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Bhandari 2017

This document discusses the socio-economic impact of a renewable energy system providing power to remote mountain villages in Nepal. It conducted surveys before and after installing a tri-hybrid system combining hydro, wind, and solar power. The study found that electricity improved lighting, education, income, and quality of life. It played an important role in empowering individuals and communities.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
12 views8 pages

Bhandari 2017

This document discusses the socio-economic impact of a renewable energy system providing power to remote mountain villages in Nepal. It conducted surveys before and after installing a tri-hybrid system combining hydro, wind, and solar power. The study found that electricity improved lighting, education, income, and quality of life. It played an important role in empowering individuals and communities.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 4, No. 1, pp.

37-44 JANUARY 2017 | 37


DOI: 10.1007/s40684-017-0005-2 ISSN 2288-6206 (Print) | ISSN 2198-0810 (Online)

Socio-Economic Impact of Renewable Energy-Based


Power System in Mountainous Villages of Nepal

Binayak Bhandari1,2, Kyung-Tae Lee3, Won-Shik Chu3, Caroline Sunyong Lee4, Chul-Ki Song5,
Pratibha Bhandari6, and Sung-Hoon Ahn3,#
1 Department of Railroad Integrated System, Sol International School, Woosong University, 13, Gayangnam-ro, Dong-gu, Daejeon, 34598, South Korea
2 Innovative Design and Integrated Manufacturing, Grishma Marg, Babarmahal-11, Kathmandu, Nepal
3 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, 1, Gyanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, South Korea
4 Division of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, 55, Hanyangdaehak-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do, 15588, South Korea
5 School of Mechanical Engineering, Gyeongsang National University, 501, Jinju-daero, Jinju-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, 52828, South Korea
6 Department of Nursing, College of Health and Welfare, Woosong University, 13, Gayangnam-ro, Dong-gu, Daejeon, 34598, South Korea
# Corresponding Author | Email: [email protected], TEL: +82-2-880-7110, FAX: +82-2-883-0179

KEYWORDS: Renewable energy, Hybrid systems, Optimization, Socio-Economic, Off-Grid, Quality of life

Off-grid power system is well acknowledged as a viable alternative to grid extension in rural areas of developing countries. A
significant portion of such projects has been installed in many developing countries through government subsidy program or donor-
funded projects. Follow ups are necessary for the detailed analysis of the project results and to correctly determine the impact of the
project and its success. This paper reports on the impact of tri-hybrid renewable energy off-grid system comprising of hydro, wind,
solar energy in the remote mountainous village Thingan and Kolkhop in Makawanpur district of Nepal. A general demographic
survey in Thingan and Kolkhop (N = 110) and post-electrification survey in Thingan (N = 48) were conducted after one year of
installation of the power system. In this paper, we investigate the impact of electrification on the household’s lighting usage, education,
social structure, environment, income and level of satisfaction. We also compare the difference in the quality of life before and after
electrifying the village. The study reveals that electricity has played a great role both at individual and communal level in the form
of quality lighting and power for productive work in the form of mechanization of daily chores and increasing the economic standard
of villagers.

Manuscript Received: July 26, 2016 | Revised: November 1, 2016 | Accepted: November 4, 2016

1. Introduction to conceptual design and surveys. Empirical formulae to estimate the


cost of electro-mechanical equipment for hydropower development and
According to the World Energy Council report; 1.267 billion people the costs of different types of turbines have been developed by several
1
were without access to electricity globally in 2010, out of which authors based on the statistical analysis of cost data obtained from a
2-4
majority of people lived in remote and isolated rural areas. To make the range of turbine manufacturers. The cost varies per kW capacity for
scenario more difficult, people are sparsely populated in these places. different turbine types.
Out of many other reasons for not being electrified are very low power Rural electrification is believed to contribute to the achievement of
demand and heavy economic burden to the government to build the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) based on the assumption
infrastructure etc. that sustainable access to modern energy services fosters economic and
Off-grid renewable energy systems (RES) are regarded as one of social development, and leads to improvements in the quality of life by
reliable and cost-effective technological solutions for the electrification helping reduce extreme poverty, providing universal primary
5
of remote and rural areas. However, a major barrier for small-scale off- education.
grid renewable energy power projects is the unavailability of updated Advanced countries traditionally used small-scale hydropower and
and generalized prediction of the cost of such system. In spite of wind power for industries. Due to the recent awareness of climate
significant potential of the renewable energy resources, unavailability change, most of the countries around the world are working towards
of the correct cost prediction causes many such projects to be limited utilizing all possible renewable energy potential by exploiting wherever

