ECCI Carbon Chat Room - Thursday 19th February 2015 Vijay Bhopal of Scene Consulting, recently returned from a field trip to Odisha in Eastern India, will tell us about their three year long project which aims to pilot a communications solution to halt the decay of off-grid renewable energy projects in rural parts of the state. As well as the fascinating comparisons between community energy projects in the UK and India, Vijay will tell us about SCENE’s partnership with the University of Edinburgh’s Global Development Academy and the exciting new funding opportunities opening up for SMEs, social enterprises and academic partners in the International Development space. Read Vijay's blog post: http://edinburghcentreblog.org

1. Urjaa Samadhan - An Introduction
Vijay Bhopal
Projects Manager
Scene Consulting
19/02/2015

2. Renewable Energy in International Development
• A massive movement
– Lighting
– Livelihood
• Energy for enterprise
• Lighting for education/safety/recreation etc.
• Lighting for increasing productivity
• India is a hot-bed of activity, particularly solar
– 2nd only to East Africa
• Extensive literature, pilots and existing projects

3. Renewable Energy in International Development
• Solar is particularly prevalent
– Numerous forms and applications
Solar charging Stations /
Mobile Charging Stations /
Stand-alone Lanterns
Solar Home Systems Micro-grids (AC and DC)

4. Delivery Models for Roll-Out Programmes
Fully paid up, with
payment schedules
Part-grant funded
Fully grant funded
Commercial Sales
Easier to implementGreater long-term
social and economic
benefits

5. Problem Definition
• Projects are ‘rolled-out’ by donors and governments
 Electrification
 Rural development
 Women’s empowerment
 Furthering of education
• But “complex technology breaks”
• Funding for maintenance and operation is non-existent
• Lack of clarity over ownership/liability in grant funded projects
• Supply chains and expertise is absent
• Ability/willingness to pay is low
Even very well designed programmes suffer from system breakdown

6. Introduction to Odisha
• Amongst poorest of Indian States
• ~45 Million people
• Energy access poor, through numbers rising through ‘rapid expansion of grid’

7. Project Examples
• Solar Charging Station
– Total break down of many lanterns
– Leads to break down in payment mechanism (entrepreneur in trouble)
– Value chain not in place = inability to revive project without grant support
Fully paid up, with
payment schedules
Part-grant funded
Fully grant funded

9. • Solar Home System
– Grant funded = uncertainty over ownership
– Unknown who the implementing agency is!
– Value chain not in place = desire to revive project but don’t know where to start
Project Examples
Fully paid up, with
payment schedules
Part-grant funded
Fully grant funded

10. Our Project
• Three year (2014-17) project to address issue of system breakdown in Odisha
– Key innovation is use of SMS Gateway to manage value chain
Our partners
• Crucial that our project doesn’t fizzle out or break down too
- Thinking of afterlife from the start
- Led to thoughts of creating a social enterprise to address the problem

11. Urjaa Samadhan
• A Connected Enterprise for energy maintenance services to the ‘base of the pyramid’
• Following trend of ‘broadband enterprise’ for BoP
Technology: Web Platform SMS & Data connectivity SMS

12. Urjaa Samadhan
The five pillars of Samadhan:
• Trained Block-Level Entrepreneurs: An enterprise-based handholding approach to supporting
accredited block-level service providers with access to clients, training, tools and parts;
• Structured Services and Price Transparency: Organised services at village level and block-level
market locations, dependent on their convenience and ability to pay. Provision of a service
warranty and accessible pricing guides;
• Communications: Use of a communications gateway that facilitates user access to service
providers, identifies aggregated market opportunities for block level entrepreneurs, and offers
unprecedented monitoring and evaluation for upstream stakeholders;
• Inclusivity: An after-sales service that caters for all solar technology types and breaks the precedent
of specialised and programme-specific provisions for operation and maintenance;
• Finance: Partnerships with organisations able to offer low interest loans to those without credit
history for the purchase of solar PV modules, batteries, and other expensive component parts;

13. Progress So Far
• SMS Gateway technology in development
• Training design in progress
• Pilot project planned for early 2016 in 4 blocks

14. E-mail: Vijay.b@sceneconsulting.com
Tel: +44 (0)131 651 4556
Web: sceneconsulting.com