The Asian Regional Energy Initiative of the IEI

Action

Our action programmes, so far, have been in energy generation from renewable sources -- co-generation of electricity at sugar factories, village-based electricity generation schemes for household electricity/water supply and village-based energy-development enterprises.

• Cogeneration at sugar factories:
  
  The Asian REI had been promoting the cogeneration of electricity in sugar factories. Traditionally, sugar factories have used the bagasse in boilers to provide steam for sugarcane processing, but by burning the same bagasse in high pressure boilers, electricity can be generated and the surplus supplied to the grid or to other users. We have helped some Indian sugar factories obtain financing for such projects, through the erstwhile Ministry of Non Conventional Energy Sources (now the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy). This Ministry began providing a 30% grant for cogeneration machinery, while state electricity utilities set up wheeling and banking schemes to facilitate evacuation of cogenerated electricity.
  
   
• Rural electricity and water supply utilities (REWSUs):
  
  Rural areas in developing countries often receive unreliable or inadequate supplies of electricity and water. And even when a village is connected to the state's electric grid and has been included in the state's water-supply schemes, individual homes are not supplied. For instance, in Indian villages, only 43.2% of homes have electric lighting and 28.7% enjoy a source of water at their places of residence (Census of India, February 2001). The Asian REI had therefore conducted a project in the state of Karnataka for nine REWSUs, through which electricity generated in a village from a local source of biomass could be used to supply all the households with lighting and water. In coordination with local agencies, a plant was constructed in each village consisting of a dual-fuel (biogas-diesel) electricity generation system and village-wide electricity and distribution networks for supply to each household. The main purpose of the project was to study the requirements during construction and operation, so that such systems could be replicated elsewhere. (A report on the REWSU project is included among the recent discussion papers.)
  
   
• Energy enterprises for development in rural areas: the case of clean cooking fuel
  
  Nearly three quarters of the people in south-Asia live in rural areas, and most depend on traditional biomass for their cooking fuel needs.  Collecting fuel and lighting and tending stoves are tedious, while with inadequate ventilation, these people are also exposed to smoke inhalation and consequent respiratory ailments.  Even when better fuel/stove options are available, they are not affordable on a long-term basis because they compete with other urgent needs on the family budget and, unlike with lighting services, there is usually no additional income from cleaner/efficient fuel use.  Hence we have developed a model wherein better cooking fuel delivery is sustained through integration with income generation.  We are beginning a demonstration of this approach in a village of Karnataka.  Biogas for household cooking, generated from a co-operatively managed dairy, will be generated and distributed to every home in the village, with the dairy revenue supporting the long-term operation of the system.