Rural electrification
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Rural electrification is the process of bringing
electrical power Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions o ...
to
rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...
and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. As of 2017, over 1 billion people worldwide lack household electric power – 14% of the global population.
Electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...
typically begins in cities and towns and gradually extends to rural areas, however, this process often runs into obstacles in developing nations. Expanding the national grid is expensive and countries consistently lack the capital to grow their current infrastructure. Additionally, amortizing
capital cost Capital costs are fixed, one-time expenses incurred on the purchase of land, buildings, construction, and equipment used in the production of goods or in the rendering of services. In other words, it is the total cost needed to bring a project to a ...
s to reduce the
unit cost The unit cost is the price incurred by a company A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a com ...
of each hook-up is harder to do in lightly populated areas (yielding higher
per capita ''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...
share of the expense). If countries are able to overcome these obstacles and reach nationwide electrification, rural communities will be able to reap considerable amounts of economic and social development.


Social and economic benefits


Education

Access to electricity facilitates sustainable economic and social growth. First, through an increase in educational achievement. Students who were previously forced to study when the sun was shining are now able to study by the light of LEDs early in the morning or late into the night. In Kenya for example, interviews with school teachers revealed that access to light has allowed for extra hours of teaching earlier and later in the day to cover material not adequately reviewed during normal hours. Additionally, schools with access to electricity are able to recruit higher quality teachers and have seen improvements on test scores and graduation rates, raising the human capital entering the labor force in the future.


Productivity and efficiency

In addition to improved education, rural electrification also allows for greater efficiency and productivity. Businesses will be able to keep their doors open for longer and generate additional revenues. Farmers will have access to streamlined modern techniques such as irrigation, crop processing, and
food preservation Food preservation includes processes that make food more resistant to microorganism growth and slow the oxidation of fats. This slows down the decomposition and rancidification process. Food preservation may also include processes that inhibit ...
. In 2014, rural communities in India gained more than US$21 million from increased economic activity driven by recent additions of electricity.


Job creation

When expanding the electrical grid, there is a demand for thousands of jobs ranging from business development to construction. Projects to spread electricity create a wealth of job opportunities and help to alleviate poverty. For example, India set a target of 175GW of clean energy to be installed by 2022 to increase electrification throughout the country. An estimated 300,000 jobs will need to be created in order to reach these lofty goals.


Healthcare improvements

The availability of electricity can drastically increase the quality of healthcare provided. Improved lighting increases the time patients can come and get treatment. Refrigerators can be used to conserve incredibly valuable vaccines and blood. Sterilization measures will be improved and the implementation of high tech machines such as x-rays or ultrasound scanners can provide doctors and nurses the tools they need to perform. In Diara Rhashalpool, a cluster of villages on the river Ganges, 140 households are without power. The locals are forced to travel 2–3 hours across the river for treatment or access to vaccines. With access to electricity, treatment would be far more accessible to the local population.


Additional benefits

* Reduce isolation and marginalization through telephone lines and Television * Improve safety with the implementation of street lighting, lit road signs. * Reduce expenses on expensive fossil fuel lamps i.e. kerosene


Technology

Renewable off-grid enterprises have emerged in many areas to meet the demand for electricity in rural communities. Due to their geographical location and relatively low aggregate demand, expanding the nationwide grid to rural areas is expensive and challenging. Renewable energy based mini grids are less dependent on larger-scale infrastructure and can be implemented faster and cheaper. Where an
electric power distribution Electric power distribution is the final stage in the delivery of electric power; it carries electricity from the transmission system to individual consumers. Distribution substations connect to the transmission system and lower the transmissi ...
grid can be set up
single wire earth return Single-wire earth return (SWER) or single-wire ground return is a single-wire transmission line which supplies single-phase electric power from an electrical grid to remote areas at lowest cost. Its distinguishing feature is that the earth (or ...
is often used. The following technologies are used extensively: *
Photovoltaics Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...
* Wind mechanical water pumps * Small wind electric * Diesel
solar hybrid power systems Hybrid power are combinations between different technologies to produce power. In power engineering, the term 'hybrid' describes a combined power and energy storage system. Examples of power producers used in hybrid power are photovoltaics, ...
: especially for telecommunications worldwide. Fully commercial and the preferred option for remote telecommunications, commercially evolving for village power. *
Bioenergy Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms biom ...
*
Micro hydro Micro hydro is a type of hydroelectric power that typically produces from 5 kW to 100 kW of electricity using the natural flow of water. Installations below 5 kW are called pico hydro. These installations can provide power to an i ...
is very widely implemented in Nepal, Vietnam, and China. *
Hybrid power Hybrid power are combinations between different technologies to produce power. In power engineering, the term 'hybrid' describes a combined power and energy storage system. Examples of power producers used in hybrid power are photovoltaics, ...
is also widely used where a number of different technologies are combined to provide a single power source.


