Approach for Designing Solar Photovoltaic-Based Mini-Grid Projects: A Case Study from India

Abstract

Having the largest rural population in the world, India confronts a huge challenge for rural electrification, especially for electrifying remote, forested and tribal habitations. Solar Photovoltaic-based mini-grids have emerged as a viable option for the provision of electricity in such remote rural locations, where grid extension is either not techno-economically feasible or electricity supply is intermittent. Very often such projects are purely technology-driven and several attempts at delivering electricity services to such remote locations have not succeeded, owing to the lack of adequate attention given to important socio-economic factors such as promotion of livelihoods or the creation of strong local institutions that can own, operate and manage the project over its lifetime. This chapter aims to present an interdisciplinary framework for the development of mini-grid projects in remote rural locations, developed from field experience of actual implementation of projects by TERI. Using this framework as a guide, TERI has commissioned solar photovoltaic-based mini-grids in a cluster of five villages in the state of Odisha. The detailed design methodology, including modifications to standardised practices in order to customise and improve the performance of these solar mini-grids is presented in this chapter as a case study. It is expected that the process followed and the resulting design will serve as a useful guide for renewable energy practitioners and researchers working in remote rural locations for provisioning of electricity services.

Appendices

Detailed List of Project Implementation Activities

1.1 Project Development and Pre-Installation

Site selection

• Identification of the sites for the intervention: includes collecting information on electrification status of the State (such as Odisha in this case), progress of rural electrification programmes over the last 3–5 years, distance/remoteness of the sites from district headquarters or other well-connected towns, distance of electricity grid from the sites, terrain and climactic conditions.

Feasibility studies and surveys

• Field visit and primary survey for collecting household information, existing and future load scenarios, key livelihoods and other sources of income and site-specific boundary conditions

• Secondary data collection and its authentication

• Stakeholders consultation meetings: with village residents, prominent members of the community, locally active NGOs, local government officials

• Electricity demand assessment for household, street lighting, agriculture, commercial and industrial segments

• Energy Resource assessment (such as hydro, solar, biomass, wind, biogas, etc.)

• Electricity linked livelihood assessment (examples include water pumping, grinding, food processing, etc.)

• Market assessment and surveys for products and services resulting from electrification

• Cost-benefit analysis of proposed interventions.

Project development activities

• Industry surveys to gauge maturity, availability and cost of different technology options

• Techno-economic assessment and tariff determination

• Contracting with local partners

• Inter-agency co-ordination, clearances, application, approvals

• Procurement of land and infrastructure for power plants, community hall, etc.

Establishing the institutional setup

• Formation of a local electricity project governance body, based on specific site conditions

• Drafting guidelines and responsibilities of this local institution

• Ensuring sustained involvement of this local institution through regular meetings and training programmes in order to transfer decision-making responsibilities to the local institution.

• Communication of installation charges, tariffs and management of electricity project funds through a transparent process to the entire consumer group.

• Based on specific site conditions and project requirements: required: capacity building for financial management, awareness on benefits of clean electricity use (as compared to existing fuels such as kerosene), involvement of NGOs and other local bodies for synergizing energy and livelihoods.

Design, Procurement, Installation and Commissioning

Project design

• Assessment of resource options such as hydropower, biomass, small wind and solar photovoltaic among others to arrive at a feasible technology option

• Assessment of the public distribution network requirements (length of feeders and total distribution network length)

• Estimation of project costs including costs of the power plant, distribution network, household wiring, land, civil construction, transport and professional costs

• Preparation of the Detailed Project Report (DPR) which contains all the information collected above (resources, demands, institutions) and the design options and costs.

Procurement

• Preparation of a detailed Bill of Materials (BoM) for the power plant and other appliances being considered for the project

• Identification of suitable vendors/suppliers of renewable energy-based power systems (and other components of the project such as distribution and civil construction) and soliciting of quotations against the Bill of Materials.

• Vendor selection possibly using quality and cost-based selection process

• Quality assurance through inspection of previously established projects

• Site visit for finalisation of design and costs with the selected vendor.