© KSPE and Springer 2017


38 | JANUARY 2017 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 4, No. 1

efforts to achieve SDGs by making national policy priorities to improve


access to electricity to remote population either by extension of existing
national grid or constructing off-grid power systems.
In 2013, nearly 3000 small hydropower system have been able to
produce more than 44 MW and is providing electricity to many remote
14
villages around the country. The government of Nepal is providing a
subsidy to small hydropower project based on the remoteness of the
site. While designing the subsidy rate, the basis of around 40% of the
total cost is covered by subsidy, around 40% by the soft loan from the
financial institutions and rest (20%) by the community or households
in kind and cash. For the soft loan collateral is eased with the mixture
of personal guarantees, project assets, deposits etc. and interest rate
15
vary from bank to bank (- 14%) , It provides 60% of the total cost for
hydropower based in very remote places and 40% subsidy to the
16
villages in the easily approachable places. However, it is still a
Fig. 1 The triad of engineering and sustainable development challenge for the villagers to collect the necessary fund for proceeding
with the project. The government of Nepal has made an ambitious plan
2,6
economically possible. for installing small hydro power plants across the country with the total
Although Nepal has no proven resources of fossil fuels, it is rich in capacity of 5 MW per year.
7
renewable energy resources such as hydro energy and solar energy. In the neighboring country Bhutan, the government has identified
Even though the decision to develop a power system is made on rural electrification as an important tool for increasing the quality of
economic grounds, it is, to large extent, influenced by factors including life and poverty alleviation and has put great emphasis on providing
17
the environmental, cultural, geographical characteristics of the site, electricity to all residents by 2020.
8
costs and availability of technological & engineering solutions. While This study focuses on the impact of electrification on the society
the capital costs of hydropower plant installation are high, the operation and individuals in the two mountainous villages of Nepal namely,
9
and maintenance costs are relatively low (2.2% - 3%), which means Thingan and Kolkhop in Makawanpur District, Nepal. The PV-wind
that a large proportion of the project’s overall budget will be spent at hybrid system (PV 5 kW & Wind 3 kW) was installed in Thingan, a
the development stage. It is, therefore, important to balance the village located at an altitude of 1,347 m above sea level (asl). The
installation cost against the magnitude of power to evaluate whether the micro-hydro power (MHP) plant with total capacity of 20 kW was
project is worth pursuing. Similarly, the wind and PV system are constructed in Kolkhop village located at an altitude of 950 m asl, in
relatively expensive because they are mostly imported technologies in Makawanpur District, 7 km from Thingan. Fig. 2 shows the locations
the context of Nepal, Operation and maintenance cost of wind power of the two villages and electricity distribution network.
10
typically accounted for 20% to 25% therefore, operation and This study includes data from survey collected over a total duration
maintenance cost is significantly higher than the hydropower. of 2 years amongst precisely the same villages, and largely the same
A sustainable development refers to a mode of human development households and same individuals. The main contribution of this paper
in which resources are used to meet needs of the present without is to verify the hypothesis that a rural electrification is an appropriate
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own tool for improving the overall quality of life in a remote mountainous
11
needs. Thus engineering design and services must be the center of the village in Nepal. The authors were interested in knowing the answers
economic growth, environment and natural resources conservation and to the question like what were the social and economic changes that
social development as shown in Fig. 1. have come with the introduction of electricity in the village after more
The off-grid hybrid renewable energy system can be used to satisfy than a year being able to use the electricity.
the power demand of the community big enough that cannot be Two separate surveys were carried out, the first survey was carried
12
electrified by a single renewable energy system. This is the case when out immediately after electrification from tri-hybrid renewable energy
the demand is greater than any one of the renewable energy power system comprising of PV-Wind and Hydropower covering Thingan and
system is able to generate, hence the concept of hybridization is Kolkhop villages and the second survey was done 1-year post
proposed in the power systems. Nepal Solar Volunteer Corps (NSVC) electrification of the households in just Thingan village. It was assumed
13
has installed a tri-hybrid renewable energy system in Nepal. This that comparison between these two should give the overall impact of
paper presents the socio-economic impact from the tri-hybrid system the electrification.
consisting of hydro, wind and PV system in the remote villages
Thingan and Kolkhop of Makawanpur district in Nepal.
3. Research Design and Database

2. Rural Electrification Scenario This study was conducted in two villages Thingan and Kolkhop in
Makawanpur district of Nepal between 2012 and 2013. Thingan was
Most of the developing countries including Nepal have put its electrified a year earlier using 5 kW PV system. After a year, 20 kW
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 4, No. 1 JANUARY 2017 | 39

Fig. 2 The location of thingan and kolkhop villages and electricity distribution network

