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Solar Street lighting systems under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in Sirsa,

Haryana

Although the entire state of Haryana is connected to the grid, the state (especially rural areas)experiences frequent and sustained power cuts due to the power deficit scenario. Besides, the district of

Sirsa had no street lights until April, 2011. Even if street lights were proposed through conventional

power, the power cuts would affect the utility of such lights.

Therefore, after detailed surveys 6660 solar street lighting systems were sanctioned to 333

villages in Sirsa district. The systems comprise of a 74 W solar panel, 11W CFL and 12V battery. Theproject falls under the Off-grid solar photo voltaic applications scheme which is a part of the

Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Each system costs Rs 18900 along with a 2 year warranty

period. With an additional Rs 100 the manufacturers have included a maintainance contract for 3 years.The sum of Rs 100 would only be paid after the 5 year period. The overall project cost comes upto

Rs 12.65 crores. Under the scheme, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy has funded 30% of the

project cost (Rs 3.80 crore). The remaining 70% (Rs 8.85 crore) was shared between the beneficiaries

(villages) and the state.

Financing:

The MNRE has allotted for subsidies to cover 30% of the price of the system. According to theinitial project report, it was found that people in Sirsa were not capable of raising funds on their own.

Hence, in villages where self-financing was not possible, financial interventions were committed by the

state as explained below:

1. Self-financing

10 villages have borne the entire 70% of the cost (Rs 2.66 lac per village) out of the available

Gram Panchayat funds. The Gram Panchayats own most of the land in these villages. They leaseout land to farmers and farmers make payments on the leased land annually. In this manner, the

funds available with each of these villages has amounted to more Rs 10 lac per annum which

has allowed them to be capable of financing this project on their own.

2. Partly funded by the state

98 villages have gram panchayat funds anywhere between Rs 5-10 lacs per annum. Suchvillages were capable of pooling Rs 2.2 lacs each which is Rs 215.6 lac out of the required Rs

260.6 lacs for those villages. The Community Organisation head of the Hariyali Scheme met out

the remaining Rs 45.08 lacs. The Hariyali/District Development Plan's Watershed project is ascheme that aims to promote the economic development of the village community which is

directly or indirectly dependent on the watershed and to encourage restoration of ecological

balance in the village.

3. Fully supported by the State and Centre

The remaining 225 villages were completely incapable of funding themselves. Hence, the

entire sum of Rs 598.50 lacs was pooled out from the Backward Regional Grant Fund

(BRGF). The BRGF is developmental scheme under the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. The funds

aim to finance local infrastructural projects besides professional support on infrastructure in

selected rural districts.

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Monitoring & Maintainance:

A Village Energy Committee was meant to be constituted in every village.The committee

would be headed by the village Sarpanch, the Gram Sachiv would be the secretary and another memberof the Gram Panchayat. The committee would also include an ITI passed youth who will be trained by

the supplier before the end of the 5 year maintenance period. HAREDA also monitors projects through

monitoring committee setup.In the first year of installation, every village has resolved to deposit a sum of Rs 2500 per

system in VEC accounts from the gram panchayat funds. Between the second to fifth year a sum of Rs

1000 per system has to be deposited in the VEC account annually. This leads to a sum of Rs 1,30,000per village in the VEC funds. This amount will be used to maintain the systems after the 5 year contract

with the suppliers. In reality, the VECs are yet to be constituted in these villages.

Report on villages visited:

1. Farwain Khurd

This village received financial support from the District Development Plan and CEL had supplied

systems here. All systems were found to be working. The village Sarpanch(Ramjas) and the villagers

expressed satisfaction with the street lighting systems. There were roughly about 120 BPL householdsin this village. Some lights have intentionally been placed within BPL household premises tomaintain equitable distribution. The villagers are now aware of solar energy and the Sarpanch

expressed interest in solar water pumps for the village due to unreliable power cuts. But the rest of thepanchayat members showed no interest since the population could not afford it in the and besides these

farmers have been receiving electricity for water pumps at a subsidized price of 0.25p/unit.

