Lighting up a community in Tanzania

Impressive work Naeem!

Just a few things from me:

In rural Tanzania, households are so far scattered from each other. Setting up power transmission lines is costly, and a conventional approach has been that of laying solar panels on roofs, but the shortcomings of this approach are such as, as I have come to learn, no roofs in rural areas would accommodate solar panels, because only about 23% of houses in rural areas have iron roofs while most houses are grass roofed.

Your approach will be that of setting up mini-power plants: In places like the US it costs around US $ 5000 to set up a transmission line for every circuit kilometer; Of course in Tanzania it will cost much less than that, but still I would think it’s gonna be expensive. How do you plan to go about this? And How will you get your money back that can allow your company’s growth and expansion to reach more needy clients?

From observations, a citizen living in rural Tanzania spends around US $ 15 a month for fuel wood and in Dar es Salaam an average household spends around 7000-15000 Tshs on electricity every month. Now when we talk of rural residents we are reminded of some who live below US $ 1 a day. Do you find this to be a challenge? Have you thought about how you would go about it?

Paulo Freire wrote “I cannot think for others or without others, nor can others think for me. Even if the people’s thinking is superstitious or naïve, it is only as they rethink their assumptions in action that they can change. Producing and acting upon their own ideas — not consuming those of others — must constitute that process.” In light of this he proposed a dialectical approach to problem solving. Your company has the potential to positively impact the life of the poorest Tanzanian, but how opposed or in agreement is your company to the notion of thinking for others or without others?

And one last question: What will your main areas of focus be? e.g energy for lighting households and hospitals, energy for agricultural use…

@ Bata

I believe that the 15 year agreements will be done on a project to project basis at the moment. From what I know, EWURA acts as a facilitator between the two parties (TANESCO and the SPP). However, (as it is normally done in Tanzania), the SPP has to follow up on everything itself (something that could still be improved).

At the same time, the great thing about the new regulation is that it allows Small Power Producers (SPPs) that have their own mini-grid to set their own tariff, based on the following:
– Host community income level (ability to pay)
– Capital investment cost
– Operation cost
The tariff, however, still needs to be approved by EWURA. You have to prove to EWURA that the tariff you want to set follows the necessary guidelines and is accepted by the host community.

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@bihemo

1. The issue of building a distribution networks in rural Tanzania is a huge challenge. Houses are usually spread out very far and incompatible with conventional wiring. Our goal is not to provide them with solar panels for every home, but to build a mini-grid that provides them with conventional 230VAC power supply. The following is how we deal with this problem:

– Create a map of the village and collect demographical data very quickly. This is done using a GPS-based technology that includes geo-tagging each home, collecting basic household data and photographing the house. All this data is stored on a dynamic google earth map that can be used to evaluate the village layout and individual household structures for planning purposes.

– Using the map and the data collected, we try to design the most cost effective grid layout (usually with the intension of starting off at the village market center where there is a high density of people with high expected power consumption). Also, the grid it self is built in the most simplest manner in order to reduce cost (we are currently piloting this). Once the center is wired, the grid is expected to expand gradually towards other less dense areas.

– There is a lot of funding out there that supports rural electrification projects. As long as you are able to show that you are able to build a low-cost grid and produce power that is affordable and meets the requirement of a community, I don’t believe financing the grid will be a problem. Moreover, REA also offers a performance grant of 500USD for every household that you can connect to a mini-grid powered by a renewable energy source, so as long as 80% of the average cost of building your mini-grid is less than 500USD, I believe you can use the grant to subside your investment for the grid substantially. I have however not applied for it myself and am unsure of the correct application process yet.

– In terms of wiring a house made of mud and thatch, Tanzania is not the first country to face such a problem. There are many practical low cost solutions that allow low-income families with incompatible housing structures to get access to power from a grid. One such solution is called a “Readyboard” – google it. We are working on a similar solution of our own that can provide power to incompatible structures and will bypass the need for conventional indoor wiring.

