day and due to the many bottlenecks to get domestic grid subscription, and some people fall into illegal connections  (“branchements anarchiques”) and falsifying the subscribers’ inventory of the national grid line. Many step down transformers are overloaded giving way to voltage fluctuations.

Cameroon has a unique position within the CEMAC region, an Economic Commission of Central African states, whose principal objective is regional integration for economic growth. Cameroon is also the third country in Africa with the highest hydro potential (after the DRC and Ethiopia) with approximately 23,000 megawatts of exploitable hydro power. At present Cameroon has exploited just approximately 3%. For Cameroon to take an economic advantage of this position, there is a need to strengthen its energy sector to power its industries which inevitably is the locomotive of development.
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​In his recent Linkedin article, he explores four different management models, namely the community-based model, the cooperative model, the private management model, and the leasing model.

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

The full text of the article can be accessed here.

​​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 
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Micro hydropower in Sri Lanka has played an immense role in energy access for the country, as well as the region.  The Sri Lanka Energy Services Delivery Project (ESDP) and the follow-on Renewable Energy for Rural Economic Development Project (REREDP), both assisted by the World Bank (WB) and Global Environment Facility (GEF), provided extensive finance and technical assistance for the development of pico, micro, and mini hydro in Sri Lanka.  (More in our Sri Lanka factsheet here.)
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Decades later the country has a 98% electrification rate, mostly through grid extension.  However, the local capacity built during the development of off-grid solutions now benefits other regions of S/SE Asia and also Africa.  Sri Lanka micro/mini hydro experts support various other contexts, e.g. India, Myanmar, Rwanda.  Its development in grid-interconnected micro hydro has inspired the same in Nepal (more here).

Likewise within Sri Lanka, utilities and regulatory bodies are keen to provide and maintain off-grid solutions that benefit last-mile communities that are not reachable by the main grid.

In this regard, HPNET member Padma Dewa Samaranayaka of the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA) recently visited 2 project sites and was pleased to see that the fruits of SLSEA’s energy access initiatives are continuing to pay off, bolstered by the diligent efforts of the local communities who operate and manage the systems.  

The first project the team visited was the Kalakundawa micro hydro system, in Kaluthara District.  The SLSEA team found that the 12 kW micro-grid continues to run well after 7 years of operation.  Situated 9 km from the main grid, the Kalakundawa MHP provides electricity to 20 households in the village.  The system has required only minor repairs, which have been supported by SLSEA. ​

Guest blog written by HPNET member Joe Butchers, a PhD Researcher at the University of Bristol, Electrical Energy Management Group.

Environment, conflict and resistance
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The region’s fertile land has also supported poppy plantations – the plant from which opium derives – fueling long-standing conflicts. Poppy plantations existed in the Danu region until the late 1960s to early 1970s, at which point a UNDP initiative substituted the plantations with tea-leaf growing. The Danu townships of Pindaya and Ywangan have since eradicated poppy growing, however it persists in other areas within Shan State, such as Lawksawk. Some armed ethnic groups still exist in these areas and conflicts between the military and community groups persist in this ‘triangle’ linking eastern, southern and northern Shan.

That said, the Danu people strive to maintain peace in the region. Residents have heard that the military has plans to establish a base camp in a watershed area in the Danu region, but the local  communities don’t accept military entering the area.

Other challenges also persist in the Danu region, stemming from natural resources. For instance, the area has attracted mining and widespread logging, with devastating consequences for local communities and ecosystems. Mining has negatively impacted watershed ecosystems, while deforestation has resulted in frequent landslides and increasing water scarcity in summer months. However, local communities continue to resist natural resource exploitation on their lands. For instance, steadfast local resistance prevented a mining company from establishing itself in Mya Sa Ti – a Danu village with an important watershed, which provides drinking water to 20 nearby villages. Across the region, the Danu people continue to work to build back what has been lost, applying indigenous knowledge, innovation and determination to restore and conserve local ecosystems.

​The unit has been installed in Naubise, Dhading which is about 22 km from Kathmandu Valley. This unit is available for anyone interested to see it in operation.

To introduce a new micro hydropower technology to Nepal, it was important to understand the capability of micro hydro companies and the manufacturing processes that are available. This information can be used to ensure that the design of all components for a new type of turbine is appropriate for manufacture in the context of Nepal. A thorough study was conducted of the Nepali manufacturing companies which are based in Kathmandu and Butwal, central Nepal. Our study showed that manufacturers in Nepal tend to have access to the same equipment and materials, meaning that the processes for fabricating Turgo turbines tends to be very similar. However, as casting is an external process, the interface between the micro hydro companies and casting companies is a potential risk to the quality and accuracy of the Turgo cups. ​

Next Steps

The next steps for the project are to increase the technology readiness level of the Turgo turbine in Nepal. This will enable manufacturers to be equipped with all of the necessary information to design, manufacture and install Turgo turbines. A joint effort of all the partners,  including HPNET, will be facilitated to improve technology readiness. There are two parts to this future research:

• Workshop on Turgo Design and Manufacture

This workshop will provide the information needed for key stakeholders to be able to identify potential sites for the Turgo turbine, size and design the turbine system, manufacture the Turgo runner, and install and test the system. Both theoretical and practical support will be delivered in the workshop to ensure that a good understanding of the turbine is developed in the Nepalese micro hydropower manufacturing community.
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• Open-Source Repository of Turgo Turbine System Design and Webinar

The scalable tools and drawings for the Turgo turbine will be placed in an open and free web-based repository, enabling access for any stakeholder that is interested in the Turgo turbine. This will allow micro-hydropower manufacturers, in Nepal and worldwide, access to the necessary details to construct a complete Turgo turbine system. Alongside the drawings, guides will be developed to enable the knowledge generated from both projects to be shared with the audience, for example key constraints in casting Turgo cups, jigs required to assemble the runner, and how to select an appropriate site for the turbine.
The project team will also install a micro hydropower scale Turgo turbine at a site to demonstrate its potential for the future. With these plans in place, we hope the future for the Turgo turbine in Nepal is bright!

This article was written by guest blogger and HPNET Board of Representatives Member, Biraj Gautam, who is the Research Team Leader of the project and Chief Executive Officer at People, Energy and Environment Development Association (PEEDA) in Kathmandu, Nepal.

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.

​
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.

​
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:
​

• 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. 
​
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.
​
​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. 
​
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.