Fueling Sustainability - IEEE Xplore

By Robin Podmore, Ray Larsen, Henry Louie, Nathan Johnson, and Shammya Saha

©istockphoto.com/nicolamargaret

Fueling Sustainability The exponential impact of empowering off-grid communities. lmost 4 billion people around the world today live without reliable access to electricity, and about 1.1 billion have no access to electricity whatsoever. To cook meals and light homes, these people often resort to ad hoc energy solutions that provide only limited relief while presenting substantial drawbacks. Lowquality kerosene lamps common in remote, off-grid communities create air pollutants that damage human health and the environment. Further, the levelized cost of kerosene lighting can be two to five times more than more efficient energy sources. Worse yet are disposable single-cell batteries, with an energy cost between US$100

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MELE.2015.2509878 Date of publication: 1 March 2016

and US$200 per kWh, nearly 1,000 times the price of electricity in the United States. Alternative means for basic electricity service are needed for the world’s off-grid communities. Reliable access to electricity is widely regarded as a keystone to overcoming poverty, dramatically enhancing quality of life, and encouraging sustainable community prosperity. Such access is necessary to achieve other benefits such as education, public-health services for clean water and sanitation, and opportunities for participating in the global economy. IEEE Smart Village (ieee-smart-village.org), organized in 2010, exists to empower off-grid communities through education and the development of sustainable local energy businesses (microutilities) that are owned and operated by local entrepreneurs. IEEE Smart Village offers technical solutions, technical training, innovative business

2325-5987/16©2016IEEE

A

IEEE Elec trific ation Magazine / Ma r c h 201 6

11

models, and entrepreneurship training to establish a local business that is technically and financially sustainable. Seed funding is provided to local nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners for microutility equipment, and, through IEEE Smart Village’s incubator process, local entrepreneurs receive training and support to grow a self-sustaining business of the scope and character that best fulfills the needs of customers in their specific communities. All profits and benefits remain within the local communities. The microutility and training program offer a unique model, with viability being proven today in dozens of offgrid communities around the world where the people are typically living on less than US$1–2 per day. By the end of 2015, IEEE Smart Village and local partners provided electricity to more than 50,000 people in 34 villages through pilots in Cameroon, Haiti, India, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Zambia. The projects are as varied as the individual markets served. IEEE Smart Village has helped fuel a wide range of deployments, including solar home systems powered by 5-W panels, a 4-Ah battery, and 1-W light-emitting diode (LED) lightbulbs; energy kiosks supporting portable battery kits for homeowners; and village-center microgrids supporting metered customers. Implementations are planned in several other nations, and potential partners have already been identified in Burkina Faso, Gambia, and Malawi. IEEE Smart Village encourages its local village entrepreneurs to build a long-term relationship with their customers with affordable pay-as-you-go schemes and discourages transactional product sales.

for critical needs such as exchanging money, education, and health services. Initially, IEEE Smart Village’s local nonprofit partner in Haiti, Sirona Cares, implemented the renewable-energy solutions in six villages. In August 2012, ten more were deployed as Phase 2 of the pilot. Ten more were planned but never built; instead an end-of-grid charger system was requested by the UN to electrify 3,100 homes using the same home kits and business model. In 2015, Sirona Cares expected to expand its footprint to 55 communities across Haiti and reported that, for every home lit, ten more homeowners joined the waiting list for portable battery kits. Plus, leveraging IEEE Smart Village’s initial gifts of equipment, professional support, and seed funding, Sirona Cares has subsequently attracted additional funding from other international donors to greatly expand its capacity. A George Mason University analysis of the work in Haiti said that access to electricity boosted entrepreneurial growth and productivity, fueled health improvements and better educational opportunities, and enhanced opportunities for leisure activities. With access to electricity, one participant in the study was quoted to say, “Now I feel like a human being.”

