Energy is a key to village development. So are water, soils and forests. And, of course, technology, finance, infrastructure and marketing systems. But clearly energy is in some senses a meta key: the key to the key cabinet. To fulfil any basic need – food, drinking water, shelter, clothing…… - and to create sustainable livelihoods, the prime resources required are energy and water. A good way to get both is through electricity. In this, the village is no different from the city. Since the new economic policies have, in India and other developing countries, opened up the large scale power production sector to private investments by independent power producers, IPPs, there is no reason why similar initiatives should not be encouraged in rural areas. We now need a new breed of Independent Rural Power Producers (IRPPs). Such IRPPs could, by themselves or in collaboration with government, communities, local enterprises or others, set up facilities for producing, delivering and selling electricity to households, industries, farmers and community facilities. One effective model envisages IRPPs that would enter into joint ventures with Gram Panchayats, entrepreneurs and other agencies to deliver and operate small power plants for rural communities using state of the art integrated energy generation technologies. Such power stations would be small, use renewable fuels and energy sources, and operate under the control of the community. Being located right in the village, they would also minimise the costs of transmission and distribution. DESI Power, more formally known as Decentralized Energy Systems India, has recently been set up to supply reliable and high quality electricity as well as heating and cooling energy for local use in homes and to community, industrial and agricultural facilities using such renewable energy resources as biomass, wind, water flow and the sun. DESI Power is itself a joint venture between Development Alternatives, TARA and DASAG India, not-for-profits working in the field of sustainable technologies. DESI Power delivers electricity at highly competitive rates, - well below the Rs. 2.50 per kWh at which power is currently delivered by the state electricity boards to the village. Yet it can, under the right conditions, operate on a commercially viable basis. To do so, it needs access to finances available at rates similar to those offered to the large IPPs, a reasonable demand for electricity to maintain a load factor of about 65% and technical support systems. One or more renewable fuels in the form of biomass, hydropower, wind and sun appear to be available in most parts of India. A small percentage of fossil fuels can always be imported into the village to ensue efficiency, continuity and reliability. Technical support systems, including training and maintenance, are provided to IRPPs by DESI Power as part of the turnkey package for setting up the power plant. Other franchising systems could also be set up to provide these basic services. To create an adequate and relatively uniform demand for electricity in the village, DESI Power offers technology packages for microenterprises that can operate during off-peak hours, when domestic and agricultural demand is low. Such enterprises include cold storage, flour milling, oil pressing and various types of food processing. In addition to creating livelihoods and value addition, such enterprises enable the community to improve its control over the local economy and enhance the local financial flows. Fuel collection and operation of the power plant alone can create upto twenty jobs. The major missing link today is money. New funding instruments and innovative financial engineering is now the critical breakthrough needed to enable DESI Power and other IRPPs to accelerate their programs to establish decentralized, renewables-based power stations. Public financial institutions at the national and international level must now open windows for supporting IRPPs and, even more crucial, the associated enterprise packages needed to make them viable. In the initial, experimental, testing and demonstration phases some concessional finance and even research grants will be essential. The DESI Power unit at Orchha, Madhya Pradesh, operating continuously since March 1996, has shown that this may well be the most efficient and immediate route to deliver power to the people. It deserves attention of the highest priority by governments and multilateral funding agencies. |
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