IEEE Electrification Magazine - June 2017 - 51

and for companies to contribute their
resources, manpower, and expertise
in the renewable energy business.
Investors and private-sector players
have an increasingly important role
to play in accelerating the growth of
the sector.

Off-grid Deployments

If appropriate
technology is
chosen, the cost
of electricity
generation would
be cheaper than the
current range, which
makes a strong
business case for
off-grid power
generation.

Most of the off-grid deployments that
are currently in operation are concentrated in the northern and eastern
parts of the country. Solar plants,
as seen in Figure 2, are scattered
throughout the country, and the
northeastern part of the country has
a large concentration of mini- and
microhydro plants. Other sources,
such as wind, biomass, and diesel, are
few and scattered. It is interesting to
note that several microplants, the majority of them solarbased, have been set up by defense agencies in the upper
reaches of the Himalayas, where grid penetration is
almost impossible. The details of some projects have been
summarized in Table 5.

Microgrids in Dharnai
Village in Bihar

The rural electrification microgrid project is based in Dharnai village in the
state of Bihar, India. This part of the
country is usually dry and hot. Dharnai
village is not connected to the main
electricity grid. The neighboring villages have unreliable grid power and poor
quality. Electricity from the state utility
costs about 3/kWh. However, the villagers are paying 12-14/kWh of electricity consumed from the microgrids.
The microgrid consist of solar PV systems that supply electricity to
households in Dharnai village on a
sustainable yet affordable basis. The
project currently uses roughly 280 solar
panels to generate more than 100 kWp
of electricity to power more than 400
households. A hybrid system (consisting of solar, biomass,
and wind energy) has been planned for the future. The
developer (private) offers two packages to the consumers:
1) The basic package includes a charging point and one
light connection: a total of 18 W per household.

TaBle 4. Indian microgrid projects-types of sources.
Projects/Developer

Solar PV

Biomass

Wind

Sagar Island microgrid

✓

Dharnai solar city

✓

Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA)

✓

Sidrapong hydel power station

Minihydro
✓

Decentralized Energy Systems of India (DESI) Power

✓

Husk Power Systems (HPS) microgrids

✓

Orissa Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA)

✓

West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency
(WBREDA)

✓

Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development
Agency (UPNEDA)

✓

Mera Gao Power (MGP)

✓

Sikkim Renewable Energy Development Agency (SREDA)

✓

Gram Oorja, Naturetech infra, and Minda Nexgen tech projects

✓

✓
✓

Alamprabhu Pathar: Maharashtra Energy Development Agency
(MEDA)
Solar electricity company (SELCO) foundation microgrids
Amrita self-reliant villages

✓

✓
✓

✓

Gosaba Island project

✓

Biomass energy for rural India projects

✓

IEEE Electrific ation Magazine / j une 2 0 1 7

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - June 2017