OASYS SOUTH ASIA Workshop May 28, 2014 Proceedings of the · energy based mini-grids for enhancing...

Proceedings of the Green Mini-grid Development in South Asia

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OASYS SOUTH ASIA Workshop

May 28, 2014

Proceedings of the

Green Mini-grid Development in South Asia:

Enabling energy supply to rural areas through mini-grid solutions for economic

empowerment

Venue: United International University, Dhaka

Organised by TERI, New Delhi and United International University, Dhaka


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Produced by

The Energy and Resources Institute

New Delhi

Published on 15th August 2014


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Acknowledgement

The activities reported in this report are funded by an EPSRC/ DfID research grant

(EP/G063826/2) from the RCUK Energy Programme. The Energy Programme is a RCUK cross-

council initiative led by EPSRC and contributed to by ESRC, NERC, BBSRC and STFC.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the

views of the institutions they are affiliated to or the funding agencies.


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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................................................................III

DISCLAIMER ...............................................................................................................................................III

BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................................... 1

SUMMARY OF SESSIONS ................................................................................................................. 1

INAUGURAL SESSION ....................................................................................................................... 2

SESSION 1 : LESSONS FROM GREEN MINI-GRID EXPERIENCES ............................... 4

SESSION 2 : THEMATIC DISCUSSION ...................................................................................... 9

PANEL DISCUSSION: SCALING UP GREEN MINI-GRID PROJECTS IN SOU TH

ASIA ........................................................................................................................................................... 13

ANNEXURE I: PROGRAM SCHEDULE ...................................................................................... 17

ANNEXURE II : LIST OF PARTICIPANTS ................................................................................. 19

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Background

As part of a series of workshops organised by the OASYS South Asia Project, TERI

organised a Workshop on Green Mini-grid Development in South Asia, on May 28, 2014 at

the United International University, Dhaka. This workshop, the 6th South Asia annual

workshop of the multi-partners OASYS project, led by De Montfort University, was

organised in collaboration with the Centre for Energy Research of United International

University, on the occasion of the 3rd International Conference on the Developments in

Renewable Energy Technology organised in Dhaka from May 29-31, 2014. The workshop

focused on examining the barriers and solutions to sustainable, large-scale implementation of

green mini-grids in rural areas of developing regions that currently lack access or have

intermittent access to modern electricity solutions, based on experiences from the field. The

workshop saw active participation of over 80 stakeholders from the government, industry,

financial institutions, regulatory bodies, academic, research institutions and practitioners.

Summary of Sessions

Excluding the inaugural session and the concluding remarks, the workshop comprised of

three sessions wherein the first session highlighted the lessons and experiences from implementation of green mini-grids across the South Asian countries as well as from few

other developing countries from Africa and Latin America. The second session was a

thematic discussion consisting of operation, maintenance, financing, policy and regulatory issues of mini-grids, which was followed by participants brainstorming on prevalent

challenges, the barriers and possible solutions regarding the themes. The third session was a

panel discussion on the theme of Scaling up green mini-grid projects in South Asia, moderated by Mr Amit Kumar, with panellists from the Bangladeshi Ministry of Power, The

World Bank, International Finance Corporation, IDCOL and Rahimafrooz Renewables.


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Inaugural Session

Mr Shahriar Ahmed Choudhury, Director, Centre for Energy Research, started the proceedings welcoming all the speakers and guests and highlighting the genesis of the mini-

grid workshop and the International Conference on the Developments in Renewable Energy

Technology. Mr. Debajit Palit, Associate Director, TERI then presented the research objectives and outputs under the OASYS Project. He talked about multi-dimensional analysis

framework of carrying forward the OASYS Project through Academic Research, Action

Research, Knowledge Sharing and Policy Research. He further mentioned about various Work Packages consisting of study on in-depth analysis of off-grid delivery option;

assessment and selection of appropriate business models; demonstration in India; scaling-

up, replication and mainstreaming of models and, recommendations. The presentation also

threw light on OASYS achievements so far in terms of demonstration projects, publications

and workshops and discussed the way the demonstration projects will take shape in the

future course of the OASYS Project.

This brief description was followed by a keynote address by Prof Dr. M. Rezwan Khan, Vice Chancellor, United International University, Dhaka. Prof Khan in his presentation discussed

the challenges and opportunities of solar mini-grids in Bangladesh and said that renewable

energy policy of Bangladesh should provide more focus on off-grid systems as its effect will reach the people in remote areas and can have tremendous impact on the rural economy. He

also shared the critical aspects of AC and DC mini-grids and opined that DC mini-grids may

be more appropriate as they are technically robust and cost-effective which are critical for

scaling-up any interventions.