Installation and commissioning

• Mobilisation of labour: crucial step in remote areas where a paucity of skills labour for activities such as civil work exists and costs of sourcing labour from towns and cities are high

• Civil works and site preparation for installation of distribution network

• Installation of the power plants and associated distribution network

• Technical and safety checks

• Trial run and commissioning of the system.

Post-Commissioning and Sustaining the Project

Operation, maintenance and monitoring

• Hands-on training on operation, maintenance and repair

• Organising the supply of spare parts

• Record-keeping for faults, energy generation and consumption and revenue

• Handing-over of the commissioned system to the local institution.

Business development

• Integration with complementary development schemes

• Skill development for income generation

• Raw material procurement for secondary activities

• Market development for finished goods.

Assessment Framework

Category	Sub-categories	Significance
Geographic and administrative information	Exact location and coordinates of the sites	For estimating the availability of resources such as solar, hydro or biomass energy from renewable energy atlases
		Design of the electricity distribution system using software
	Terrain and distance of the sites from nearest block headquarters or large town. Nature and quality of roads and impact of weather conditions on access to sites	Assessment of transport requirements, especially in the context of transport of heavy materials such as power plant equipment
		Estimation of project completion time and impact of weather on the same
	Village mapping—location of individual households, schools, hospitals, local government offices, agricultural land, water bodies, fallow land, forests, etc.	Design of power plant and distribution system
		Availability of space for construction of power plant
		Assessment availability of government services and natural resources
	Type of local government and current and proposed development schemes (government or NGO led)	To understand potential partnerships and plan for synergies with existing or forthcoming government/NGO programmes
Electricity/energy scenario	Grid electrification status of the village and hamlets. Quantity and quality of power, number of connections, potential for electrification	Often the main village is electrified but the hamlets are not. Although the electrical lines may have reached the village, it is important to assess the quantity and quality of power being received and the estimated time by which the grid will reach the sites, if it has not already
	Alternative sources of energy/electricity—existing decentralised renewable sources in the form of solar lanterns, solar home systems or others and Diesel Gensets, kerosene lamps, batteries, etc. And the quantity and cost of each option on a per household basis	These sources will provide the assessor information on current usage patterns and also the costs being paid for availing the services. These costs can be treated as benchmarks for project design
	Types of loads, household, commercial and agricultural loads currently in use	To assess which existing loads need to be provided with electricity (in case they are operating on diesel or other source currently) and the potential load profile of the area
Socio-economics	Composition of community, community leadership.	In the case where the power plant is to be community managed or community involvement is important, it is important to understand community dynamics and leadership, to better facilitate an intervention in the area and minimise risk of conflict
		Even for privately operated power plants, such data is essential before proposing an intervention in the area to ensure cooperation from the community as a whole
	Income profiles, key occupation, type and area of houses, household size, land, livestock and other capital ownership, education, proximity of market and other commercial establishments, key agricultural crops grown, other livelihood activities such as NTFP collection and labour	This data is key to identification of potential livelihood activities that can either be started or be scaled up
	Access to finance	Rural communities often do not get easy access to finance owing to low incomes and unavailability of documentation of assets. Power projects that require investment would need to assess the availability of finance either through FIs or MFIs in the region before making an investment decision.
Demand assessment	Duration of time for which lighting and other household services are required	Daily household load patterns in rural areas are general uniform throughout the year and the assessment should also aid in estimation of the cap on energy consumption per household and the prospective loads that could be added over the next few years
	Daily, monthly and yearly requirement of commercial and agricultural equipment
		For larger loads such as commercial and agricultural loads, accurate data on time, day and season of usage can lead to a more optimised system design and higher capacity utilisation factor of the power plant through intelligent load management
Other factors which contribute to understanding the socio-economic and political dynamics of the community	Access to markets or other avenues for sale of produce.
	Involvement of local middle-men or organised agents in the collection of produce from the sites.
	Availability of modern communication facilities including cellphones and internet
	Existing community-based initiatives such as water conservation, forestry, etc.
	Extent of involvement of local governing institutions and NGOs
	Presence of local youth for employment at the power plant