Table 1 Demographic data of 122 electrified households were surveyed from both the villages
Category Sub-Category Number % using a semi-structured questionnaire in the first survey, however, only
Male 78 70.91 110 survey forms were qualified for this study as remaining were
Gender
Female 32 20.09 missing several answers. Thingan had electricity from 2012 using 5 kW
Below 20 12 11.01 PV system, the second post-electrified survey was done in Thingan
20 - 30 23 21.10 village where 48 household out of 54 electrified houses participated in
31 - 40 33 30.28 the survey. The demographic information of the participants from the
Age
41 - 50 24 22.02 second survey is shown in Table 1. The village is dominantly populated
51 - 60 13 11.93
by subsistence farming families(89.19%) while other occupations are
Above 60 4 3.67
very limited in the village as shown in Table 1.
Tamang 41 37.27
Ghale 34 30.91
Brahmin 19 17.27 3.1 Survey Design and Implementation
Ethnic group The survey was set-up in the two regions- already electrified village
Sunuwar 9 8.18
Chetri 4 3.64 (Thingan) and newly electrified village (Kolkhop), both the villages are
Others 3 2.73 sufficiently similar in their basic socio-economic condition and
1-4 27 24.55 business opportunities. However, the earlier village has mixed ethnicity
5-8 59 53.64 and the later village is dominated by ethnic Tamang. Both the villages
Family size
9 - 12 17 15.45 have almost same geographical location and distance to the nearest city,
Above 12 7 6.36 the rural agriculture structure and cash crop economy, the frequency of
Illiterate 34 30.91
and distance to local and regional markets and access to tarmac roads.
Primary 38 34.55
Education All the electrified households were fitted with the energy meter for
Secondary 28 25.45
measuring the electricity use. This is also because that unmetered, “flat
College 10 9.09
Agriculture 99 89.19 rate” clients distort the electricity consumption patterns. All the houses
Petty business 4 3.60 were provided with four LED bulbs and a charging point, each LED
Occupation
Govt. job 5 4.50 bulbs consuming 7.2 W. Typical house electricity consumption for
Manual labor 3 2.70 lighting in Thingan village is shown in Fig. 3. The average daily energy
consumption for a typical house in the village was 80 Wh/day or
hydropower was constructed in Kolkhop and a 3 kW Wind power was 2.4 kWh/month.
installed in Thingan. All the three systems were later hybridized into a To complement these quantitative data with qualitative information,
single mini-grid to electrify both Thingan and Kolkhop villages. A total key informants like trained volunteer and project staffs were utilized
40 | JANUARY 2017 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 4, No. 1

Fig. 3 Electricity usage of a typical house in Thingan Fig. 4 Income of family per year

Table 2 The village profile


well aware of electricity and is able to fix the minor electrical problem
Village No. of houses Distance from motorable road by themselves. For the vast majority of those surveyed, electrification
Lama hotel 7 8 hours walk
has meant a tremendous change in their personal lives and lifestyles as
Thingan 54 42 km
some have also expressed that their lives have been transformed to be
Kolkhop 196 42 km + 2-hour walk
somewhat to the level of the city peoples, prior to which they had felt
‘neglected’.
for the semi-structured survey. For any community-based study, individual approach and societal
17
approach study need to be done to summarize its impact. The earlier
3.2 Socio-Economic Conditions in the Surveyed Regions approach shows changes in the daily life, which might include cooking
Between 2011 and 2013, a group of volunteers from Nepal Solar habits, hygiene, and health, spare time, new education facility etc.
18
Volunteer Corps (NSVC) comprising mainly engineers from Korea The societal approach studies on the socio-cultural impact on the
and Nepal traveled to four villages for rural electrifications projects. societal level. The increase in community meetings, training,
Depending on the village size, the number of households benefitting modernized farming, an increase in small businesses and small
from the electrification ranged from 7 houses in Lama Hotel to 196 business operation until late evenings clearly shows that there is a
houses in Kolkhop as shown in Table 2. socio-cultural impact in the life of the villagers.
A baseline study was conducted prior to the implementation of the Survey results indicate that the introduction of electricity to the
power systems in the village. Since Lama Hotel village is distinctly village has given the possibility to use the power for productive works
different in terms of size, occupation, geography and location, it is like rice-mill, water pumps, a straw chopper, poultry farm, and
excluded in this study. Convenience sampling based on availability extended business hours to boost the macroeconomics. The local
during the survey was used to recruit the households. In this study, two furniture industry and tailoring shop have also been benefitted because
remote adjacent villages Thingan and Kolkhop were the subject of the of reliable power supply.
study. The total participants for the survey were 122 out of which 12 In addition to that, the villagers have additional time for other
survey responses had to be excluded due to incomplete information. leisure activities because the same house chores get done in shorter
The villagers pay a minimum of NRs.150 for the electric time, giving them the opportunity to be engaged in other social and
consumption upto of 5 kWh/month and additional NRs. 25/kWh was other income activities like weaving, kitchen-gardening, small service
charged for the additional consumption. The electric user committee industry etc.
has 2 permanent trained staffs from government recognized institute
who help in minor repair & maintenance and collect a monthly user 4.1 Impact on Education
fee. World Bank has reported that access to indoor lighting has a direct
19
The majority of the villagers do subsistence farming. Fig. 4 shows influence on the education level of the community, especially
20
the family income. It can be seen from the figure that, almost half of education level in the rural community. There are three schools in
the family lives in extreme poverty with a family income of less than study village; kindergarten, the primary and secondary school. Normal
50000 Nepali Rupees (- USD 500) per year. school hours are from 10 am to 4 pm, for which daylight is enough to
illuminate the classroom. All the schools lacked audio-visual teaching
and classroom heating facilities so no significant impact on classroom
4. Result and Discussion teaching was observed.
However, impact on education environment for individual students
Electricity is a new concept among the surveyed villagers who were was observed. Prior to electricity, student used to study under poor
used to only kerosene lamps and small solar lantern. The people lighting condition using inefficient traditional kerosene lamps-“Tuki”
learned about the usefulness and the danger of electricity. It was found and more recently “solar lantern”, as a result very low percentage of
that in a short span of one year, the majorities of villagers(64%) are student, as low as 10% could pass the School Leaving Certificate
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 4, No. 1 JANUARY 2017 | 41

