Case Study 12: Micro-hydro power plants powering rural India

There has been a significant development in setting up of pico-hydro projects in Karnataka in the last four years. Since 2007, about 500 pico-hydro projects have been set up till date and the numbers is increasing steadily. By March 2013, the number of installations expected is 700–800. This trend is likely to continue. 

Pico-hydro systems have a significant impact on farmers and villagers who have no access to electricity.  A number of such installations are in very remote locations with no electricity. Many installations have been done in isolated places near reserve forests, coastal regions, and national parks where it is not possible to lay transmission lines by DISCOMs. In such places, the pico-hydro systems have been a boon. In hilly areas, grid and solar power are unreliable due to monsoons and therefore, pico-hydro is a convenient solution.

 A 1-kW pico-hydro plant provides 24 kWh of 220 V, 50 Hz AC power per day and all available equipment can be used. The users have access to the kind of power available in urban areas. The equipment that can be run using electricity generated from pico-hydro include lights, TV, grinder-mixer, and household items. Some users have also utilized it for income generation activities. 

Chembu village in the Coorg District of Karnataka has seen a major change due to installation of pico-hydro systems. The village is surrounded by forests and is typically inhabited by poor farmers who had no access to electricity but had almost perennial streams running through their habitation. Today, about 80 houses in the village have installed these systems 40 more are expected to receive electricity supply by this year. The village is on the way to becoming a 100% pico-hydro-powered village. 

A sustainable environment has been built for the execution of this project Karnataka. The ecosystem has been nurtured by the technology providers Prakruti Hydro Labs, Bengaluru, and includes implementers like Nisarga Environmental Technology, Shimoga; Karawali Renewable Energy, Belthangady; and Credit Cooperatives, which provide financing to beneficiaries like Sharda Souharda Society, Siri Souharda Society, and support from the NGO Small Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund.

The prospective beneficiary applies through the website to KREDL (Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Agency) with a registration fee expressing his/ her intent to install a pico-hydro system in his/her property. The application gets registered in KREDL. The applicant then goes to any of the implementers who helps him/her in getting bridge finance for the project and helps in installation of the system. After a set of installation at site, a completion report is sent to KREDL. KREDL technical personnel visit the site to check the installation and its performance. After they are assured of the system’s working, KREDL processes the request for subsidy release and releases to the end beneficiary.

The state has identified about 1500 potential sites in Chikkamagalore, Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Hassan, Udupi, Kodagu, and Shimoga districts. With continued financial support from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, in future, the task will be completed and the difficulties in laying transmission lines and providing regular power supply by DISCOMs could be minimized. 

The micro-hydro plant installed at village Putsil has catalysed visible changes: increase in income, work sharing, leisure time, and community initiatives; sanitation and cleanliness; awareness and empowerment; management of local natural resources, protection of forests, and sustainable practices of land utilization; and so on.

The main beneficiaries of electrification are women. This means no more backbreaking work such as pounding and grinding of cereals. They now have a 3-HP rice mill. They no longer come back home hurriedly from the field to cook before dark. Earlier, people used to go to bed by seven in the evening in order to save on kerosene. Now, they have time to attend to household chores at leisure, discuss with friends, watch TV in the community centre, and so on. Houses are cleaner, children take interest in studies, cooking at leisure has improved the quality of food, husbands stay at home in the evenings, and everyone watches TV together. There has been an increase in income generating activities and most families generate an additional income of about Rs 10, 000–12,000 in a year.

Access to information and the world outside has become easier. There is TV, time, and facility to read books. About 10 families own TV sets and the number of tape recorders and radios has also increased. The village community center has a TV for community viewing.

The micro-hydro plant has also benefited the neighboring seven villages. They charge batteries and mobiles and also use the rice mill. Battery charging costs Rs 10, mobile charging Rs 3, and paddy milling costs Rs 12 per bag. The mill helps in collecting income for the community: out of each rupee, 0.50 paisa goes to the community fund. Four young men get direct employment: two in the mill, and two in the plant. As trained electricians, the plant operators now earn about Rs 9000 per annum out of wiring and allied activities in and outside their village. Recently, the community has started pisciculture using husk generated from the mill as fish feed. The women group has plans to augment income by processing local produce through the mill. They intend to start marketing varieties of dal and oil through the apex women’s federation. At night, people are engaged in processing non-timber forest produce such as hill brooms, sikakai powder, and tamarind. Some of the youths are trained to make the woodcrafts mounted with elegant natural colour and lac by the power-operated lathe. In order to sustain water flow in the streams, reduce silt load, and restore biodiversity, the villagers have taken forest protection and plantation seriously over 300 hectares of forests are protected. The community is also into a process of capacity building for sustainable use of land. They have earmarked 10 acres of land to learn nursery management and raise saplings for regeneration of endangered or lost species. They are aware of the bulk cash they would need to replace the major components after a decade or two. They have already started planting traditional cash generating trees to raise money. To take care of recurring maintenance, they have bank savings of about Rs 7,00,000 . 

Establishment of the plant was preceded by a series of intensive interaction with the community for about two years. The objective was to build capacity of the community in management of the micro-hydro project; effective use of power and other end use applications; build future vision for sustainable control and management of other resources; and create space for technologists, scientists, and NGOs to interact with the communities on decentralized energy options. Technical consultations and feasibility studies were carried out and the construction work began around January 1999. 

The Putsil Micro Hydro Committee comprising 21 members (includes six women) manages the power generation and distribution. Each of the 80 families in the village is a consumer. The consumers are divided into six groups and each group is assigned specific tasks such as repair and management of the catchment area. 

One incredible aspect about the Putsil Micro Hydro is the depth of community participation. The community contributed about Rs 2,13,000 in the form of labour towards the establishment of the plant. The approach employed by the community to manage the plant has effective combination of traditional values of concern and flexibility. This is reflected in the timing of power supply, collection of fees, compensation for services to operate the plant, and other end-use machineries.

Since 1998, each family has been paying an average Rs 20 per month towards electricity fund. However, they are free to give less during the lean season and more when they have a better income. For family use, electricity is supplied from 6 pm in the evening to 10 pm; again from 3 am to 6 am; and later from 6 am to 8 am to run the mill. The early morning power supply was initiated due to a demand by women to complete household chores before leaving for the field. During marriage, childbirth, serious illness, festivities, and other such occasions, power supply is given as per the need. 

References-:

1. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy -: https://mnre.gov.in/case-study-success-story