Moved to Help

Nigeria

In the wake of Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake, IEEE volunteers went to work on trying to develop a reliable, low-cost source of electricity for the people there. The response to the disaster led not only to the SunBlazer— an open-source, modular, easy-to-install photovoltaic (PV) community charging station that could power portable battery packs to provide light in off-grid or disaster-stricken villages—but also the IEEE Community Solutions Initiative (its name was changed to IEEE Smart Village in 2015). Utilizing six silicon 250-W PV solar panels, the SunBlazer trailer could collect over 4 kWh of energy per day— enough to charge 80 portable battery packs, which are used to power LED lightbulbs and charge cell phones. That is important to the well-being of people in Haiti because many of the remote villagers depend on their cell phones

Green Village Electricity Projects (GVEP), Ltd., initially implemented a 6-kW PV minigrid in Egbeke, Nigeria. The project has brought Egbeke’s villagers access to reliable electricity for basic lighting and powering of small gadgets. Furthermore, a health center and water borehole could be powered with the IEEE Smart Village solution. GVEP’s efforts have not gone unnoticed—in 2013, GVEP was named a winner of the Power Africa Off-Grid Energy Challenge, a General Electric and U.S. African Development Foundation initiative. GVEP is now leading a major initiative financed by the Bank of Industry, Nigeria, and IEEE Smart Village to install three 220-V ac microgrids with 25 kW of solar panels that will each serve 200 customers (Figures 1 and 2). The Bank of Industry and GVEP plan to build on this base and electrify 100,000 off-grid homes over the next five years, with an impact reaching 1 million people.

Reliable access to electricity is widely regarded as a keystone to overcoming poverty, dramatically enhancing quality of life, and encouraging sustainable community prosperity.

12

I EEE E l e c t r i f i c a t i on M a gaz ine / March 2016

More Human Needs, More Technical Requirements

From the initial success in Haiti, a larger, longer-term vision for IEEE Smart Village took shape: to bring basic electrical and educational services to more than 50 million people by 2025. IEEE Smart Village implementations have spread to more markets around the globe, including Nigeria, South Sudan, India, Zambia, and Kenya.

Water Reservoir Low-Pressure Drip Irrigation 240–500 Rural Homes (0.5 kWh/day) Local Farmers, Rural Water Supply

Local Artisans/ Commercial Outlets (2.5 kWh/day)

Primary Offtake (Prepaid Metering)

415-V/33-kV Substation

Utility Payment Flows

GVEP

Original Equipment (PV Panels, Inverters) Financing, Financial Advisory Support Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) Agreement Original Equipment Manufacturer

EPC IEEE

Suntech Solar (Solar PVs) Trojan USA (Batteries) Schneider Electric (Inverters, Etc.)

Back-End Agreements/Support

Project Development/Operation and Maintenance

Design, Procurement, and Installation

Clean Energy Flows (50-Hz, Off-Grid, Low-Voltage Distribution Network)

Optional Evacuation

Distribution Network 34–100-kWp Solar PV Plant

Figure 1. Microgrid systems for GVEP in Nigeria.

South Sudan IEEE Smart Village’s NGO entrepreneurial partner in South Sudan is SunGate Solar Solutions, which is run by Mou Riiny, a former refugee from that war-torn country. Riiny was brought to the United States as a child and raised by foster families. He earned his electrical engineering degree from the University of San Diego. Now he is working in the area of his South Sudan village, Thiou. His NGO has installed 13 solar-powered community charging stations. Each charging station serves 100 portable battery kits. “It’s impossible to convey in words just how important IEEE Smart Village is,” Riiny said. “It is a very exciting initiative that is changing a lot of lives. In South Sudan, electricity is a new phenomenon, and having access to it is quite transforming. It enables us to bring the town to the people, which means they don’t have to go anywhere; they are empowered to stay where they are.”

villages and one primary city. The city, Leh, is home to the Mahabodhi Residential School, which serves students from the surrounding villages of Ladakh, many with no access to electricity. IEEE Smart Village is supporting the Knowledge Center at GHE’s Third Pole Education Base, a single-room building at the school that is made from sustainable material and powered by solar panels. The founder of GHE, Paras Loomba (Figure 4), is working to provide electricity to more Himalayan villages, and Loomba is sharing his designs and having systems manufactured in India at affordable prices.