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Thereafter, the inaugural address was delivered by Mr. Tapos Kumar Roy, Additional

Secretary, Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Govt. of Bangladesh, who was the Chief Guest at the event. He mentioned that Bangladesh is establishing the Sustainable

and Renewable Energy Development Authority to pave the way for institutionalizing low

carbon sector development. Also, solar mini-grids have been identified as one of the important utility scale interventions as part of the Bangladesh’s 500 MW solar power

development programme. Mr. Roy also talked about how Government of Bangladesh has

planned to support solar mini grids and also made future commitments to explore wind power based mini grid as a clean energy option.

Followed by inaugural address was an address by the special guest, Mr. Mahmood Malik,

Executive Director and CEO, IDCOL. Mr. Malik mentioned that while IDCOL has been mainly supporting solar home systems and has financed more than 3 million systems,

recently they have also started promoting installation of mini-grids in remote densely

populated islands and has set a target to finance 50 mini-grid projects by the year 2017. He talked about the role of NGOs and private entities in operating mini grids and suggested

measures to overcome the barriers in implementing these mini-grid projects.


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Session 1: Lessons from Green Mini-grid

Experiences

Chair: Mr. Amit Kumar, Adjunct Professor, TERI University, New Delhi

The first session began with Mr Amit Kumar highlighting the importance of renewable energy based mini-grids for enhancing energy access in the South Asian region. Reiterating

that conventional grid extension is unable to serve large population, there was an urgent

need to complement the same with RE based mini grids. He shared field experiences of

renewables based mini grid work in India. Particularly talking about TERI’s initiatives, he

talked about their focus on going beyond providing energy access but rather weaving

energy-based livelihood activities around them. He urged the session speakers to share their experiences in mini-grid based socio-economic development of the rural populace. He then

introduced the speakers and requested Ms. Asma Huque, Managing Director at Prokaushali

Sangsad Ltd., Dhaka to deliver her presentation. Ms Huque started her presentation by sharing the experiences and lessons gained from the case study of 100 KW Solar Mini-Grid

in Sandwip, Bangladesh, which is the first mini-grid project in Bangladesh. She talked about

the points to be looked after or the key determinants for commercial and physical operations of mini-grids as well as the maintenance aspect of it. While looking at the commercial

operations of a mini-grid, she touched on the aspects such as new connection procedures,

consumer training, meter training, bill collection and prepaid meters. She mentioned the

factors to be looked at while dealing with physical operations like preparing schedules and

procedure for planned maintenance, system software update, looking out for abnormal


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signs and being prepared for natural calamities and emergency situations. Also, the safety

procedure is also an important aspect while looking into physical operation. Ms. Huque also discussed in detail on the operation and maintenance of five main components of the mini

grid namely – solar modules, inverters, batteries, generator and distribution system.

Mr. Sanjay Kumar Sharma from Alternate Energy Promotion Centre, Kathmandu,

highlighted the role of Government in developing and promoting renewable energy

technologies. He shared the achievements of Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) in Nepal in terms of significant growth of micro and pico hydro plants installed. He held

government focus and policy support as a key element to the success of hydro based mini-

grids. Under this, he mentioned some of the other elements that had aided in success of hydro mini-grids in Nepal such as formation of separate entity of AEPC that provided

technical support as well as financial assistance to the communities. Also, the government

made a relaxation of no licenses for the plants upto the size of 1000kW. The other important contributing factors aiding in success of micro hydro plants in the region as discussed by

Mr. Sharma are the community based micro hydro mini-grids where the developers /

owners(community representatives themselves) of the system aware the communities and involve them from the project proposing stage, planning, financing till project

implementation, operation and maintenance. Also, there is a strong institutional base of the

private sector in conducting detailed feasibility studies and manufacture/install domestically built and/or imported hydro mechanical and electromechanical plant and

equipment that attributes as one of the key success elements. He also touched on the aspects

of quality control and marketing which consists of Technical Review Committee (TRC) to conditionally qualify a project for support and Rural Energy Fund (REF) to provide final

approval based on documentary evidence of resource matching and Power output and

household verification (POHV) test.

He also discussed about the challenges faced regarding the construction and operation of the

plant. The major challenge being the financial constraint in terms of procuring gap funding and the other impediments in way of system success and scale up can be the abandonment

of plant by the community upon encroachment of the service area by national grid;

inadequate productive end use (overall plant factor being around 25%); cost overrun due to longer project cycle and change in hydrological pattern of rivers over the years. He then

concluded by suggesting a way forward by overcoming such challenges with the help of

political support, favourable policy and subsidy design, reliable data assessment for the identification of feasible project sites, linking the productive use of energy application with

the mini-grid and a significant involvement of financial institutions.


