IEEE Electrification Magazine - June 2017 - 11

has had on the community is that the previously remote
Bisanti village has transformed into a socioeconomic and
business hub of not just the Katcha local government area
but also of the Niger state. The entire community has
experienced significant benefits, including many new
businesses, a 50% reduction in the cost of energy, and an
80% decrease in malaria cases.
GVE next replicated the success of the Bisanti microgrid
with another installation of equivalent capacity and community impact in Kolwa village. The experience and lessons learned from the previous projects allowed this
microgrid to be constructed in just six weeks. The most
recent GVE installation has been in Onono-Anam village
with the deployment of 200 solar home systems, reaching
more than 1,600 people and LED streetlights benefiting
another 300 community members (Table 1). Together, the
Bisanti, Kolwa, and Onono-Anam microgrid projects offset
more than 1,000 t of CO2 emissions, created 220 direct and
indirect jobs, and systematically improved the quality of
life in the communities served through job training, energy access, and sustainable business creation.

Cameroon
Meanwhile, IEEE Smart Village has collaborated with
Renewable Energy Innovations Cameroon (REIC) to develop a simple, reliable, and inexpensive solution to providing backup power to solar microgrids for regions with
frequent rain. REIC is a locally owned entrepreneurial
energy business using renewable energy to improve the
lives of people in off-grid communities in Cameroon,
West Africa. It has installed several solar lighting and
water-pumping systems for organizations, hospitals, and
villages in Cameroon. The business is also constructing
charging stations and microgrid systems in other villages, electrifying homes and businesses, and developing
innovative ways to efficiently speed up electrification of
several more villages.
REIC currently operates a solar hybrid minigrid system
in the village of Sabongari, Cameroon. The Sabongari
microgrid has also been the demonstration site for the
locally built Car Engine Innovator Generator, built with
IEEE Smart Village from a repurposed diesel automobile
engine to provide automatic backup of the photovoltaic
(PV) system.

There are two basic factors that affect the reliability
of every solar-power plant: 1) poor weather conditions
from cloud cover or several hours of rain and 2) overload conditions from growth in power consumption. In
both scenarios, a backup generator is of great assistance in maintaining system reliability and avoiding
load shedding.
Diesel generators are considered the best backup generators due to their durability and low cost. However,
backup generators come with some major challenges.
High-quality diesel generators are not only expensive, but
are also hard to find in African villages. Additionally, backup generators typically cannot be upgraded and must be
replaced in their entirety if a larger capacity is needed.
Replacement is very costly, especially when the old unit
cannot be resold. Finally, repair of backup generators
always requires specialized technicians who live in larger
cities and charge very high rates to travel to a village to
diagnose a problem, return to town to purchase parts, and
back again to the village for actual repairs. Thus, backup
generators are often cost-prohibitive, despite their necessity to ensure the reliability of minigrid systems.
To solve these challenges with backup generators, REIC
and IEEE Smart Village collaborated to create an affordable,
field-upgradable, and easily repairable diesel backup generator. The car engine innovative generator (CEIG) is a
backup diesel generator constructed from used automobile parts available in most villages (Figure 7). Thus, it is an
affordable, reliable, and upgradable diesel generator that
can be maintained and repaired by local auto mechanics,
who are usually in abundance in African villages due to
the poor road conditions that cause vehicles to break
down frequently.
The CEIG has started using the on-heating-cranking
process that can be triggered automatically in auto-start
mode or manually using a button. The auto-start mode
uses a battery voltage sensor with low- and high-trip
points to start and stop the generator to backup only
when necessary based on system's battery voltage. The
generator produces 50 Hz, 220 Vac at an engine speed of
1,500 r/min. Engine speed (and hence electrical frequency)
is held at a set point irrespective of the load on the generator by a special electronic governing control with a magnetic pickup and actuator.

Table 1. The community impact of GVe Projects.
Project Location

System Size

Homes
Electrified

Streetlights
Installed

Annual Tons
CO2 Offset

People Reached

Egbeke (Part 1)

6.8 kW

700+

Egbeke (Part 2 and 3)

18 kW

240

2,000+

Bisanti

24 kW

200

360

1,900+

Kolwa

24 kW

200

360

1,800+

Onono-Anam

24 kW

200

360

1,900+

Jobs Created

IEEE Electrific ation Magazine / j une 2 0 1 7

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