WII has implemented a project titled ‘Promotion of bio-fuels for energizing remote villages in India’ with the objective of demonstrating the technical and financial viability of running diesel generation sets using vegetable oil as fuel in place of conventional diesel to provide electricity in remote villages. This project supported by British High Commission assumes great significance against a background of addressing energy security, poverty reduction, environmental concerns, livelihood issues and the overall quality of life.

The project builds upon an existing initiative of WII and MNRE in Chhattisgarh by designing and implementing a replicable model of remote village electrification through the bio-fuel route and is expected to act as a model for MNRE to follow and adopt in setting up similar plants towards meeting their mandate of electrifying more than 25,000 remote villages through renewable energy in future. A bottom-up, participatory approach with a strong emphasis on ownership has been adopted and in order to ensure ownership of the initiative by the local community and ensure sustenance of efforts beyond the period of project duration, various stakeholders were engaged for designing the intervention.

Based on the surveys and the detailed power plant design, construction of the power plant and the distribution networks were laid out. Local people were identified and trained to operate the engines and the expellers. Reliable electricity supply through these engines has been successfully produced and transmitted to each and every household in the village since April 2007. The power plant has been operating successfully since then and villagers have been paying for the electricity services on a regular basis. Maintenance work (whenever required) is carried out by the local operators.

WII also received support from Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to procure the hardware for the project. This is supported through the Village Energy Security Program of the Ministry.

As a next step to strengthen the project, there was a need to develop the skills of the local operators, to build capacity of the village energy committee and develop other complimentary activities towards long-term sustainability of the project. The present project entitled “Hand-holding and backstopping support for long-term sustenance of the remote village electrification project set up by WII at village Ranidehra in the state of Chhattisgarh” is being supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) to address the above felt need at the community level. The hand holding support is for a period of two years and extends from December 2007 till November 2009. The project will be in a position to successfully addressed the various sustainability issues and bring the initiative to a stage where WII can safely exit/withdraw from the project.

Keeping in mind the irrigation energy needs of the target population, WII undertook an assessment of the water resources in the area supported by Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, based on which a water development and management plan was developed. In terms of immediate impacts, the beneficiary farmers of the renovated check dam have already used the water and have experienced increased yields in paddy during the last Kharif season. The dug wells, coupled with treadle pumps, have been used to irrigate Bengal Gram and vegetables during the Rabi season. The trainings imparted to the farmers have increased their knowledge on modern agricultural practices and has already started translating into a change in their practices, like application of fertilizers, nursery raising, etc.

All the above projects are being implemented by the Kawardha, Chhattisgarh office with technical support from the Head Office.

For more information on these projects, please contact:

Nilanjan Ghose
Program Officer
Winrock International India
788, Udyog Vihar – Phase V
Gurgaon - 122 001
India
Tel: + 91-124-4303868
Fax: + 91-124-4303862
Email : nilanjan@winrockindia.org