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Mr. Sebastian Groh of Micro Energy International, Berlin provided an international perspective on the renewable energy presence and development. He highlighted mainly

three constraints faced by renewable energy based mini-grids, which are limited capacity;

high capital expenditure (CAPEX) and high infrastructural demand and, difficulty to serve all customer types adequately. He then show cased three case studies in context with that,

one from Tsumkwe, Namibia where high CAPEX, high infrastructural demand and limited

capacity were major constraints, second case study is from Malapascua island, Philippines where the major constraint was high CAPEX and high infrastructure demand but it had the

ability to cater for demand growth with oversized diesel generator and third one is of

Sandwip island in Bangladesh using SHS where major constraints are limited capacity, one-time intervention and difficulties to serve all customer types adequately. He also talked

about the challenges to be met while scaling up a mini-grid such as increase in number of

customers, proper payment system and match supply and demand. Mr Groh was of the view that all those constraints mentioned above results in lack of flexibility in the system to

scale-up. He concluded with the suggestions that mini-grids should be small and flexible to

reduce CAPEX and then gradually increase customers, they should be able to make use of existing resources and there should be adequate demand assessment and tariff adaptation.

Also, the bottom up approach is a good way for dynamic scale up.

The first session ended with the presentation of Mr. Debajit Palit, where in discussed the

experiences from mini-grids implemented in India. In his presentation, he elaborated on the

technical design aspect of solar PV grid, biomass gasifier system and hybrid system that have been implemented in India since the mid-nineties and talked about how to address low

load to manage a mini-grid efficiently. He also highlighted the features, covering operation

as well as maintenance aspect of three kinds of delivery models namely – (1) Community based models under Rural Village Electrification Programme and Village Energy Security

Programme (2) CREDA model with top down approach which is a government funded

model and (3) Private sector Mini-Grid model following a commercial approach that is purely demand driven. Mr Palit also talked about institutional, financing and policy level

challenges which impede facilitating of mini-grid models. He was of the view that scaling

up of mini-grid projects require appropriate support system which should be a mixture of of both participatory approach & top-down approach as opposed to ‘let the community

handle’ approach and also the design should be optimized which adapts to local context. For

the effective maintenance, rather than availing outsourced after sales services, locally skilled people should be put to use. In the end, he provided an insight on the framework of mini-

grid where he showed in different levels of electricity access and how the mini-grid can be


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developed. At level one, small scale renewable energy technologies caters to basic needs

which creates the market for village scale mini-grid at level two, which then can facilitate the productive uses of energy in the region. This could finally be developed into mini-grids

coupled with central grid to suit cluster of villages and caters to modern societal needs such

as modern domestic gadgets and all productive applications throughout the day.

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Session 2: Thematic discussion

Chair: Prof Dr. A K M Sadrul Islam, IUT, Dhaka

Post lunch the workshop resumed with the session on thematic discussion. The first

presentation was by Prof Peter Adelmann from University of Ulm, Germany who spoke

about the different kinds of batteries and their role in the operation of Solar PV grids. He also

talked about hybrid batteries and how could they be a significant step to improve mini grids

performance and cost effectiveness. He started off with what he called his rough analysis

done in most of the places with regard to improvising mini-grids and was of the view that the

technical reason behind failure of such system is almost always the battery. He explained this

with the case study of solar mini grids installed in 30 islands of Greece. The Greek

government wanted electricity to be cheap here than what people pay in capital city. Most of

the mini grids were set up in a way that they are too small to meet the actual demand as the

demand analysis done before was found out to be highly under estimated and so the systems

get overloaded. The battery keeps getting empty and never gets fully recharged. These

batteries were the Lead Acid (LA) batteries having sulphation process which grow crystals if

do not get recharge from time to time. He said that the electricity was brought to people who

were hungry for energy and in such a scenario the battery remained rather completely empty

than being full. Therefore, he considered LA battery as socially inadaptable to solar energy

application. Next, he talked about Lithium (Li) batteries which perform much better and

have higher cycle life unlike LA batteries which have limited cycle life. By using Li batteries,

storage cost can be reduced and also there is a very much possibility of battery lasting long

like a solar module i.e., over 20 years. The only problem is that Li batteries are relatively

more costly and cost 3-4 times more than LA batteries.

Prof Adelmann then mentioned that answer to what can be done to reduce the initial

investment cost and also not giving up on all the nice features of Li batteries is “Hybrid

Batteries”. Storing solar electricity is a bigger issue than producing solar electricity and the

success of the application depends on the efficient storage capacity. He then talked about an


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intelligent electronic device that was developed in collaboration with Bosch which integrated

the positive features of both LA and Li battery. This battery initial costs, though, is about

40% higher than ordinary LA battery, but two to two-and-a half times cheaper than pure Li

battery. In sunny times, LA battery is given a break and is allowed to get fully charged. He

concluded on the note that in a rural scenario where family uses energy every night, the

battery never gets fully recharged, such hybrid batteries could be one significant aspect to

overcome this obstacle and hence improve the mini-grid performance.