India In partnership with several organizations, IEEE Smart Village has launched an initial plan to bring technology and education to remote Indian villages. Through a partner called the Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE), IEEE Smart Village is working in the Ladakh region (Figure 3)—severe terrain, 11,000 ft above sea level, with very remote small

Figure 2. Ifeanyi Orajaka, founder of GVEP, with local village children in front of the new 25-kW solar array installed in the River States, Nigeria. (Photo courtesy of GVEP.)


13

Zambia

IEEE Smart Village plans to develop an overall hardware, software, and communications architecture that will offer a complete range of interoperable solutions.

Likonge Makai, a Zambian electrical engineer, attended an IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference with the idea of an off-grid energy solution for the people of Filibaba, Zambia. A two-year process of encouragement, mentorship, and, finally, financial support by IEEE Smart Village, its volunteers, and the NGO KiloWatts for Humanity ultimately culminated in the installation of an energy kiosk in the community. The energy kiosk also sells basic goods such as cell phone voice and data credit and is expanding into other services, such as refrigeration. Access to reliable electricity is helping children study in their homes at night and helping a local school to offer an adult-education program in the evenings. In the more remote village of Chalokwa, solar home systems are being delivered. The opportunity for microutility

social enterprises in Zambia is immense, given that only 3% of the country’s rural residents have access to electricity.

Kenya

In Muhuru Bay, on the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya, a hybrid wind and solar community charging station is powering the community near Kristy’s Cape Academy, a private primary school that has no connection to the electric grid. Originally designed to recharge portable battery kits issued to the families of students, the system has evolved to include an ice-making business—allowing fishermen to preserve their catch for longer periods, gaining access to more distant and more lucrative markets. The community charging station was provided through the Alstom Foundation for the Environment, Seattle University, and IEEE Smart Village.

A Transformation Is in Motion In the electrification business of the past, the individual utility was a small cog in a large machine of huge generators, huge transmission lines, etc. Today, a remote village can be powered with distributed wind and solar. With this revolution in the power industry, coupled with the ongoing revolution in communications technologies, educational and economic opportunities in remote, off-grid communities around the world are being transformed. IEEE Smart Village is helping set the transformation into motion in more such communities around the world.

Figure 3. Solar panels and batteries being delivered by GHE in Ladakh, India. It is a three-day trek over mountain passes as high at 18,000 ft to reach the Himalayan villages of Ladakh, where IEEE Smart Village is providing power to three extremely remote hamlets. (Photo courtesy of Paras Loomba, GHE.)

Figure 4. Paras Loomba of GHE with new IEEE Smart Village customers in Ladakh. It takes passionate volunteers such as Loomba to be champions of projects that bring self-sustaining renewable power to extremely remote parts of the world. (Photo courtesy of GHE.)

14


Varied, Interchangeable Technologies for Varied Markets IEEE Smart Village’s vision grows with each new region of deployment. Knowledge gained from one market contributes to advancing knowledge and technology across other markets. Continuing to expand the diversity of energy technologies enables IEEE Smart Village to help bring electricity to more villages and expand business opportunities for local entrepreneurs, with greater influence on local economic development. Plus, with access to light and cell phones, people soon want more—a fan, television set, job, or even their own business. IEEE Smart Village is working to provide the tools that entrepreneurial partners need to meet escalating customer demand in a given village over years. Options were limited when the first SunBlazers were installed in Haiti in June 2011. However, alternatives to portable battery kits have emerged in the marketplace in the years since. For example, the option of solar home systems is available now, and customers in some of the

