Integrated Minigrid + Integral Anchor Load Model for Rural Energy Access in Uganda

在世界范围内，有超过8亿人生活在没有电力供应的环境中。在乌干达，只有10%的人口能用上电。在农村人口中，这一数字下降到5%。人们普遍认为，为了能源获取的可持续性和可扩展性，小型电网规模（即10kW以上）是长期发展影响的唯一可行规模。但是很少有微型电网能够达到商业上的可持续性，因为用户负担不起电力的费用，而且不均匀的负荷分布使得单位成本很高。在一个社区拥有一个锚载荷已经被证明（例如在印度的洛克菲勒基金会）可以使这些能源获取技术更具操作性和商业可行性。但很少有农村社区有这样现成的主力客户。该项目旨在测试和验证一种新的综合技术和商业模式，即在社区建立创新的农民企业中心，作为自主发电的锚载。这有三方面的好处：它允许生产小型电网规模的电力，而无需在建设前进行一些艰巨而复杂的许可讨论；它为社区提供生产性电力服务，并提高农民的创收能力（提高当地社区支付新能源服务的能力）；它允许通过创新的商业和收费模式将剩余电力分配给邻近的企业和家庭。这些农民企业中心包括一套（电催化）技术，用于提高产量、减少损失和提高利润；包括灌溉服务、改进的数据和农业投入及专有技术、冷藏、干燥和加工技术。我们预测，这些FECs不仅将改善社区生计，并在具有成本效益和高影响力的基础上提供电力，而且可以将类似的解决方案（不需要自我发电）集成到现有或新的小型电网中，以大大提高其成本效益和可持续性。由于乌干达及其他地区的几乎所有农村社区都以农业为最重要的生计活动，农民企业中心的引入，应该会在乌干达和其他发展中国家的农村社区更快、更可持续、更具商业可行性地推广能源获取和农村发展。

Worldwide, there are more than 800m people living without any access to electricity. In Uganda, only 10% of the population has access to electricity. In the rural population this number drops to 5%. There is broad acknowledgement that for sustainability and scalability of energy access, minigrid-scale (ie 10kW+) is the only viable scale for long term development impacts. But few minigrids are able to reach commercial sustainability, because customers cannot afford to pay for the power, and uneven load profiles make the unit cost high. Having an anchor load in a community has been shown (eg by the Rockefeller Foundation in India) to make these energy access technologies more operationally and commercially viable. But few rural communities have such anchor clients readily available.This project aims to test and validate a novel integrated technology and business model that builds innovative Farmer's Enterprise Centres in communities as anchor loads which self generate their power. This has a triple benefit - it allows the generation of minigrid scale electricty without some of the arduous and complex licensing discussions in advance of construction, it provides productive electricity services for community impact as well as improving farmer income generation (improving the ability of the local community to pay for new energy services), and it allows surplus power to be distributed to neighbouring businesses and households through innovative business and charging models.These Farmers Enterprise Centres comprise a suite of (electricity-catalysed) technologies for improvingyields, reducing losses and improving profits; including irrigation services, improved data and farming inputs and knowhow, cold storage, drying and processing technologies. We predict not only that these FECs will improve community livelihoods and provide access to electricity on a cost effective and high impact basis, but also that a similar solution (without the self generation) could be integrated into existing or new minigrids to greatly improve their cost-effectiveness and sustainability. And since almost all rural communities in Uganda and beyond have agriculture as their most significant livelihood activity, introduction of Farmer's Enterprise Centres, should result in faster, more sustainable and commercially viable roll-out of energy access and rural development across rural communities in Uganda and elsewhere in the developing world.