Dr. Peter Boait, Senior Research Fellow at De Montfort University, UK brought out the

issues around balancing the cost and complexity of smart metering in mini-grids. He

mentioned about the availability and requirement of different smart meter solutions for power

and energy limited systems. He began with the power limited systems that do not have

battery by and large, very often biomass or hydro systems, and overload at peak times is the

main cause of the system failure. There becomes too much load to be supported by the

generator, typically an AC generator, resulting in its slowing down and impairment of the

service. He then raised the question that what should be done to manage that in a smart way.

To answer that he gave an example of a Smart Box invention by an American University

(Humboldt State) that uses voltage to detect overload conditions, indicate them to consumers,

and cut off all the power if consumers ignore the overload sign. The drawbacks to this Smart

Box are that the voltage thresholds will vary from one installation to another; cuts off all the

power not just the one appliance causing the overload and might not be suitable for all loads.

So, he was of the view that voltage is not a good indicator for scattered communities and

what works for one appliance may not work for the other machinery. It might be just

sufficient to signal the generator status and to rely on consumers respond. So, in order to

work out such system, voltage has to be calibrated very carefully to each network.

Further, he discussed on energy related systems that consists of typically photovoltaic or

wind systems and battery exhaustion is the main cause of system failure. For the management

of such systems, energy use needs to be managed in a way that battery level does not go

down too low. For this he mentioned two products that manage the energy budget. One is the

Urja Bandhu device that sets up the energy budget for the day and cuts off the power when

exhausted. The second product is Circutor that allows unused energy budget to be carried

forward. But, both these products suffer from some limitations such as both cut-off all power,

Circutor recovers if load falls below trickle charge and Urja Bandhu waits till next reset time

and the energy budget is fixed. Circutor allows some energy budget to be transferred to

another meter. He said that what is really required is to vary the energy budget to suit the

consumer dynamically so that they can fully exploit the energy resource on good days and

use the energy effectively and for commercial purposes as well.

Dr. Boait also focussed on the use of techniques like local Wi-Fi distribution to inform people

about weather conditions so that they can make use of it for the system. Even the income

generating plants can be cut off when batteries are not getting charged, by means of relatively

sophisticated communication which can signal that. He was keen on making people use

technologies like smart phone, tablets through which they can see the status of local grid,

appliances they can use etc. He then mentioned about various other propositions in regard to


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management problem coming from Gram Power, Lumeter Network, Husk Power Systems

and a quite few in Africa which are all very much driven by “Pre-Pay Mechanism” using a

mobile phone network to provide effective connection back to a cloud-based information

system. The local mini-grid system is totally managed from a central platform and the

payment is managed in a standardized way. The advantages to this standardized service are

the lower cost of delivery, fraud elimination and easy scaling up of a business model. But, the

disadvantages are little ability to vary service offer to suit location, culture, priorities; less

local ownership and commitment and reliant on an internet connection that may be lost in

extreme weather. Also, there are concerns about cloud based management regarding whether

it gets local engagement to make a system sustainable. Finally, he concluded by saying that

different smart meter solutions are required for power and energy related system to solve the

battery issues and also better telecommunication is a key requisite to signal system status to

consumers and to stop them from doing things which degrade the battery life and ruin the

economics of the system.

Ms. Farzana Rahman, Unit Head (Investment) of Renewable Energy at IDCOL elaborated the

issues of financing for mini-grids. She mentioned that while considering financing of a mini-

grid project, the factors that come into play are area selection, demand assessment, and

figuring out suitable tariff that will attract the potential investors and in turn enable them to

offer affordable tariff to end users. Based on the demand assessment, the project cost is then

figured out and the right financing structure is identified. She said that area selected should be

remote where possibility of grid expansion is very limited, availability of concentrated

customers to make setting up of distribution network feasible and, the willingness and

capacity to pay by the customers for what the project has to offer. She further talked about the

need of sponsors to conduct a detail customer survey so that it can be subsequently verified

by IDCOL. This verification looks into different aspects such as income level to indicate the

customers’ capability to pay, existing electricity consumption pattern and their willingness to

use different types of loads. Based on this detailed customer survey, sponsors and

consultants come up with the right capacity of the project.

Ms. Rahman mentioned that IDCOL projects have typically three components of revenue

namely, monthly line rent, tariff per kWh of electricity and connection fee to mostly cover

connectivity expenses. Then, based on the project capacity, the cost of the project is derived


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which typically has components like land plan development, equipment cost such as solar

panel, battery, inverter etc. and distribution network expenses. She stated that the average

cost of a 100 kW mini-grid is 0.5 million dollar wherein the project developer put in 20% of

the project cost in form of equity, 50% of the cost is provided as a grant in the form of

subsidy and the remaining 30% is given in form of debt charged at the rate of around 6%

interest for the tenor of 10 years and 2 years of grace period. She then spoke about a case

study of 100KW Solar PV based AC mini-grid under IDCOL’s financing which is still in

construction phase, to give an idea on how IDCOL deploy the concepts while assessing and

developing mini-grid project. This project is benefitting 520 households and commercial

entities. The project developer was made to conduct detail survey for 532 shops and 218

households and this was verified by IDCOL by randomly surveying about 25% of the total

size (126 shops and 61 households). She also presented the key findings of the case study

such as the average monthly bill for SHS and diesel consumers and the amount the customers

are willing to pay based on different categories of monthly income group, the expected load

patterns and the project estimation cost.