villages that IEEE Smart Village serves tend to prefer installing those to carrying 15-lb battery packs to and from their homes. As market options and local expectations have evolved, so has IEEE Smart Village. From the original flagship solution of the SunBlazer (Figure 5) with portable battery kits, IEEE Smart Village has adapted its offerings to now include 24-V dc microgrids, 220-V ac microgrids, and solar home systems. Today, a common technological challenge across many solar-battery applications is the charge controller. IEEE Smart Village has engaged in a partnership with Arizona State University to develop an open-source charge controller for universal application to off-grid power system Figure 5. IEEE Member Dr. Martin Niboh (front right) and a team of configurations (Figure 6). Currently available commercial enthusiastic energy entrepreneurs set up the first SunBlazer II system with Torchbearer Foundation in Bamenda, Cameroon. Trained in both the designs are often too expensive, fail to provide required technical and operational side of microutility deployment, these recent functionality, or are not modular across use cases. This electrical engineering graduates from the Bamenda Polytechnic are now new design will permit the phased expansion of power establishing microutility social enterprises in western Africa. (Photo courtesy of Michael Wilson, Torchbearer Foundation.) system architectures by enabling power conversion, connectivity, and control within a single device for the following use cases: specific needs. For example, could energy-efficient dc fans xx solar charging kiosks to charge 12-V batteries from and dc television sets be leased at a lower cost than powcentralized 24-V batteries ering inefficient, legacy ac appliances? Can we minimize xx isolated solar home systems to charge 12-V batteries the startup demand (inrush current) of an electric motor from a voltage solar PV panel (e.g., 18–24 Vdc, 45–55 Vdc) powering a refrigerator compressor or sawmill? Each vilxx dc microgrids to charge 12-V batteries from a higher lage reached by IEEE Smart Village presents its own quesdc voltage source (50–60 Vdc) tions and provides valuable lessons learned to be leverxx ac microgrids to charge 12-V batteries from aged in future deployments. 110/220 Vac. Ultimately, IEEE Smart Village plans to develop an IEEE Smart Village is working with partners under an overall hardware, software, and communications archiopen-source strategy to allow design, redesign, and extentecture that will offer a complete range of interoperable sion of the architecture to adapt for systems of any size. solutions. In many ways, the technology needs to be Planned expansions to this design include remote monitoring, compatibility with different types of battery chemistries, and demand response. Another area of development for IEEE Smart Village is common remote dc Microgrid monitoring and control for compo(50–60 Vdc) nents across all systems. This would Large Solar Small Solar SunBlazer-Lite or enable systems to be expanded and Panels Panels Cental Storage upgraded as customers increase ener(45–55 Vdc) (18–24 Vdc) (24 Vdc) gy consumption. Local NGO partners could select and configure the approSmart Village Universal Charge Controller priate system depending on their own budgets, customer budgets, local conditions, and competing options. Output from Standardizing open-source software Appliances Off-the-Shelf Home Battery (12 Vdc) for control and monitoring would Rectifier (12 Vdc) (18–20 Vdc) minimize overhead so local entrepreneurs and consumers pay only for hardware costs. ac Microgrid In addition, IEEE Smart Village is (110/220 Vac) gathering data and exploring how people use power in an effort to Figure 6. The IEEE Smart Village Universal Charge Controller developed in a partnership with Arizona improve and optimize the entire State University. The device is open source to facilitate rapid adoption, fabrication, and redesign for value chain to best support villagers’ existing and new markets.


15

modular to accommodate newer technologies and serve devices and needs flexibly based on the availability of sustainable electricity sources. Now, six years after the initial deployments in Haiti, the vision of IEEE Smart Village has grown significantly more sophisticated than simply replacing kerosene lanterns with clean light.

