IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2016 - 14

Zambia

IEEE Smart Village
plans to develop an
overall hardware,
software, and
communications
architecture that
will offer a
complete range of
interoperable
solutions.

Likonge Makai, a Zambian electrical
engineer, attended an IEEE Global
Humanitarian Technology Conference with the idea of an off-grid
energy solution for the people of
Filibaba, Zambia. A two-year process
of encouragement, mentorship, and,
finally, financial support by IEEE
Smart Village, its volunteers, and
the NGO KiloWatts for Humanity
ultimately culminated in the installation of an energy kiosk in the
community. The energy kiosk also
sells basic goods such as cell phone
voice and data credit and is expanding into other services, such as
refrigeration. Access to reliable electricity is helping children study in
their homes at night and helping a local school to offer
an adult-education program in the evenings. In the
more remote village of Chalokwa, solar home systems
are being delivered. The opportunity for microutility

social enterprises in Zambia is
immense, given that only 3% of the
country's rural residents have access
to electricity.

Kenya

In Muhuru Bay, on the shores of Lake
Victoria in western Kenya, a hybrid
wind and solar community charging
station is powering the community
near Kristy's Cape Academy, a private
primary school that has no connection to the electric grid. Originally
designed to recharge portable battery
kits issued to the families of students,
the system has evolved to include an
ice-making business-allowing fishermen to preserve their catch for longer periods, gaining access to more
distant and more lucrative markets. The community
charging station was provided through the Alstom Foundation for the Environment, Seattle University, and IEEE
Smart Village.

A Transformation Is in Motion
In the electrification business of the past, the individual
utility was a small cog in a large machine of huge generators, huge transmission lines, etc. Today, a remote village
can be powered with distributed wind and solar. With this
revolution in the power industry, coupled with the ongoing revolution in communications technologies, educational and economic opportunities in remote, off-grid
communities around the world are being transformed.
IEEE Smart Village is helping set the transformation into
motion in more such communities around the world.

Figure 3. Solar panels and batteries being delivered by GHE in Ladakh,
India. It is a three-day trek over mountain passes as high at 18,000 ft to
reach the Himalayan villages of Ladakh, where IEEE Smart Village is providing power to three extremely remote hamlets. (Photo courtesy of Paras
Loomba, GHE.)

Figure 4. Paras Loomba of GHE with new IEEE Smart Village customers
in Ladakh. It takes passionate volunteers such as Loomba to be champions of projects that bring self-sustaining renewable power to extremely
remote parts of the world. (Photo courtesy of GHE.)

I E E E E l e c t r i f i cati o n M agaz ine / March 2016

Varied, Interchangeable
Technologies for Varied Markets
IEEE Smart Village's vision grows with each new region of
deployment. Knowledge gained from one market contributes to advancing knowledge and technology across other
markets. Continuing to expand the diversity of energy
technologies enables IEEE Smart Village to help bring
electricity to more villages and expand business opportunities for local entrepreneurs, with greater influence on
local economic development. Plus, with access to light
and cell phones, people soon want more-a fan, television set, job, or even their own business. IEEE Smart Village is working to provide the tools that entrepreneurial
partners need to meet escalating customer demand in a
given village over years.
Options were limited when the first SunBlazers were
installed in Haiti in June 2011. However, alternatives to
portable battery kits have emerged in the marketplace in
the years since. For example, the option of solar home
systems is available now, and customers in some of the

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2016