After the completion of these three thematic presentations, participants discussed over the

prevalent challenges, the barriers and possible solutions on the themes.

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Panel Discussion: Scaling up green mini-

grid projects in South Asia

Moderator: Mr. Amit Kumar, Adjunct Professor, TERI University, New Delhi

Mr Amit Kumar initiated the discussion by briefly dwelling upon replication and scaling up,

which, at times, are being used interchangeably. He pointed out that while replication meant

transfer of a tested concept or pilot to another location; scaling up implied expanding a tested

concept in terms of geographic reach etc. and it involved different set of risks. He said that

while lots of pilots have been set up, the need now is for scaling-up. The challenges included

appropriate delivery/business models, access to financing, and regulatory ambiguity. He also

posed a question to the panellists about the relevance of developing livelihood opportunities

around mini grids considering that these not only add up to the capital costs but also that

many a times the mini grid developers do not have core competency to tackle development

agenda. Asking the panellists to highlight the challenges faced by the mini-grid sector, he

invited them to prioritize three most important ones, addressing which can help the scaling up

of the mini-grid in accelerated fashion.

Mr. Chandrasekar Govindarajalu, Senior Energy Specialist at IFC said that the main

challenge of the companies working in mini-grids is to find right people or bankable

candidates for the Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). It is a big challenge for any company

to scale up a commercial model. He held the policy and regulatory stability as a major issue

critical to the sustainability of mini-grid. In the sense that some mini-grid established over

years ceased to function because of the arrival of grid extension in the area and there was no

policy for mini-grid to deal with such scenarios. So, one need to prepare for that day and

therefore such scenarios must be taken into the account at the beginning of the project design

not at a later stage. The other challenge mentioned by him is the wide range of technical

models available in the market resulting in the difficulty to arise at a particular standard to


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meet. Therefore, a revolution needs to happen on how to do some quality assurance and some

sort of standardization to get the market going.

Mr. Siddique Zobair, Senior Advisor from Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources

presented the views of the government and said that government is in a learning process

regarding renewable energy and trying to learn from technical people, entrepreneurs and

development partners. But, the main role of government is mostly of supporting. He stressed

on the fact that such off-grid projects need to be affordable, viable and sustainable and it is

then possible for the government to take care of the viability gap funding. He also mentioned

that government is revising the Renewable Energy Policy of 2008 to address the current

limitations. In the same policy, government has incorporated that if there will be grid

extension in the area where off-grid is in operation for 5 years then government will buy that

electricity from the developer and will fix the tariff on the basis of some parameters. He was

of the view that licensing is still one of the big barriers in the mini-grid development and the

government has tried to solve this issue by defining the parameters which clearly mentions

that in which case a project does not requires license. Lastly, he said that government

definitely want to develop mini-grid in the country in a sustainable way and with mostly in

the private sector.

Mr. Enamul Karim Pavel, Head of Renewable Energy at IDCOL stressed on the demand

assessment to be done properly while installing a mini-grid. If the demand is underestimated

than the actual requirement or vice-versa, then the project is likely to suffer. Similarly, in case

of biomass gasification based technology, raw material assessment is very important. He

considered socio-economic survey and demand assessment as big challenges that need to be

addressed properly for the successful operation and scale up of a mini-grid project. He also

raised the question that whether putting huge subsidy on mini-grid project is a sustainable

option or not. The support should be given to project developers and the technology should

be made familiar with local condition. Also, local manufacturers should be promoted as they

are the one who can help in reducing the equipment cost. He also mentioned that the project

other than being technically and financially viable should also ensure that it is being managed

properly. Customers should get support and their problems regarding the project should be

taken care of immediately.

Mr. Zubair K. M Sadeque, Senior Energy Specialist of South Asia Sustainable Development

Department at The World Bank was of the view that the standards enforced on mini-grids are

relatively higher than the grid standards because the government subsidizes the grid

extension. So, the grid connected people are pursued to be entitled to subsidy whereas in case

of mini-grids, people are told about the grant and subsidy put in which he feels is a kind of

unfavourable treatment to them. It is perhaps because of higher standards of mini-grids than

heavily subsidized grid extensions that make it difficult for mini-grids to scale up. He said if

a comparison is to be made for rural-electrification then both grid and off-grid should be

taken into account and how much subsidy is being given then perhaps the mini-grids will

look better.