(SLC), the final examination in the secondary school system of Nepal.


Owing to the access to electricity, it is expected that the academic
performance of children will be influenced by introduction clean and
reliable light and the establishment of a library in the village. This has
brought the flexibility for students for extended study hours in the early
morning, evening and night under electric light. Moreover,
improvement in the quality of education has brought new hope and
inspiration and confidence among young students.

4.2 Impact on Society


The introduction of electricity in the village has significantly Fig. 5 Increase in income per month (in NRs)
increased the training activities like bee-keeping, agricultural,
computer, and cooperative training, most of which were non-existent
prior to the village electrification. Meetings, social gatherings, and
awareness program videos are also frequently organized in the evening
owing to reliable electricity.
Prior to village electrification, villagers spent hours for grinding
grains in ‘ghatta’ or the water mill, which is often located beside the
streams far from the village. The grinding can be conveniently done in
village center using the electric mill, much quicker than traditional
water mill.
Light at homes has also allowed the villagers to start small income
generation activities like knitting, weaving, and other handicraft skills
to boost their income by utilizing their leisure time. More than three
quarter respondents (from the post-electrified village) expressed that
they have increased income after the introduction of the electricity as Fig. 6 Electricity use in village
shown in Fig. 5.
Out of 48 electrified houses surveyed, it was found that 77% of the
household use electricity intensively for only lighting and mobile
(L&M) phones charging, however, only small population have
specifically reported about using electricity for income generation
purpose as shown in Fig. 6.
The use of electricity for lighting and mobile (L&M) phone
charging is done in almost every house with mobile phones. The
charging facilities were considered a luxury before the village was
electrified. Some of the villagers reported using the internet and Social
Networking Site (SNS) including Facebook etc. This has also given
them the opportunity to access information available through the
internet. Another important impact is the feeling of security due to
newly installed street lights.

4.3 Impact on Environment Fig. 7 Schematic of ondol (Korean traditional smokeless stove)
Poor rural communities heavily rely on firewood, which is a free
resource, as the only cost of firewood collection is physical effort and don’t use firewood for lighting purpose, it can be concluded that
21
time. If such a community is provided with reliable power for lighting firewood consumption has fallen to some extent. In addition, electricity
and domestic use, it is obvious to impact on the health and environment has brought the awareness among the villagers to do things in the more
alike. Prior to electricity, almost all the household in the village heavily efficient way by mechanizing the manual straw chopper using electric
relied on the biomass (firewood, animal residues, agricultural crops motors, and pumping water for irrigation. The introduction of
residue) for heating, cooking, and lighting purpose. The adverse impact electricity has also greatly impacted awareness among villagers. They
of which are degradation of natural forests, susceptible to indoor air now know the benefits of smokeless stoves over traditional open-fire
pollution leading to a health problem (like vision and respiratory disease). stoves. Because of which many houses have started to switch from open-
The introduction of electricity in the village has noticeably reduced fire stoves to more efficient Korean traditional cooking stoves, ‘Ondol’
the firewood consumption as the villagers no longer use firewood for which provided the advantage of cooking, space heating without smoke
lighting purpose. The survey in this study does not measure the inside the kitchen. Ondol was introduced to the villagers in both the
decrease of firewood consumption, however, because the villagers villages by authors. Selected villagers were also trained to make Ondol
42 | JANUARY 2017 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 4, No. 1

