Table Of ContentGreen Energy and Technology
Subhes C. Bhattacharyya
Debajit Palit Editors
Mini-Grids for
Rural Electrification
of Developing
Countries
Analysis and Case Studies
from South Asia
Green Energy and Technology
For furthervolumes:
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Subhes C. Bhattacharyya Debajit Palit
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Editors
Mini-Grids for Rural
Electrification of
Developing Countries
Analysis and Case Studies
from South Asia
123
Editors
SubhesC. Bhattacharyya Debajit Palit
DeMontfortUniversity The Energyand Resources Institute
Leicester New Delhi
UK India
ISSN 1865-3529 ISSN 1865-3537 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-319-04815-4 ISBN 978-3-319-04816-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-04816-1
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Foreword
Globally,therearestill1.3billionpeoplewholackaccesstoelectricity.Over85%
ofthepeoplewithoutelectricityaccessliveinruralareas.Morestrikingly,almost
40 % of these people are from South Asia, especially Bangladesh, India and
Pakistan.Thesenumberswillnotchangesubstantiallybytheyear2030unlessnew
strategies and intensified efforts are made at the national and international levels.
Takinguptheimportanceofenergyissuesforsustainabledevelopment,theUnited
NationsGeneralAssembly(UNGA)hasdeclaredthedecade2014–2024tobethe
Decade of Sustainable Energy for All, underscoring the importance of energy
issues for sustainable development and for the elaboration of the post-2015
developmentagenda.TheUNGAresolutionstressedtheneedtoimproveaccessto
reliable, affordable, economically viable, sociallyacceptable and environmentally
sound energy services and resources for sustainable development. The World
Energy Outlook 2011 stresses the fact that to achieve the universal electrification
objectivebytheyear2030,intermsoftechnologychoice,gridextensionwillcater
to30%ofthepopulationtobecovered,whereasthebalance70%willbeserved
by mini-grids or off-grid systems.
As individuals, communities, policy makers and investors, we can all do
something about this dismal situation. In TERI, we took the lead and initiated a
major global effort in 2008, called Lighting a Billion Lives, which had impacted
morethanonemillionlivesofpeopletilltheendof2013throughprovisioningof
various types of decentralised energy interventions. New ways are also being
foundbymanystakeholderstomakeoff-gridrenewableenergytechnologiesmore
affordable for the poor and to bring electricity to households, communities and
enterprises in far-flung areas where the grid has either not reached, or power
supplied is erratic and unreliable.
This edited volume, which has been developed as part of the project, Off-grid
Access System in South Asia, is an effort by the authors to contribute to this
discourseonsustainableenergyforallandassistinscaling-upofthedissemination
ofdecentralisedenergytechnologiesinasustainablemanner.Thisresearchproject
specificallyfocusedontheSouthAsianregion,whichcontinuestobeplaguedwith
lack of access to clean and sustainable energy supply. The multi-disciplinary
researchteamofthisprojectfromuniversitiesandinstitutionsinIndiaandtheUK
have been working extensively over the past four years—in both analytical work
v
vi Foreword
as well as documenting the lessons learnt and best practises established—and has
compiledthisvolume.Theaimwastohighlightthesocio-technical,economicand
governance-related lessons from various mini-grid projects in South Asia and to
share the state-of-art knowledge and research outcomes with the wider research
and practitioner community.
I believe this volume will prove to be a valuable addition to the literature on
rural energy initiatives and will assist in promoting mini-grid and off-grid elec-
trification efforts and act as an important contribution to the United Nations’
Decade of Sustainable Energy for All.
R. K. Pachauri
Director General, TERI
Preface
Access to sustainable energy for all remains an important topic going by the
current discussions at the international level. Globally, there is no universal
approach to the provision of access to electricity and a number of factors and
actors determine what approach would be most suitable for a given community.
Thiseditedvolumeisanefforttocontributetothisdiscourseonsustainableenergy
for all and forms part of the dissemination activity of a Research Councils UK
funded project on off-grid electrification, called OASYS South Asia, which is a
collaborative research work of five partner organisations, namely De Montfort
University (DMU), Manchester University, Edinburgh Napier University from
UK, and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and TERI University from
India.Theconsortiumhassince2009undertakenasignificantamountofresearch
on rural electrification, especially off-grid electrification, in South Asia. Based on
this work, it has identified mini-grid-based rural electrification as one of the
options for extending the electricity access in developing countries. The project
has also undertaken a set of demonstration activities in India to showcase alter-
native ways of delivering electricity in rural areas through mini-grids and to
developabetterfirst-handunderstandingofthechallengesindoingso.Thisedited
volumebringstogetherstudiesandresearchcarriedoutbytheconsortiumtoshare
the knowledge with the wider research and practitioner community.