2. Farwain Kala

On talking to the villagers, it was apparent that the VEC had not yet been setup and none

from the village was yet trained to maintain the systems. The members of the houses in whichthe street lights were placed dusted the panels occasionally.

3. BharoKhan Dhani

26 systems were installed in the village. On visiting the Sarpanch's (Khajan Chand) house, we

found that the street light within his premises was not from the companies listed in the proposal.On inquiry, we discovered that the sarpanch had purchased 6 more solar street lights (6 watt,

LED bulb) out of funds, that was released by the Panchayat Samiti under the authority of the

13th Finance Commission, for the purpose of operating and maintaining water supply, street

lights and sanitation. The village was not eligible for any subsidies for these extra 6 street lights.The systems were working.

4. Sikanderpur

According to villagers, 4 systems were not working. On checking the defunct lights, the panels

had apparently never been dusted as the member of the house in which the light was erectedwas not asked to dust the systems. She did not seem aware of the fact that the panels needed to

dusted frequently. The VEC had not been set up here as well. The sarpanch claimed that more

than 4 sytems were not working in Sikanderpur. He had not written to the District level project

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officer and he was asked to do so in order to take action.

5. Ganganpur

The next set of villages were visited at night. All systems were working. It was clear that the

lights were not enough. Some houses had fixed their incandescent bulbs in front of their houses

which helped a great deal in lighting up the street. An interesting case existed here where thestreetlight was erected literally under a tree. Although the light was working then, it is absurd to

locate it in such places. Besides the shadow of the tree, bird droppings could reduce panel

efficiency.

6. Shahpur Begu

The utility of the street lights is definitely the lowest here among the villages visited. The

village is heavily populated. The villagers stated that the lighting systems didn't do much good

except for the people living around it which was an absolute minority compared to the actualpopulation of the village which is roughly around 7500.

7. Odhan

Another populated village very similar to the case of Shahpur Begu. Besides the street lighting

systems Odhan and Ellenabad have been accepted proposals for 10 kw solar power plants by theMNRE under the same scheme for the current year (2011 12). The plants will be set up at the

Block Development & Panchayat Offices. The reason for setting up power plants here is to

increase the speed in filing reports by the officers to the central government on a daily basis

with regard to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The plants are yetto be commissioned.

8. Dharampura and Sant Nagar were the other two villages that were visited. Sant Nagar isagain a large village that did not benefit much from the 20 street lights that have been proposed.

Key Findings:

Theft of panels and batteries have been completely reduced by installing the systems within the

premises of the houses. Only the light bulbs have been made to stand out from the polesextending into the street. The batteries remain inside locked boxes which was extended inside

the rooms of houses in most cases. The keys remain with the members of the houses in which

the lights have been put up. There were no cases of theft yet under the scheme according to the

project officer and the villages visited.

Only 20 street lights per village seems inadequate for many villages where population is high.

The MNRE has withdrawn financial support for the project since their initial proposed target

has been achieved. In large villages, the beneficiaries are in such small proportions that the

utility of such expensive equipment is very low. Although people could become aware of solarenergy through just 20 systems per village the benefits would remain low unless demographic

conditions are taken into account.

The Village Energy Committees need to be constituted as soon as possible. There is no trained

person in these villages to repair and maintain the equipment although such measures have been

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proposed in paper. There needs be regular dusting that needs to be done. In almost every

village, there were many panels that were not faced towards the sun. This could lead to

inefficient charging of the batteries. The villagers need to be educated on these issues evidently.

If a system turned out to be defunct or needed service, the process to ensure this is strenuous.

The village sarpanch would first be informed. He would then have to turn this in during a gram

panchayat meeting. From here, a letter including all the details of the failed systems will have to

be prepared and sent to the Project Officer. Then, the PO would inform the relevant supplier anda service is supposed to arrive within a short notice. Obviously, a lot of time could be saved if

the villagers could directly inform the manufacturers.

The Project officer noted that the state level Green Energy Funds have not been utilized for this

project at all by HAREDA which could probably have helped in implementing more systems.

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