Challenges

Researchers pointed out that while many supportive policies have been put in place, cost for providing electricity to remote villages remains high. Furthermore, both energy resources and demand in these areas can be very volatile, making it difficult to plan appropriately. Another issue is that village location was determined historically based on soil, water, storage, etc., and might not be optimal for renewable energy generation. To mitigate these issues, the Networked Rural Electrification Model has been proposed. In this model, villages in a selected area are linked up via an optimal network, which in turn connects to a few centralized generation facilities located at spots with better renewable energy resources. As such, each village is partially supplied by small local facility, and partially by the centralized facilities. This improves energy resources utilization as well as overall system flexibility and reliability. Viability of this model depends on the cost of building the optimal network. Based on multiplier-accelerated A* algorithm, the researchers have devised an effective method for evaluating all possible connections under complex geographical structure and hence practically optimize network design. Economic justification follows.


National initiatives by continent


Africa

Ethiopia Ethiopia rural electrification started in 1998 (although minor activities were there before 1995-1997 to electrify major cities called ''zone'' and ''woreda'') then followed by the millinum development goal 1998-2002 Universal Electric Access Program (UEAP) started and the program planned to electrify 6000 villages in 5yrs. After lessons were taken from that the Growth and transformation plan (GTPI &2) were launched .The program is one of the successfully accomplished in increasing the rural access rate and transforming the rural community ,creating jobs, local contractors and cooperatives.The program was financed by supporting funds ,loans and government.


Kenya

Karanja describes the role that a coordinated approach to rural electrification can play in
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
and the challenges that arise. One solution is the combine numerical electricity system modeling with
geographical information Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position). It is also call ...
to explore various mixes of grid extension,
mini-grid A mini-grid is an aggregation of loads and one or more energy sources operating as a single system providing electric power and possibly heat isolated from a main power grid. A modern mini-grid may include renewable and fossil fuel-based generation ...
s, and standalone systems.


Senegal

Senegal's electricity sector was reformed in 1998. Since then the country has implemented several electrification initiatives: * A national Senegalese Rural Electrification Action Plan (''Plan d'Action Sénégalais d'Électrification Rurale''), designed to increase private sector participation in rural electrification (details below); * Covenants and an Emergency Programme (''Programme d'Urgence d'Électrification Rurale''), both led and funded largely by the
Government of Senegal The Government of Senegal is the union government created by the constitution of Senegal, consisting of the executive, parliament, and judiciary. The Seat of the Government is located in Dakar. The government is led by the president (currently M ...
; * Individual projects led by NGOs and private companies.Mawhood, R. and Gross, R. (2014
"Institutional barriers to a 'perfect' policy: A case study of the Senegalese Rural Electrification Plan"
, ''Energy Policy'', DOI 10.1016/j.enpol.2014.05.047. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
The Senegalese Rural Electrification Action Plan was launched in 2002 with the aim of maximising investment from the private sector. It raised an average of 49% private finance over 2002–2012, more than double the 22% global average for energy access projects. However, during the same period it directly increased rural electrification levels by less than 1%. Analysis by Mawhood and Gross (2014) indicates that the Action Plan has faced considerable political and institutional barriers, notably institutional opposition, wavering ministerial support and lengthy stakeholder negotiations, as well as the inherent difficulties of implementing an innovative policy framework.Mawhood, B. and Gross, R. (2015
"Are Private Markets Effective for Rural Electrification?"
, ''The Energy Collective''. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
Although the Action Plan has been very successful at attracting private finance, the political/institutional challenges it has faced reflect the experiences of reform-based electrification schemes across Sub-Saharan Africa. This highlights the importance of designing initiatives to fit the local policy environment.