This volume contains 15 chapters divided into two parts: Part I provides the
background understanding of mini-grids while Part II provides seven case studies
from South Asia covering different countries, technologies, and business models.
Following the multidisciplinary focus of the project, the book covers various
dimensions relevant for any mini-grid-based electricity supply. It also provides
practicalguidelinesfordesignandimplementationofmini-gridprojectsalongside
more academic research studies. We hope this mix of presentation will impact a
wider section of the interested readers.
Theworkreportedherehasbeendiscussedinternallyandinvariousworkshops
organizedaspartoftheresearchactivity.ThesewereheldinDelhi,Bhubaneswar,
and Leicester between 2012 and 2014. The chapters have thus benefited from the
inputsandcommentsofalarge numberofparticipantsfromtheacademia aswell
as those involved in practice with mini-grid-based electrification and their
financing.Apartofthecontenthasappearedinvariouspeer-reviewedjournalsas
well. These have been appropriately acknowledged in the relevant chapter.
vii
viii Preface
Astheeditorsofthevolume wewouldliketothankallthecontributorstothis
volumefortheircontinuedsupportandhardwork.Weareparticularlythankfulto
the stakeholders who participated in our case studies and provided valuable
insights. We would like to thank the reviewers of the journals who provided
valuablecommentstoimprovethequalityofthework.WealsothankElsevierfor
allowingustoreusethematerialspublishedintheirjournals.WealsothankTERI,
New Delhi, India and Practical Action, UK for allowing us to use their diagrams
here. We are also grateful to our respective institutes, DMU and TERI, for
encouraging us to edit this volume. Despite of all the support from different
quarters, errors, if any, are ours.
Wearealsoindebtedtotheworkshopparticipantsforsharingvariousthoughts
thathaveenrichedourexperience.ThedemonstrationprojectinOdisha(India)has
benefitedfrom the supportofa large number ofindividuals, toomany tomention
here but we are thankful to them for their continued support, without which the
work could not be taken forward. We are grateful to the funding agencies Engi-
neering and Physical Science Research Council and Department of International
Development of United Kingdom and Rural Electrification Corporation, Govern-
ment of India for their support to this initiative.
We also thank the publisher—Springer for agreeing to publish this volume
despite the specialized nature of the work that still faces limited academic
attention.
We hope this volume will prove to be a valuable addition to the literature on
rural electrification and will help to promote mini-grid-based sustainable electri-
fication solutions worldwide. We believe that it would benefit researchers and
practioners,aswellasdonorsandotherstakeholdersinvolvedinpolicy-makingin
enhancing electricity access in rural areas of the developing world.
Last but not the least, we would like to thank our respective families: Subhes
thankshisspouse(Debjani)anddaughter(Saloni)whileDebajitthankshisspouse
(Dipanwita)anddaughter(Roshni)fortheirsupportandcooperationincompleting
this work over the winter of 2013–2014.
March 2014 Subhes C. Bhattacharyya
Debajit Palit
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Subhes C. Bhattacharyya and Debajit Palit
Part I Mini-Grid Concepts and Challenges
Suite of Off-Grid Options in South Asia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Subhes C. Bhattacharyya, Debajit Palit and V. V. N. Kishore
Technical Aspects of Mini-Grids for Rural Electrification. . . . . . . . . . 37
P. J. Boait
Smart Design of Stand-Alone Solar PV System for Off Grid
Electrification Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Parimita Mohanty and Tariq Muneer
Analytical Frameworks and an Integrated Approach
for Mini-Grid-Based Electrification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Subhes C. Bhattacharyya, Arabinda Mishra and Gopal K. Sarangi
Demand Management for Off-Grid Electricity Networks . . . . . . . . . . 135
P. J. Boait
Business Issues for Mini-Grid-Based Electrification
in Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Subhes C. Bhattacharyya
Part II Case Studies
Approach for Designing Solar Photovoltaic-Based
Mini-Grid Projects: A Case Study from India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
K. Rahul Sharma, Debajit Palit, Parimita Mohanty and Mukesh Gujar
ix