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Mr. Islam Sharif, Renewable Energy Consultant and Former CEO of IDCOL mentioned that

the whole idea behind SHS being so successful is because it has a model that is manageable,

attracts people and can be sold. He also discussed the design aspect of solar home system and

the reasons for its successful scaling up in Bangladesh. One of the key reasons is that all

stakeholders across the value chain are earning money from the programme. He raised the

question during his discussion that whether solar system users understand the terminologies

like KW, KWh etc. To which Ms. Asma Haque responded that people ask for light in terms

of products such as 2 lights, 1 fan etc. Mr. Sharif then remarked that in SHS, people are close

to set define that how many lights they want but in mini-grid it is still hard to do that because

of all the scientific units that are mentioned.

The last speaker to conclude the panel discussion was Mr. Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, who spoke

on behalf of Mr. Sohel Ahmed, COO and Head of Business of Rahimafrooz Renewables,

Dhaka. He stated that the successful mini-grid programme is the development of successful

and sustainable sponsors. He mentioned that sponsors should come up with more divergent

projects rather than just one project and also that a successful project requires a rightfully

designed system and should take into account an appropriate load and social study. Mr.

Ahmed also suggested that a selling model should be multiple tariff based because the

households in rural communities are usually willing to pay but due to seasonal impact on

harvesting, which is there in most of the cases, results in inability to pay. Finally, he

concluded by complimenting IDCOL to come up with one of the most successful commercial

off-grid energy access model in the world.

Amit Kumar thanked all speakers and audience for their active participation and concluded

the workshop.

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Annexure I: Program Schedule

09.30 – 09.40 Welcome speech by Mr. Shahriar A. Chowdhury, Director, Center for Energy

Research, United International University, Dhaka

09.40 – 10:00 The OASYS Project – Research Experiences and Key Lessons

Mr. Debajit Palit, Associate Director, TERI, New Delhi

10.00 – 10.15 Keynote Address

Prof. Dr. M. Rezwan Khan, Vice Chancellor, United International University,

Dhaka

10.15 – 10.35 Inaugural Address by Chief Guest

Mr. Tapos Kumar Roy, Additional Secretary, Power Division, Ministry of Power,

Energy and Mineral Resources, Govt. of Bangladesh

10.35 – 10.50 Address by Special Guest

Mr. Mahmood Malik, Executive Director and CEO, IDCOL, Dhaka

10.50 – 11.10 Tea/coffee Break

11.10 – 13.00 Session – 1: Lessons from Green Mini-grid Experiences

(Chair: Mr. Amit Kumar, Adjunct Professor, TERI University, New Delhi)

Bangladesh – Ms. Asma Huque, Managing Director, Prokaushali Sangsad

Ltd., Dhaka

India –Mr. Debajit Palit, Associate Director, TERI, New Delhi

Nepal–Mr. Sanjay Kumar Sharma, Alternate Energy Promotion Centre,

Kathmandu

International perspective- Mr Sebastian Groh, Micro Energy International,

Berlin

13.00 - 13.45 Lunch

13.45 – 15.15 Thematic discussion (Chair: Prof Dr. A K M Sadrul Islam, IUT, Dhaka)

Operation and Maintenance of mini-grids

- AC and DC mini-grids: Critical features and their operation &

maintenance by Prof. Peter Adelmann, University of Ulm, Germany

- Smart metering options for mini-grids: technology developments &

applications by Dr. Peter Boait, Senior Research Fellow, De Montfort

University, UK

Financing, Policy and Regulatory issues of mini-grids


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- Ms. Farzana Rahman, Unit Head (Investment), Renewable Energy,

IDCOL

There will be a thematic presentation and thereafter the participants will

brainstorm the prevalent challenges, the barriers and possible solutions on the

themes.

15.15 – 15.35 Tea/Coffee Break

15.35 – 16.55 Panel Discussion: Scaling up green mini-grid projects in South Asia

Moderator: Mr. Amit Kumar, Adjunct Professor, TERI University, New Delhi

Mr. Siddique Zobair, Senior Advisor, Sustainable Energy for

Development and Addl. Secretary, Power Division, Ministry of Power,

Energy & Mineral Resources;

Zubair K. M Sadeque, Senior Energy Finance Specialist, South Asia

Sustainable Development, The World Bank;

Mr. Chandrasekar Govindarajalu, Senior Energy Specialist, IFC – South

Asia

Mr. Enamul Karim Pavel, Director, Renewable Energy, IDCOL, Dhaka

Mr. Islam Sharif, Renewable Energy Consultant and Former CEO, IDCOL

, Dhaka

Mr. Sohel Ahmed, COO and Head of Business, Rahimafrooz Renewables,

Dhaka

16.55 - 17.00 Concluding Remarks

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Annexure II: List of Participants

Workshop on Green Mini-grid Development in South Asia Enabling energy supply to rural areas through mini-grid solutions for economic empowerment

Date: 28 May 2014 Venue: United International University, Dhaka

Participants List S.No Title Name Designation Organization Email ID

1. Engr A B M Harunur Rashid Ex. Managing Director Ex. Power Grid Company of

Bangladesh Limited (PGCB) [email protected]