A Comprehensive Approach to Fueling Sustainability

IEEE Smart Village is not solely about delivering next-generation technologies to the remote, off-grid communities that we serve. While IEEE Smart Village offers a promising model for alleviating the extreme energy poverty experienced across off-grid communities around the world, it is definitively not a charity. IEEE Smart Village seeks to establish long-term partnerships, share best practices, and empower local entrepreneurs to profitably establish and manage fruitful businesses. To this point, when a potential entrepreneurial partner sends IEEE Smart Village a proposal, we are not just looking to see whether they are they doing good—we study the individual off-grid market, and we are looking primarily to evaluate whether the proposed project is likely to be turned into a sustainable business that villagers value and for which they are willing to pay. The economic viability of the project is crucial. In IEEE Smart Village’s deployments in Nigeria, for example, the connection fee for GVEP’s services is US$20, with a monthly payment of US$11.25. In Zambia, village customers are being offered a “payment-for-life” option by which they could trade in solar home systems they buy today for more powerful units as they become available later. Long-term affordability is key to the long-term sustainability of a commercially sound electricity business. Also, IEEE Smart Village connects our entrepreneurial partners to a global network of support. By teaming with IEEE Smart Village, partners can leverage buying power to source batteries and solar panels at lower prices, for example. As IEEE Smart Village moves toward a standardized bill of materials for its emerging array of system designs and issues requests for proposals across IEEE partners globally, even more competitive pricing will be possible. Education is another integral element on which IEEE Smart Village’s mission and operations are based. IEEE Smart Village’s education program features two complementary components that are designed to help spur social enterprise and stimulate sustainable community prosperity in the world’s poorest, most energy-deprived regions. IEEE Smart Village offers both vocational training and

16


coursework in integrated development practice through a partnership with Regis University and the Posner Center for International Development in Denver, Colorado. IEEE Smart Village’s vocational training provides students with the wide-ranging knowledge that they need to successfully implement, manage, and franchise a microutility that is seed-funded by IEEE Smart Village. A systematic approach is used, dividing a process into simple tasks and eliminating any nonessential content. The plan is to help IEEE Smart Village’s local entrepreneurs quickly absorb and competently introduce business offerings to their local customers, contributing to creation of local jobs and family businesses and increasing income throughout the community. IEEE Smart Village’s “Learning Beyond the Lightbulb” integrated development practice is a nine-month program of study that includes five courses using push–pull, community-based global content from the IEEE Smart Village global classroom at the Posner Center. Over eight weeks, the courses “Models of Development Practice,” “Entry Points of Development,” “Skills for the Field,” and “Going to Scale” convene virtual global pods once weekly for 4 h of discourse. The fifth course, “Practicum,” applies the lessons learned during participation in the first four courses to specific development goals. Students can seek to leverage completion of the IEEE Smart Village curriculum toward a fully accredited development practice graduate certificate from Denver’s Regis University, without having to leave their communities, families, and existing development work. IEEE Smart Village’s education program is multidirectional and reciprocal across borders and barriers. Diverse communities in smart villages and smart cities teach and learn from each other.

IEEE Smart Village’s vocational training provides students with the wideranging knowledge that they need to successfully implement, manage, and franchise a microutility that is seed-funded by IEEE Smart Village.

Call to Action There are a variety of ways that you can engage in IEEE Smart Village’s far-reaching humanitarian mission: xx Multinational NGOs, humanitarian organizations, government ministries, and associated programs can coordinate with IEEE Smart Village to expand service to more villages around the world. xx In-country NGOs and other humanitarian-outreach programs can partner with IEEE Smart Village in implementing local microutilities in the world’s remote, off-grid communities. xx Individuals sharing the passion for eradicating poverty can promote and volunteer for IEEE Smart Village.

