Bhandari 2017
Bhandari 2017
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
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
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
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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
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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
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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.
traditional water mill for adults, which gives ample opportunity for 2. Aggidis, G. A., Luchinskaya, E., Rothschild, R., and Howard, D. C.,
other social activities and income generation work. The introduction of “The Costs of Small-Scale Hydropower Production: Impact on the
electricity from the renewable energy source in the village has no Development of Existing Potential,” Renewable Energy, Vol. 35,
contribution in CO emission. Thus, this study comes to conclude that
2 No. 12, pp. 2632-2638, 2010.
the tri-hybrid system in Thingan and Kolkhop has a positive impact on
3. Bhandari, B., Lee, K.-T., Cho, Y.-M., and Ahn, S.-H., “Optimization
socio-economic conditions of the rural communities.
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It is expected that because of the opportunity to use the electricity
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for creating jobs inside the village, youth migration to cities and other
countries (especially Middle East) will decrease to some extent. The 4. Kanase-Patil, A. B., Saini, R. P., and Sharma, M. P., “Integrated
expansion of market and creation of jobs has helped to reduce poverty Renewable Energy Systems for Off Grid Rural Electrification of
ultimately contributing to achieving the sustainable development goals Remote Area,” Renewable Energy, Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 1342-1349,
(SDGs) by improving the quality of life. 2010.
5. Ahn, S. H., Lee, K. T., Bhandari, B., Lee, C. S., and Song, C. K.,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT “Formation Strategy of Renewable Energy Sources for High
Mountain Off-Grid System Considering Sustainability,” J. Korean
This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program Soc. Precis Eng, Vol. 29, No. 9, pp. 958-963, 2012.
through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by 6. Bensch, G., Kluve, J., and Peters, J., “Rural Electrification in
the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2014K1A3A9A
Rwanda-An Impact Assessment Using Matching Techniques,”
01033755) and by 2015 KOICA CTS program.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1735399
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Hae-Sung Yoon, Jang-Yeob Lee, Hyung-Soo Kim, Min-Soo Kim, Erkhes
Bilegt, Jae-Il Park, Kyung-Wook Min, Ji-Hoon Park, Young-Seok Kang, 7. Zhand, A., Haddix, K., and Richard, K., “Renewable Energy Village
Joo-Wan Kim, Ji-Hyun Song, Eun-Ji Yoo, Min-Hee Kim, Abhas Maskey, Power Systems for Remote and Impoverished Himalayan Villages
Hyung-Seob Kim, Dan-Ee Cho, Da-Hyun Choi, Dong-Hwi Kim, Chul- in Nepal,” Proc. of the International Conference on Renewable
Hwan Park, Chan-Dong Park, Hyun-Suk Han, Sung-Gil Han, Jun-Young Energy for Developing Countries, 2006.
Moon, Ji-Hwan Park, Woo-Hee Cho, Jin-Gyu Lee, Khagendra Thapa,
8. Bhandari, B., Poudel, S. R., Lee, K.-T., and Ahn, S.-H.,
Hyun-Min Shin, Se-Yong Song who volunteered for the research project;
“Mathematical Modeling of Hybrid Renewable Energy System: A
local volunteers Ratna Ghale, Rupen Ghale, Jagat Bahadur Ghale, Dipak
Review on Small Hydro-Solar-Wind Power Generation,” Int. J.
Ghimere, Ratna Gole, Subhas Tamang, Sunil Bhakta Shrestha, Ramesh
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Kumar Maskey and Hyung-Joon Jung for directly or indirectly helping us
in completing the survey and project on stipulated time. 9. International Renewable Energy Agency, “Renewable Energy
We are thankful to SNU Institute of Advanced Machinery and Technologies: Cost Analysis Series,” https://www.irena.org/
Design, SNU Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology, SNU DocumentDownloads/Publications/RE_Technologies_Cost_Analysis -
Engineering Research Institute, SNU Research Affairs, SNU Global WIND_POWER.pdf (Accessed 23 December 2016)
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Samsung LED, POSCO Power, SNU Christian Faculty Association, 12. Bhandari, B., Ahn, S.-H., and Ahn, T.-B., “Optimization of Hybrid
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