2. Mr A S M Muni DGM AVA Development Society [email protected]

3. Mr A S M Ziaul Hoque Senior Engineer Innovative Technologies Limited

[email protected], [email protected]

4. Mr Abdullah Al Helal Lecturer United International University

[email protected]

5. Mr Abdullah Al Matin Technical Officer Infrastructure Development Company Limited(IDCOL)

[email protected]

6. Mr Al Jumlat Ahmed Lecturer (Part time) EEE United International University (UIU)

[email protected]

7. Mr Alexander Batteiger Ph.D Candidate Postgraduate Programmes [email protected]

8. Mr Amit Kumar Adjunct Professor The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

[email protected]

9. Mr Anomadarshi Barua Lecturer United International University (UIU)

[email protected]

10. Mr Argun Kumar Sr. Finance Srizony Bangladesh [email protected]

11. Mr ASM Mominul Islam Research Engineer Centre for Energy research , United International University (UIU)

[email protected]

12. Ms Asma Begum Managing Director Prokaushali Sangsad Limited [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]












20

S.No Title Name Designation Organization Email ID

13. Mr Bikas Das Managing Director Grameen Shakti [email protected]

14. Mr Chandrasekar Govindarajalu Sr. Energy Specialist International Finance Corporation (IFC)

[email protected]

15. Mr D M A B Siddique Director Hydron Bangladesh [email protected] 16. Mr Debajit Palit Associate Director The Energy and Resources

Institute (TERI) [email protected]

17. Ms Dipta Majumder Technical Officer Infrastructure Development Company Limited(IDCOL)

[email protected]

18. Mr Farzana Rahman Unit Head (Investment) Infrastructure Development Company Limited(IDCOL)

[email protected]

19. Mr Hadley Taylor Consultant Micro-energy International (MEI)

[email protected]

20. Mr Hannes Kirchhoff Consultant Micro Energy International GmbH

[email protected]

21. Mr Harun-or-Rashid Executive Director Srizony Bangladesh [email protected]

22. Most Hassan Banu Executive Director Center for Mass Education in Science (CMES)

[email protected]

23. Mr Ibrahim Ahmad Shafi Al Mohtad

Executive Engineer (Planning & Development)

Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh Limited(EGCB)

[email protected]

24. Dr Intekhab Alam Assistant Processor United International University (UIU)

[email protected]

25. Mr Islam Sharif President & CEO S K Johnson LLC [email protected]

26. Engr Jamal Uddin Deputy Manager (Technical Quality Control)

Grameen Shakti [email protected]

27. Mr Junaed Tazdik Monitoring Officer, SHS Program

Infrastructure Development Company Limited

[email protected]

28. Mr Kazi Ahsan Uddin Monitoring Officer Infrastructure Development Company Limited

[email protected]

29. Dr Kazim Humayun Kabir Manager, Environment Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh

[email protected]
















21


Limited (EGCB) 30 Mr Khalid Hussain Researcher Solargao shumno@[email protected]

31. Dr M A Rashid Sarkar Professor Bangladesh University Of

Engineering And Technology (BUET)

[email protected]

32. Dr M Khaleq-uz-zaman Senior Advisor German International Corporation (GIZ)

[email protected]

33. Mr Mahmood Mallik Executive Director & CEO Infrastructure Development Company Limited(IDCOL)

[email protected]

34. Mr Mahmud Ibrahim Research Engineer Centre for Energy Research, United International University (UIU)

[email protected]

35. Mr Manabendra Sarkar Student Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

[email protected]

36. Mr Masroona Haque Communications CEA Inc [email protected]

37. Mr Md Abu Abdullah Assistant Professor East West University (EWU) [email protected]

38. Mr Md Rakibul Karim Special Lecturer United International University (UIU)

[email protected]

39. Mr Md Wazedur Rahman Student Pondicherry University [email protected]

40. Mr Md. Nizamuddin S A Manager AVA Development Society [email protected]

41. Mr Md. Enamul Karim Pavel Head of Renewable Energy Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL)

[email protected]

42. Mr Md. Kamrul Hasan Staff Reporter The Daily Amarsangbad Hasan-kamrul

43. Engr Md. Mesbahul Haque Deputy Manager AVA Development Society [email protected]

44. Mr Md. Moniruzzaman Director, Operation Panna Rural Development [email protected]











22


Foundation 45. Mr Md. Moshieur Rah Dy. Manager Schneider Electric [email protected]

46. Mr Md. Nadeem Chowdhury Lecturer United International

University (UIU) [email protected]

47. Mr Md. Rashedul Haque Ex. Research Engineer Centre for Energy Research, United International University (UIU)

[email protected]

48. Mr Md. ShihabUddin Research Engineer Centre for Energy Research, United International University (UIU)

[email protected]

49. Engr Md. Yasin Mozumder Environment Specialist Asian Development Bank [email protected]

50. Dr Md. Ziaur Rahman Khan Professor Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

[email protected]

