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Livelihoods and Family Empowerment - A Service
Approach
"Reaching out to communities that may have to wait endlessly for modern energy services to reach them". Rationale E conomic development is largely dependent on availability and access to reliable energy sources. However, most developing countries lack reliable basic energy infrastructure. In a country like India, a very large number of rural settlements are inaccessible because they are isolated from the relatively well-developed urban areas. In some cases such settlements are also located in terrain that is not easily accessible by road or rail. In places where grid electricity is available it is unreliable and therefore rural users are unwilling to pay for its services.In developing countries, for low income groups, fossil fuel is unlikely to meet all their energy needs for households and livelihood generation. Not just environmental but economic costs of conventional sources of energy are rapidly increasing; uncertainty of supply is putting them out of reach of the rural poor.The answer lies in using cleaner and renewable sources of energy; alternatives that require limited capital investment and can meet the needs of the poor living in off grid areas. 
Green Energy Services - Past Experience The Development Alternatives Group has promoted DESI Power as a vehicle for setting up decentralised IRPPs (Independent Rural Power Producers) based on renewable energy. Its management, technological and financial approach is similar to that of the private sector IPPs (independent power producers). DESI Power builds, owns, operates and later on may transfer, power plants based on renewable energy sources in the rural sector. The main objective is to provide affordable and reliable electricity to the rural areas coupled with local job opportunities. This synergistic approach has a direct impact on local economic activities firstly through the community owned and operated enterprises and secondly because of the Green Energy Services secured on the strength of local resources. Development Alternatives Group has pioneered the provision of diverse and decentralised Green Energy Services for farmers at their doorstep. Though users may have no qualms about siphoning electricity from the mains, the same set of users are more than willing to readily pay for energy services that are provided at their doorstep. The Group reaches out to communities who may have to wait endlessly for modern energy services to reach them. Social / Environmental Benefits Development Alternatives Group understands the need to work in all three areas viz. economic opportunities, social equity and environmental efficiency, for contributing to the process of sustainable development. The know-how used by the Group is based on the biomass gasification technology developed at the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore. The electricity produced through biomass gasification is CO2 neutral. The benefits to the various stakeholders are:
Reliable local borrowers. High returns on social equity. Meets high standards of social and ethical responsibilities. Lower local pollution. Lower CO2 emission. Lower energy losses. Saving of non-renewable energy resources. Regular employment (especially for women). Higher farm output. Better produce prices. Better women's health. Profitable businesses. Capacity to undertake local social initiatives. Basic education for children through computer assisted methods. Assured electric load and biomass supply. Profitable power plant and energy services. Opportunity to cluster the power plants and build local capacity. A replicable model for small scale (25 - 100 kWe) decentralised (off-grid) power supply and energy services systems for remote areas. Reduced power and financial losses in rural power grids. Less budgetary support for rural power supply. Increased rural productivity. Lower migration to cities. There is a general perception that the cost of electricity generated by renewable energy technologies is higher than electricity generated by fossil fuel sources. While this is true in many places, it is no longer valid for the rural areas of rural India. In most of the Indian villages, diesel generators are often the only source of power and are extensively used for irrigation, threshing, farming and lighting by business establishments. The cost of power generation is very high but value to the user is also high. The power produced by biomass gasifier based plants is considerably cheaper wherever biomass is locally available. The costs of power generation depend on the load utilization factor and can be dramatically reduced when pure gas engines are used. Even when grid power is available, the actual cost of power at the point of consumption is very high largely due to line losses in transmission and distribution. High subsidies and financial losses keep the power price low for agricultural pumps. Now that industrial and commercial consumers are beginning to pay the actual cost of power, the biomass gasification based electricity can easily compete when pure gas engines are used. Rural Livelihoods The proposed project of Development Alternatives envisages provision of electricity and energy services in villages, jointly with local partners who will establish small-scale industries, energy related businesses and assure supply of biomass. It will be ensured that both the Independent Rural Power Producer (IRPP) and the village organization (which may be the village panchayat, a company, a co-operative, or an NGO) become self-reliant within a reasonable time. The Business Plans are evolved jointly to reach agreement on revenue sharing, tariffs and expenses. For long term success, the power plant will sell as much electricity as it can generate and maximize returns. The basic strategy for successful implementation of the project for wide scale impact will be embedded in the themes:
The small scale industries will produce and sell their products profitably, as a result the management organization of the Rural Livelihoods Park will optimize its returns. The project will ensure reliable and affordable supply of electricity and energy services based on locally available renewable energy resources such as agricultural residues and other biomass. For Central India, the biomass species will be ipomea, lantana and occasionally fast growing timber, grown specifically for fuel. The local partner organization will ensure regular supply of harvested biomass and an Agreement for supply of electricity at agreed prices. Upon finalization of the conditions of energy supply, agreement will also be reached on the provision of additional energy services demanded by the user groups and the community. These will include:
The tariff for the service utilities will be worked out jointly by the IRPP and the village organization in consultation with Development Alternatives. A mutually beneficial partnership will thus be created under which reliable power supply and energy services ensure local job creation and income generation for youth and self help groups who will be intermediaries responsible for providing services to the users and for revenue collection. The assured off-take of electricity and revenue from energy services will ensure a viable operation of the Rural Livelihood Kendra. During the course of the project, an energy service organization will be set up to manage the community assets, recover the loan provided to enterprises and for overall management of the project after the initial period estimated to be two years. Sustainability It is envisaged that the recoveries of the loan provided to rural enterprises will be used as a financing mechanism for sustaining the project. It is expected that upto six enterprises employing 25 persons will be engaged in economic activities at each Rural Livelihood. Further, a total of 100-150 families will benefit from the energy services provided to the local community. Reference 1. Web research 2. www.devalt.org 3. www.nrega.nic.in 4. http://himachal.nic.in/rd/goi.htm |