xx Students and young professionals

leading the effort to establish IEEE Smart Village as a signature project of the IEEE Foundation; his passion for the Smart Village mission and education continues to attract many outstanding young members. Ray Larsen ([email protected]. edu) earned his B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of British Columbia and his professional engineer degree from Stanford University, California. He is a cofounder of IEEE Smart Village, chair of its Executive Committee, and acting chair of the Technology Committee. He led the technical team that developed SunBlazer I for Haiti. Currently, he is an electrical engineering special projects manager and former division director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He has more than 40 years of experience in engineering research systems for high-energy accelerator controls, detectors, and pulsed power systems. He has cofounded and led as chief executive officer or chief technology officer three start-ups in Silicon Valley. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, a past president of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, and a member of the IEEE Power & Energy Society. He has been active in church social justice outreach programs. Henry Louie ([email protected]) is a member of the IEEE Smart Village Standing Committee. He is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Seattle University, Washington. He cofounded KiloWatts for Humanity and has led energy development projects in Zambia and Kenya. He is currently a Fulbright Scholar at Copperbelt University in Kitwe, Zambia, where he is teaching and researching electrification in the context of less economically developed countries. He previously served on the IEEE Power & Energy Society Governing Board and is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE on the topic of energy poverty and rural microgrids. Nathan Johnson ([email protected]) is a member of the IEEE Smart Village Technical Committee and is overseeing development of the Smart Village Universal Charge Controller. He is an assistant professor in The Polytechnic School of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. Arizona State University recognizes him as a Senior Sustainability Scientist in recognition for his globally focused sustainability efforts. He has spent over two years of field research in developing countries seeking to address energy needs for emerging market economies and the rural poor. Shammya Saha ([email protected]) is a member of the IEEE Smart Village Technical Committee. He is a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University. He developed the first Smart Village Charge Controller while pursuing his bachelor’s degree at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

IEEE Smart Village is funded entirely by donations.

can serve as IEEE Smart Village ambassadors, working in the field and mentoring microutility start-ups. xx Financial support is critically needed to help IEEE Smart Village provide more access to basic electrical services in more villages; support continued innovation in the electrical systems that are being deployed around the world; boost awareness and excitement in schools and universities regarding the potential of engineering; and foster partnerships with more governments, multinational corporations, and foundations around the world. IEEE Smart Village is funded entirely by donations. IEEE Smart Village’s approach to helping poor, energydeprived communities address their socioeconomic challenges and successfully build toward sustainable prosperity is fundamentally new and uniquely comprehensive. To learn more about getting involved, please visit ieee-smartvillage.org.

For Further Reading IEEE Smart Village. [Online]. Available: http://ieee-smart-village. org (2016, Jan.). “Now I feel like a human being:” Impact assessment of Sirona Cares’ SunBlazer systems in Haiti. [Online]. Available: http://energyaccess.org/news/recent-news/ now-i-feel-like-a-human-being-impact-assessment-of-sironacares-sunblazer-systems-in-haiti/ (2016, Jan.). Lichi lights Ipafu, Filibaba in Chingola with solar kit. [Online]. Available: http://www.tiozambia.com/ lichi-lights-ipafu-filibaba-in-chingola-with-solar-kit/ M. Dalton. (2016, Jan.). IEEE PES congratulates winning Green Village Electricity Project. [Online]. Available: http:// www.ieee-pes.org/ieee-pes-congratulates-winning-greenvillage-electricity-project (2016, Jan.). BoI disburses N75.8m to solar system providers. [Online]. Available: http://leadership.ng/business/445008/ boi-disburses-n75-8m-to-solar-system-providers C. Owens. (2015, Jan.). IEEE smart village executive committee member talks about bringing light to zambia. [Online]. Available: http://ieee-smart-village.org/ieee-smart-villageexecutive-committee-member-talks-about-bringing-light-tozambia/ (accessed Jan. 2015).

Biographies Robin Podmore ([email protected]) earned his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering in 2013. He is a cofounder of IEEE Smart Village. He is currently a vice president for the IEEE Power & Energy Society’s (PES’s) New Initiatives and outreach; he also chairs the PES Engagement Committee. He is the founder and president of the power systems operations business Incremental Systems Corp., with simulation systems installations worldwide. He was instrumental in bringing the Community Solutions Initiative under PES and


17