community planning and management of energy supplies—international experience

Community planning and management ofenergy suppliesÐinternational experience

Teresa Anderson, Alison Doig

Intermediate Technology Consultants, The Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development, Bourton

Hall, Bourton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire, CV23 9QZ, UK

1. Introduction

Based on experiences of participative planning as it relates to non-grid supply ofelectricity to rural communities, this paper suggests ways in which the technologyand planning options can be combined to o�er choices to rural people. Examplesare given from an on-going project in Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, plus experienceof energy planning in Peru and Nepal. Recommendations are made as to how toapproach participative planning in this context.1

2. Application of participatory planning techniques to electri®cation schemes

Participatory approaches to planning in the electricity sector are rare, as thehighly technical nature of such initiatives exclude most rural (and non-rural)people. In order to use such techniques for energy planning, close co-operationhas been required between technical and development analysts and planners.Engineers and technicians must appreciate that the supply of electricity is onlypart of a complex system of development.

Nonetheless, electri®cation schemes can only be designed and installed bytrained engineers, ®nancing can only be gained by economically sound

0960-1481/00/$ - see front matter # 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

PII: S0960 -1481 (99)00048 -8

Renewable Energy 19 (2000) 325±331

www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Anderson)1 While the paper refers to `rural communities' throughout, the reader is expected to understand that

this can refer to con®gurations of people ranging from single households to clusters of villages consist-

ing of hundreds of households.

propositions, and trained operators and managers are required to ensure schemeperformance. The participative approaches described above therefore need somemodi®cation, to allow the involvement of stakeholders outside the immediatecommunity. Consultation can take place in the process of demand assessment andload planning, ownership and ®nancing models, management and operation. Oneway to do this is via a process of consultation involving an intermediaryorganisation which identi®es and consults scheme stakeholders in order to identifyconstraints to decentralised rural electri®cation and action needed to overcomethose constraints. While this intermediary body can be formed in part fromrepresentatives of the user community, others must be involved in order to ensurescheme viability in other sectors.

2.1. Case study: participative planning guidelines in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe

This section details the experience of a piece of work being carried out byIntermediate Technology Consultants for the UK Department for InternationalDevelopment. The work is focused on developing guidelines for the participativeplanning of o�-grid electricity supplies in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. The lessonsfrom the two case study countries are then to be disseminated for internationaluse.

2.2. Project objectives and approach

Accepting that community participation is an essential ingredient for the successof decentralised electri®cation projects, it must also be recognised that presentingthe available options to rural populations will require certain simpli®cations.Issues such as how to decide on an appropriate technology, examining theresources, assessing the needs, ®nding the suppliers, ®nancing, getting the systeminstalled and maintaining them have to be dealt within the participatory process.

The participative guidelines project attempts to do this by producing a planningmanual so that people:

1. learn about the technology options available;2. make decisions on which technologies to implement based on the resources

available in their area.

The manual is accompanied by other documents which provide information onwhere to ®nd these technologies and advisory services.

In the same way, a guideline for institutions has been developed for the bene®tof commercial banks, government agencies and private sector promoters. Thisguideline attempts to create awareness amongst these institutions of thecapabilities and limitations of rural communities. In promoting decentralisedenergy technologies, partnerships between the rural communities and these mainstream institutions are essential, as they all have important roles to play.

T. Anderson, A. Doig / Renewable Energy 19 (2000) 325±331326

2.3. Technology choice

For the purpose of the `Participative Planning Guidelines' project, the review oftechnology options has been limited to those which represent realistic choices forrural electri®cation schemes:

. Diesel/petrol generating sets

. Small scale hydro power

. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems

. Biofuels: biomass and biogas

. Wind power.

With the exception of PV (and newer biomass applications), the technologiesdescribed above are mature and are not subject to engineering or developmentalconstraints. In each case, there are horror stories relating to poor maintenanceprogrammes, lack of trained operators and engineers, shortage of spare parts, sub-standard installation. However, the constraints to the use of each technology arerelated, in general, to project implementation and management, rather than ¯awsin technologies themselves.

As stated above, the guidelines produced in this project include a `Yellow Pages'of renewable energy services, which is a directory of expertise, hardware andservice providers for each technology.

2.4. Community guideline development

The initial scope of the project called for the development of a planning manualthat would provide rural communities in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe with su�cientinformation to:

. assess needs

. assess renewable resources availability

. identify expertise to assist design

. secure ®nancing

. obtain hardware

. install the systems and maintain them.

It has rapidly become clear that there is a need for an intermediary who can helpcommunities through the planning process.

2.4.1. ZimbabweThe Zimbabwe project team co-ordinated a workshop of local government

o�cers and NGOs which produced a participation matrix to guide the planningprocess. This was used as the basis of the planning manual in Zimbabwe. Thismatrix is the guide to an approach which enables communities to identify andprioritise their needs and to identify, a select, install and operate a small scaledecentralised energy technology to meet their needs. All the steps are being testedwith communities, development partners, local experts and other stakeholders to

T. Anderson, A. Doig / Renewable Energy 19 (2000) 325±331 327

generate a sustainable framework for their continued application. The guidelineshave been developed and illustrated using project experience in two wards in theManicaland Province of Zimbabwe. It is notable that the two provinces haveadvanced through the project development cycle at a signi®cantly di�erent rate ofprogress, despite similar external inputs.