2. The ability of villagers to pay for electricity is always the first question – mainly because of the 1$/day income stats that we always hear about. I was personally very curious about this fact and so I made sure we had the right data to work with, but more importantly the type of data to work with. As a starter, how much they make was assumed to be irrelevant. We looked at how much they spend on everything that would usually need electricity, and made comparison on the savings. Here is how we broke it down:
– At a minimum an average house uses 5-7 L of kerosene/month at TZS 1400/- per Liter, 1 cellphone paying TZS 300/- for charging/hour x 30 days (most homes were actually found to have more than 1 cell phone), 1 Radio using 3 D-cells/week x TZS 300/- per D-cell x 4 weeks/Month. Taking just this into account, Total cost = TZS 22,400/-.
– Now lets say I have electricity and its extremely expensive (0.50 USD/kWh). I use three 5 W bulbs (energy saver) for 5 hours/day – Cost: $1.13 USD/month. 2 cellphones (10W x 2pcs x 1 hour charging x 30 days), Total cost: $0.30 USD/month. You can continue doing this for a radio (~5W – 35 W) or a TV (19” – 70W and 25” – 150W) or other things that are more likely to be used in the village when they get access to power the first time and let me know what you think about the savings and their ability to pay, considering their initial energy budget. The idea behind the whole concept it not to get them to pay any more money than they already are, but to work within the existing energy budget (whilst also increasing their savings and disposable income) in order to allow them to get access to basic electrical services that I personally believe are a right of every human being.

3. You have raised the most critical question of all when it comes to offering solutions for development. The entire core of our concept and approach revolves around direct community engagement. It is through the continuous community engagement that the focus moved from small solar lights, to solar home systems (that were piloted in public spaces within the village), to the now community-based power grid. All the economic analysis and strategy development was done through constant interaction with about 7 villages. The technologies selected may not be entirely African born (at least not the power generation – at this stage), but they have been very successful as a model in various parts of Africa. This includes the use of solar technology. The most interesting fact about solar technology is that every person in the village knew what it was and how it worked, even though just a few people in the entire village had access to it before our project. The reason behind this was simple. When it got dark, only a few houses with solar had proper lighting, and the rest of the village would watch and wonder what that was the case. Even though they do not have the means to access the technology, they inquire about it and are fully aware of what it is and how it works.

In the matter of thinking for them, I consider myself one of them. I spent my years growing up in rural Mara along side my father who runs a construction business that has been building roads, earth dams, schools and hospitals in the region with the help of the people them selves as construction workers. We have been part of the rural communities for a long time. A lot of our projects have revolved around the idea of facilitating self help – What our local MP Nimrod Mkono (MP for Rural Mara) likes to refer to as “Mkono kwa mkono” (meaning a hand for a hand). The technologies and equipment that we use may be foreign, but the idea of community development on a holistic level by using those technologies is very much local. The success of the projects will depend on the ability of the entrepreneurs in the villages to jump start new businesses and small-scale industries, a process that we will continuously encourage.

4. My focus/goal: Electricity for all. I believe it to be a fundamental human right to have access to electricity, as reflected in our companies mission and objectives. I believe conventional electricity is the single most important element/catalyst that leads to rapid economic and social development of any community.

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@Taha

In terms of enforcing payment, it is very difficult to do so in rural regions after the service has been delivered. We plan on using the same model that has been very successful in the mobile telcom and power industry in East Africa – simple prepaid. Ideally, if they don’t pay for power (or in this case, they don’t purchase power credits), they can’t use power. But on the other hand, the system allows them to purchase electricity in very small amounts and pay for it as they use it. Thus offering a financial model that is catered towards individuals with low and variable income. If you would like to get some help on your project in this matter, feel free to contact me directly.

If you have more questions, would like me to share more of my thoughts on various aspects of the project, or anything related to rural development, community engagement, renewable energy, etc, please feel free to post a question. I will soon be officially blogging for Vijana.FM and will try my best to create an ongoing dialogue on this matter.