Americas


Brazil

In 1981, 74.9% of Brazilian households were served by electric power, according to the
IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information ...
's National Sample Survey of Households (PNAD). In 2000, the
Federal government of Brazil The Federal Government of Brazil (''Governo Federal'') is the national government of the Federative Republic of Brazil, a republic in South America divided in 26 states and a federal district. The Brazilian federal government is divided in thre ...
, under the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration, launched the
Luz no Campo Luz ( ''Lūz'') is the name of two places in the Bible. Mentioned in Genesis Luz is the ancient name of a royal Canaanite city, connected with Bethel ( Genesis 28:19; 35:6). It is debated among scholarsRashi on 28:17 whether Luz and Bethel repr ...
program to expand the distribution of electricity in Brazilian domiciles, with a focus on rural households. From 2003 on, the program was reinforced and renamed
Luz para Todos Luz para Todos ("Light for All") is a program of the Federal Government of Brazil, launched in November 2003, with a goal of bringing electricity to more than 10 million rural people by the year 2008. It was initiated by Dilma Rousseff, then Min ...
by the Lula administration. The results were that, according to the PNAD, by 1996, 79.9% of all households had access to an electric power supply and that proportion rose to 90.8% in 2002 and 98.9% in 2009.


Haiti

Haiti remains the least electrified country in the Western Hemisphere, but several ambitious efforts have launched to address rural electrification in the country. Some have pointed out that because so much of rural Haiti currently lacks utility infrastructure, Haiti is well-positioned to leapfrog into modern, modular energy systems like microgrids (or "mini-grids") powered by renewable energy. The Haitian Government's energy regulator, along with the Energy Cell of the Ministry of Public Works and international partners are working to remove barriers and increase investment in renewable energy for both new, isolated mini-grids and regional grids. Using 2020 data, the Inter-American Development Bank estimated that 45% of the Haitian population had access to electricity. But frequent fuel shortages and other service disruptions mean that the population's real access to reliable electricity service is much lower. For example, in 2021 and 2022 even the nation's most important hospitals were curtailing their services due to lack of fuel to power their own generators for on-site electricity.


Jamaica

Th
Rural Electrification Programme
(REP) was incorporated in 1975 with the specific mandate to expand the reach of electricity supply to rural areas, where the provision of such services would not be economically viable for commercial providers of electricity. The REP extends the national grid through the construction of electrical distribution pole lines to un-electrified areas and provides house wiring assistance through a loan programme to householders. In June 201
Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell disclosed
that, approximately 16,000 homes in remote parts of the island which do not have electricity are to be supplied with solar or wind electricity through the Rural Electrification Programme (REP). At a USAID-funded Analysis and Investigation for Low Emission (AILEG) project symposium, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, on Tuesday, July 9, 2013, Energy Minister Phillip Paulwel
stated
that the REP has also been mandated to complete its target of providing electricity to 100 per cent of rural areas. "Those three per cent that now remain are in areas that are so far from the grid, it is too expensive (to provide), and we are going to be deploying photovoltaic systems in these areas," he explained. In March 2015 he told a newspaper that, by 2017, "we should no longer have REP in the way we do now", adding that if the Government finds it too challenging to run power lines into communities, it will use solar." See Also Solar Power in Jamaica