2.4.2. Sri LankaThe experience in developing the community guidelines in Sri Lanka has been

quite di�erent. The ®rst draft of the manual was found, on testing, to be toosophisticated for the target audience. On revision, the manual was taken to twovillages in Galle and Matara districts. The Sri Lankan project team chose to guidethe community through the project cycle by using a cartoon depicting a storybased in a rural community around a leader named Sunil.

This simpli®es the process into stages which are easy to follow. The cartoon isfollowed in the manual by a description of the technology options, including acomparison of ®nancial costs. The Stri Lankan trials of the manual showed thatparticipants were eager to learn about o�-grid electricity options.

Di�culties were found, however, because:

. di�erent participants had di�erent reactions to the manual and acted asindividuals and not as a community

. most of the participants were biased towards solar photovoltaic systems as theyhave seen this technology in a nearby village

. participants in general found it di�cult to grasp the cost comparisoncalculations to compare technologies.

It has become clear that the community will have to have external intervention tobe guided through the process at each stage.

2.5. Institutional guideline development

The project identi®ed that it is necessary to bridge the gap between ruralcommunities and the ®nancial institutions that could be involved in ®nancing anenergy project. Not only was it realised that there was a lack of knowledge in thevillages of what ®nancial options were available to them, it also became obviousthat the main stream ®nancial institutions had very little experience in the ruralsector. In order for the institutions to become more active in this sector, it isnecessary for them to become more familiar with the village level capabilities andlimitations for organisation and developing projects.

2.5.1. ZimbabweIn Zimbabwe, the booklets produced were targeted more directly at informing

the community on how to approach a ®nancial institution for project funding.Two booklets were produced on the subjects of `Institutional support' and`Financial investment'. The former assists a community in the formulation of aproject proposal, and provides an insight into the institutional support available


to them. The latter assists communities in producing a sound proposal to a®nancing institution, and provides advice on the requirements for obtaining®nancing.

These guidelines have been distributed to institutions, local government andenergy developers in the country as part of informing the debate on ruraldecentralised energy supply. It is still too early to evaluate the e�ect of theguidelines on the rate of uptake of renewable energy technologies installations, buta certain level of awareness has been raised. This is evidenced by the generalthrust of thinking especially within the Department of Energy, the private sectorand NGOs where the issue of a renewable energy fund has been mooted.

2.5.2. Sri LankaThe Sri Lankan team have produced a guideline booklet for ®nancial

institutions, with the objective of:

. Increasing institutional con®dence in decentralised energy technologies andschemes for rural communities

. Increasing institutional con®dence in the capabilities of rural communities in thedevelopment of rural energy schemes

. Increasing institutional awareness of the infrastructure that already exists inrural communities that can support the implementation of energy schemes.

As part of the process of developing the guidelines, informal discussions were heldwith various individuals representing banks, consulting companies and NGOs ontheir perceptions of rural communities. In discussing hypothetical situations offunding rural community-based energy projects, many banks were cautious due totheir inexperience in rural lending.

The resulting guidelines describe the technical options, including some casestudies of existing projects. Also there is a section on existing rural organisationsfor handling rural credit. In many cases in Sri Lanka, the main organisation forrural credit schemes is the Death Bene®t Society; however, other organisations aredescribed.

The booklet also discusses the rural income patterns.Although the two countries have taken di�erent approaches to bridging the

gap, they both have the same goal of improving access to ®nance for rural energyprojects.

2.6. Common elements from international experience

A workshop held in Colombo in November 1998, brought together the SriLanka and Zimbabwe teams along with members of Intermediate Technology'senergy programmes in Nepal and Peru. One aim of this meeting was to draw outthe common elements from the various experience of rural community energyprojects. Some of the main points identi®ed at this meeting were:


2.6.1. Village level

. Village level guidelines must be:* simple to follow* in the local language* culturally sensitive* have illustrative pictures.

. The village guidelines need to be ¯exible, as communities are varied and nothomogeneous.

. There is a need for technical and managerial training in the village from theearly stages of project development.

2.6.2. Intermediary

. The participative planning of rural energy service provision requires a `catalyst'or intermediary who can encourage and assist the village through the projectdevelopment, including facilitating linkages with ®nancial institutions.

. The communities cannot be expected to produce a project proposal, but toproduce the ideas. It is the role of the intermediary to help the communitiesdevelop the proposal to be presented to the ®nancial institution.

2.6.3. Institutions and private sector

. The private sector is, in general, reluctant to become involved with ruralcommunities. Policies that encourage private sector involvement in ruralcommunity projects in general, and energy projects in particular, need to beintroduced.

. There is a need to in¯uence aid agencies and donors to provide appropriate®nancing options for rural o�-grid electricity projects, in order to ensure thatsuch projects are sustainable.

3. Conclusions from the participative planning guideline project

The initial feedback from the piloting of the planning manuals show that theproject will be useful in bridging the gap between decentralised renewable energytechnologies and the end user.

The project discovered, however, that its initial assumption (that a communitywould carry out the entire process from conceptualisation to implementation ofenergy projects) is unrealistic, due to various factors, including:

1. the high level of technical sophistication involved in many energy service supplyoptions;


2. the diversity of rural community populations and their energy needs andinterests.

Communities need some sort of sustainable support structure in order toimplement improved energy services. It is therefore obvious that this paperrecommends the development of such support structures as a matter of urgency.

Acknowledgements

Intermediate Technology Consultants gratefully acknowledges the support ofthe UK Department for International Development for the work described in thispaper.


community planning and management of energy supplies—international experience

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