51. Mr Mehdi Hasan Chowdhury Lecturer Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET)

[email protected]

52. Dr Mohammad Arif Hasan Mamun

Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

[email protected]

53. Dr Mohammad Kamruzzaman Associate Professor Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET)

[email protected]

54. Mr Mohd. AhsanKabir Deputy Manager Schneider Electric [email protected]

55. Mr Mr Rabisankar Panda Manager, Quality Assurance

Panna Battery Limited [email protected]

56. Mr Noor Hossain Managing Director Innovative Technologies [email protected]

57. Prof Peter Adelmann University of Ulm, Germany [email protected]

58. Dr Peter Boait Senior Research Fellow De Montfort University [email protected]














23


59. Mr Roquib Ehsan Associate Engineer Solarland assistanteng@[email protected]

60. Mr S M Jakaria Sr. Advisor, Energy Policy CCEB-USAID [email protected]

61. Prof Sadrul Islam Head of CEE Islamic University of Technology (IUT)

[email protected]

62 Dr Saiful Haque Professor Dhaka University(DU) [email protected], [email protected]

63. Mr Sajib Kumar Ghosh Researcher Solargao Ltd [email protected]

64. Mr Sanaul Hoque Shakil Sr. Executive Confidence Electronic Limited

[email protected]

65. Mr Sanjay Kumar Sharma Programme Manager Alternative Energy Promotion

Centre (AEPC), Nepal

[email protected]

66. Mr Sankar Roy Director Bangladesh Clean Technology Company Limited (BCTCL)

[email protected]

67. Mr Sebastian Groh Project Manager Micro Energy International (MEI)

[email protected]

68. Mr Shahed Khan Mohammed Lecturer United International University (UIU)

[email protected]

69. Engr Shahidul Islam Managing Director Engineering Complex Limited

[email protected]

70. Mr Shahriar Ahmed Chowdhury Director United International University (UIU)

[email protected]

71. Mr Shah Noman Project Coordinator Solar Gao Ltd [email protected]

72. Mr Siddique Zobair J. Secretary Ministry of Power Energy and Mineral Resources

[email protected]

73. Mr Sufi Iqbal Ahmed Managing Director Solargao [email protected], [email protected]

mailto:assistanteng@[email protected]

mailto:assistanteng@[email protected]















24


74. Mr Sultan Mahmud Engineer, Renewable Energy

Panna Rural Development Foundation

[email protected], [email protected]

75. Mr Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Head of Sales Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy Ltd

[email protected]

76. Mr Tapos Kumar Roy Additional Secretary Ministry of PEMR [email protected]

77. Mr Tarique Iqbal Director Bangladesh Clean Technology Company Limited (BCTCL)

[email protected]

78 Mr Tonmoy Kumar Bhowniar Lecturer United International University (UIU)

[email protected]

79. Mr Zahir Ahmed Head, Power and Industry Business

Schneider Electric [email protected]

80. Mr Zubair K M Sadeque Sr. Engineer F.S World Bank [email protected]







25


26

OASYS South Asia project

The Off-grid Access Systems for South Asia (or OASYS South Asia) is a research project funded

by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of UK and the Department for

International Development, UK. This research is investigating off-grid electrification in South

Asia from a multi-dimensional perspective, considering techno-economic, governance, socio-

political and environmental dimensions. A consortium of universities and research institutes led

by De Montfort University (originally by University of Dundee until end of August 2012) is

carrying out this research. The partner teams include Edinburgh Napier University, University of

Manchester, the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and TERI University (India).

The project has carried out a detailed review of status of off-grid electrification in the region and

around the world. It has also considered the financial challenges, participatory models and

governance issues. Based on these, an edited book titled “Rural Electrification through

Decentralised Off-grid Systems in Developing Countries” was published in 2013 (Springer-

Verlag, UK). As opposed to individual systems for off-grid electrification, such as solar home

systems, the research under this project is focusing on enabling income generating activities

through electrification and accordingly, investing decentralised mini-grids as a solution. Various

local level solutions for the region have been looked into, including husk-based power, micro-

hydro, solar PV-based mini-grids and hybrid systems. The project is also carrying out

demonstration projects using alternative business models (community-based, private led and local

government led) and technologies to develop a better understanding of the challenges. It is also

looking at replication and scale-up challenges and options and will provide policy

recommendations based on the research.

More details about the project and its outputs can be obtained from

www.oasyssouthasia.dmu.ac.uk or by contacting the principal investigator Prof. Subhes

Bhattacharyya ([email protected]).

OASYS South Asia Project

Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development,

De Montfort University,

The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK

Tel: 44(0) 116 257 7975

http://www.oasyssouthasia.dmu.ac.uk/


OASYS SOUTH ASIA Workshop May 28, 2014 Proceedings of the · energy based mini-grids for enhancing...

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