United States

In 1892, Guy Beardslee, the original owner of
Beardslee Castle Beardslee Castle is a three-storey castle in Little Falls, New York, USA, constructed in 1860 as a replica of an Irish castle, and currently used as a restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customer ...
, was paid $40,000 to provide hydroelectric power to East Creek in New York. Despite widespread electricity in cities, by the 1920s electricity was not delivered by power companies to rural areas because of the general belief that the infrastructure costs would not be recouped. In sparsely-populated farmland, there were far fewer houses per mile of installed electric lines. A
Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
state committee was organized to carry out a study of the costs and benefits of rural electrification. The
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, working jointly with
Northern States Power Company Northern States Power Company () was a publicly traded S&P 500 electric and natural gas utility holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that is now a subsidiary of Xcel Energy (). History The company's founder, Henry Marison Byllesby, ha ...
(NSP, now
Xcel Energy Xcel Energy Inc. is an American utility holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving more than 3.7 million electric customers and 2.1 million natural gas customers in Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico in 2019. It consists of four ope ...
), conducted an experiment, providing electricity to nine farms in the Red Wing area. Electricity was first delivered on December 24, 1923. The " Red Wing Project" was successful – the power company and the University concluded that rural electrification was economically feasible. The results of the report were influential in the National government's decision to support rural electrification. Before 1936, a small but growing number of farms installed small wind-electric plants. These generally used a 40V DC generator to charge batteries in the barn or the basement of the farmhouse. This was enough to provide lighting, washing machines and some limited well-pumping or refrigeration. Wind-electric plants were used mostly on the
Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
, which have usable winds on most days. In 1933, the
Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...
was created, in part, to provide rural electrification in the
Tennessee Valley The Tennessee Valley is the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and is largely within the U.S. state of Tennessee. It stretches from southwest Kentucky to north Alabama and from northeast Mississippi to the mountains of Virginia and North Car ...
and surrounding areas. TVA created the generation and wholesale transmission capabilities that enabled rural distribution systems through electric cooperatives. Of the 6.3 million farms in the United States in January 1925, only 205,000 were receiving centralized electric services.Beall, Robert T. (1940). "Rural Electrification."
''United States Yearbook of Agriculture''. Washington:
United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...
. pp. 790–809. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was created by executive order as an independent federal bureau in 1935, authorized by the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
in the 1936
Rural Electrification Act The Rural Electrification Act of 1936, enacted on May 20, 1936, provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve isolated rural areas of the United States. The funding was channeled through cooperative ele ...
, and later in 1939, reorganized as a division of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. It was charged with administering loan programs for electrification and telephone service in rural areas. Between 1935 and 1939 – or the first 4½ years after REA's establishment, the number of farms using electric services more than doubled. The REA undertook to provide farms with inexpensive electric lighting and power. To implement those goals the administration made long-term, self-liquidating loans to state and local governments, to farmers' cooperatives, and to nonprofit organizations; no loans were made directly to consumers. In 1949 the REA was authorized to make loans for telephone improvements; in 1988, REA was permitted to give interest-free loans for job creation and rural electric systems. By the early 1970s about 98% of all farms in the United States had electric service, a demonstration of REA's success. In 1994 the administration was reorganized into the
Rural Utilities Service The United States Rural Utilities Service (RUS) administers programs that provide infrastructure or infrastructure improvements to rural communities. These include water and waste treatment, electric power, and telecommunications services. it is ...
by the
Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act of 1994 The Federal Crop Insurance Reform and Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994, , was introduced on April 14, 1994 by Eligio de la Garza ( D- TX) and was signed into law on October 13, 1994 by President William J. Clinton. It consist ...
and the
Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 The Federal Crop Insurance Reform and Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994, , was introduced on April 14, 1994 by Eligio de la Garza ( D- TX) and was signed into law on October 13, 1994 by President William J. Clinton. It consist ...
. In September 2018, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...
said it would spend $398.5 million in infrastructure projects, by way of loans, that seek to improve electricity service in rural areas. The program is called the Electric Infrastructure Loan Program. Of the $398.5 million, $43 million will be to invest in smart grid technology. According to ''Smart Cities Dive'', "The largest loan will send $68.5 million to back a solar farm run by NextEra Energy Resources in Arkansas, which could meet the needs of 21,000 homes." The loans will go to projects in 13 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.