Fig. 8 Expectation in future Fig. 9 Satisfaction from electricity

by themselves. The schematic of ‘Ondol’ is shown in the Fig. 7 below. limited. Finally, the outcomes assessment in the areas of impact of
electricity on the education, and health outcomes were based on the
4.4 Impact on Health qualitative assessment. The authors recommend using a standard tool to
All the houses in the electrified villages have 4 LED light bulbs quantitatively assess and analyze the results in future studies.
consuming about 7.2 W each. The light from the installed LED bulbs
is - 335 times brighter (470 lumens) than the traditional kerosene lamp
“tuki” (1.4 lumens) and (-42) times brighter than small solar light 6. Recommendations
(0.3 W) “tuki mara” (11.16 lumens) which is 8 times brighter than
22
traditional kerosene lamp “tuki” The traditional Tuki produced black Provision of electricity for lighting and other domestic works has
shoot from burning the kerosene which covered the walls and ceilings promoted a sense of self-esteem among the villagers. Although there are
of the house and had a detrimental effect on the respiratory system. enormous advantages of electricity in increasing the quality of life of the
However such is not the case after electrification. Hygiene of the villagers, the challenges remain for the sustainability. The government
villagers has improved as the black shoot from the fire is reduced by and the local bodies should work alongside the villagers to ensure the
the use of efficient smokeless stoves. power system is upgraded and maintained properly. The training and
The uninterrupted and reliable electricity has also benefitted local education classes about the safety awareness, maintenance of system are
health center to store primary vaccines, and drugs for extended period of some of the methods for ensuring the sustainability of the system.
time, which can contribute to eliminating vaccine preventable diseases.

4.5 Expectation in Future 7. Conclusions


A majority of villagers from the electrified village were interested
in the capacity expansion as the existing 28 kW system is not able to The results of the study verify impressively that a rural
meet all the electricity demand from 250 houses in the villages. The electrification is an appropriate tool for improving the quality of life of
desire for capacity expansion can be related to the desire to use the the rural population in Nepal. Many changes have come about with the
electricity for other domestic works and mechanizing of the labor- introduction of electricity to the households under the study villages -
intensive work like chopping grass. Hybrid system capacity increase on the individual, socio-cultural and socio-economic levels. The
can also help in using the electricity for entertainment purpose and tremendous improvement in public health; time-saving, allowing
income generation as a large number of villagers expressed their desire additional economic & social activities; greater awareness of the
to use the electricity for irrigation using a small portable water pump importance of investments in agriculture; greater understanding of the
and incubation of small cottage industries. Other expectations are ‘world outside’ brought by new and more intensive media-consumption
shown in Fig. 8. patterns- all this has made rural life more attractive especially to young
people.
The data shows almost all the villagers are satisfied with the
5. Study Limitations introduction of electricity in the village as shown in Fig. 9. No response
was received for the unsatisfied and very unsatisfied category of the
This study was subject to some limitations. First, the survey survey questionnaire.
questions were only designed to grossly represent the overall scenario; In addition, it was also identified that with the electrification of
not all the variables explaining the socio-economic status of villages homes, children have lesser propensity to go for firewood collection
were included in the study. Thus some parameters like, amount of which has significantly raised the school attendance. Similar, modern
decreased firewood consumption could not be justified by numerical electric lights in the households have also allowed adequate time for
values. Second, the study sample was predominantly from market area night time study. Access to electricity reduces the tiring and time-
of the village, generalizability to more rural areas of villages might be consuming task of collecting firewood and grain processing in the
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING-GREEN TECHNOLOGY Vol. 4, No. 1 JANUARY 2017 | 43

traditional water mill for adults, which gives ample opportunity for 2. Aggidis, G. A., Luchinskaya, E., Rothschild, R., and Howard, D. C.,
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2 No. 12, pp. 2632-2638, 2010.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT “Formation Strategy of Renewable Energy Sources for High
Mountain Off-Grid System Considering Sustainability,” J. Korean
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Hyun-Min Shin, Se-Yong Song who volunteered for the research project;
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local volunteers Ratna Ghale, Rupen Ghale, Jagat Bahadur Ghale, Dipak
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