Asia


China

By 2015, 100 percent of Chinese people had access to electric power. In the early 1990s the countryside of China still suffered from extreme
energy poverty Energy poverty is lack of access to modern energy services. It refers to the situation of large numbers of people in developing countries and some people in developed countries whose well-being is negatively affected by very low consumption of e ...
; more than 40 percent of rural Chinese had no access to power or electric lighting at all, depending instead on
kerosene lamp A kerosene lamp (also known as a paraffin lamp in some countries) is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. Kerosene lamps have a wick or mantle as light source, protected by a glass chimney or globe; lamps may be used on a t ...
s for lighting. In the early 1990s the average use of power in the countryside amounted to the equivalent of a 60W light bulb switched on for less than 30 minutes a day.
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
launched the
China Township Electrification Program The China Township Electrification Program (''Song Dian Dao Xiang'') was a scheme to provide renewable electricity to 1.3 million people (around 200,000 households) in 1,000 townships
in 2001 to provide
renewable electricity Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
to 1,000 townships, one of the largest of such programs in the world. This was followed by the
China Village Electrification Program The China Village Electrification Program (''Song Dian Dao Cun'') was a scheme to provide renewable electricity to 3.5 million households in 10,000 villages by 2010. This was to be followed by full rural electrification using renewable energy by 20 ...
, also using renewable energy, aimed at the electrification of a further 3.5 million households in 10,000 villages by 2010, to be followed by full rural electrification by 2015.Renewables Global Status Report 2006 Update
, ''
REN21 REN21 (Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century) is a think tank and a multistakeholder governance group which is focused on renewable energy policy. REN21's goal is to facilitate policy development, knowledge exchange, and joint ac ...
'', published 2006, accessed 2007-05-16
In December 2015, China brought the last 39,800 Chinese onto the national electric grid by spending $324 million and using over 5,000 workers to wire 2 extremely remote villages in Quighai province located at altitudes of 13,100 ft.


India

Currently, all the villages in India have been electrified w.e.f. 29 April 2018 but it doesn't mean that all households are electrified. By India's own set standards, only 10% of households in a village must have electricity for it to be considered electrified. As of August 2018, 91% of the total households are electrified in India. Rural areas in India are electrified non-uniformly, with richer states being able to provide a majority of the villages with power while poorer states still struggling to do so. The Rural Electrification Corporation Limited was formed to specifically address the issue of providing electricity in all the villages across the country. Poverty, lack of resources, lack of political will, poor planning, and electricity theft are some of the major causes which have left many villages in India without electricity, while urban areas have enjoyed growth in electricity consumption and capacity. In order to drastically increase electrification rates, the Indian Government has set the target of 175GW of installed renewable energy by 2022 and mandated the electrification of over 18,000 villages. At the end of 2016, India had around 45.6GW of installed renewable energy with a vast amount of work and investment required to meet their lofty targets. The central government is increasingly trying to improve the dire conditions by investing heavily in biogas, solar as well as wind energy. Programs such as The JNN solar mission, and Pradhan Mantri Gram Vidyut Yojana is also known as the
Saubhagya Scheme Saubhagya Scheme or Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana was an Indian government project to provide electricity to the households. The project was announced in September 2017 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said that the aim was to ...
have been announced to fasten the pace of electrification and diversify the procedure. The work is also on-going for reducing wastage, providing better equipment and improving the overall infrastructure for electrical transmissions in villages. The Saubhagya scheme was successfully in ensuring rapid expansion of the electricity infrastructure in India. Electricity infrastructure is now available within 50 meters of consumers' premises. The Government of India announced 100% electrification of all willing households in India in 2018. A deeper look into electrification rates across the country suggest that about 13% of household consumers still don't have electricity connections due to questions of affordability of grid electricity and poor quality of service. The majority of household consumers with a grid-based electricity connection have a low sanctioned load of 0–1 kW or 1–2 kW. Besides, disparity has also been noted in grid electricity access rate among agricultural and institutional consumers.


Europe


Ireland

During the 1930s most towns in Ireland were connected to the national grid. The outbreak of World War II in Europe lead to shortages of fuel and materials and the electrification process was brought to a virtual halt. In the early 1950s the Rural Electrification scheme gradually brought electric power to the countryside, a process that was completed on the mainland in 1973 (although it wasn't until 2003 that the last of the inhabited offshore islands were fully connected). Currently the Rural Electrification scheme continues, but is primarily concerned with upgrading the quality of the network (voltage fluctuations are still a problem in parts of Ireland – particularly in rural areas) and making three phase supplies available to larger farms and rural businesses requiring it.


Successful examples


Gram Oorja

Like many other
microgrid A microgrid is a local electrical grid with defined electrical boundaries, acting as a single and controllable entity. It is able to operate in grid-connected and in island mode.
companies, Gram Oorja has set out to provide electricity to the millions who lack access to power in rural India. Gram Oorja created a model based upon “corporate-social partnership” and gains funding from corporate charity funds. Their first project was in Darewadi, a rural village with 39 households. Gram Oorja raised funding from
Bosch Solar Energy Bosch Solar Energy AG was a German solar wafer and solar cell manufacturer, based in Erfurt, which specialized in crystalline silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) products, as well as thin-film modules using amorphous silicon and CIGS absorber mater ...
and received consultation and guidance from the Shakti Foundation. They installed a solar power plant capable of producing 9.4 kilowatts of power with a backup
biogas Biogas is a mixture of gases, primarily consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste and food waste. It is a ...
unit to produce energy when sunlight is not available. Local ownership of the project is one of the key tenets of Gram Oorja's business model, so they encouraged participation in the set up and management of the mini-grid. A village trust collects bills every month and deposits the revenue into a corpus fund. This hybrid model proved to be successful and has been implemented in over 10 villages. Gram Oorja currently has an installed capacity of 45.7 kW and serves 230 households. They have also partnered with
Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank w ...
to continue to implement these projects across India.


G.R.I.D. (Grassroots and Rural Innovative Development)

GRID is an Indian start-up aimed at facilitating sustainable economic and social development through low cost energy solutions in rural areas. Outside of
microgrid A microgrid is a local electrical grid with defined electrical boundaries, acting as a single and controllable entity. It is able to operate in grid-connected and in island mode.
systems, GRID has utilized solar energy to solve a myriad of issues that plague rural communities. For example, Grid has set up solar powered
reverse osmosis Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to separate ions, unwanted molecules and larger particles from drinking water. In reverse osmosis, an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic pre ...
filtration plants in rural India to help eliminate water insecurity. Only 18% of India's rural population have access to treated tap water, forcing locals to rely on unsafe
groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...
. GRID's filtration plant is able to provide 20,000 to 30,000 liters of clean water per day which helps to alleviate this issue and reduce the spread of water-borne illness. Additionally, the ease of distribution has reduced the amount of time spent collecting water, allowing for more time on productive tasks and a reduction in time poverty. Finally, GRID employs locals in the community to run the plants day to day operations. From the ground up, GRID's business model fosters the development of rural communities and they plan to scale their operations across India.


See also

*
Distributed generation Distributed generation, also distributed energy, on-site generation (OSG), or district/decentralized energy, is electrical generation and storage performed by a variety of small, grid-connected or distribution system-connected devices referred to ...
* :Energy by country *
Indoor air pollution in developing nations Household air pollution (HAP) is a significant form of indoor air pollution mostly relating to cooking and heating methods used in developing countries. Since much of the cooking is carried out with biomass fuel, in the form of wood, charcoal, ...
*
List of energy storage projects This is a list of energy storage power plants worldwide, other than pumped hydro storage. Many individual energy storage plants augment electrical grids by capturing excess electrical energy during periods of low demand and storing it in o ...
*
Microgeneration Microgeneration is the small-scale production of heat or electric power from a "low carbon source," as an alternative or supplement to traditional centralized grid-connected power. Microgeneration technologies include small-scale wind turbin ...
*
Off-the-grid Off-the-grid or off-grid is a characteristic of buildings and a lifestyle designed in an independent manner without reliance on one or more public utilities. The term "off-the-grid" traditionally refers to not being connected to the electrical gr ...
* Power line communications * Renewable energy in Africa * Stand-alone power system *
Universal Service Fund The Universal Service Fund (USF) is a system of telecommunications subsidies and fees managed by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intended to promote universal access to telecommunications services in the United States. Th ...


References


Further reading

* Hirsh, Richard F. ''Powering American Farms: The Overlooked Origins of Rural Electrification'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022
online review


External links


Rural electrification in Ireland 1946–78
section of the Electricity Supply Board archives
Solar Energy Estimator and Planner for off-grid rural electrification in Africa and Asia

Interactive Solar Radiation Maps for Rural Electrification

Observatoire Méditerranéen de l'Energie

Lighting Africa
a
World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Grou ...
(WBG) initiative
Modi Research Group
of Columbia University *
Rural electrification and the Millennium Development GoalsAlgorithmic approaches to rural electrification
*
Electricity planning in SenegalElectricity costing in Senegal
*
Electricity planning in Kenya

Photovoltaics in Rural Electrification


* ttp://www.bbe.umn.edu/The_Red_Wing_Project.html/ Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering: The Red Wing Project
Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE)
* {{Authority control