Energy access is a well-proven determinant in several development and transformative sectors, such as education, primary health, gender empowerment, and quality of life. In India, providing access to affordable electricity to every household has been a challenge, especially in remote rural areas. Both the central and state governments have accorded high priority to last-mile electrification, with one such instance being the Saubhagya scheme aiming for 100% household electrification. Attempts at combating this challenge with utility grids often run into issues of high power costs along with lower revenue returns. However, off-grid and mini-grid solutions based on renewables provide alternative paths to bridge the gaps in India’s electrification road map. Our effort is to understand such systemic issues of existing and potential mini-grid sites by undertaking activities such as:
• Conducting detailed system sizing for solar photovoltaic mini-grids
• Performing techno-economic analyses to understand the feasibility of in India
• Developing computational tools to design solar mini-grids and analyse system techno-economics and bankability
• Conducting site surveys in different states and identifying rural un-electrified/under-served village sites for setting up pilot projects.
The vision of our team is to provide continuous support by engaging with various stakeholders such as NITI Aayog, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Ministry of Power (MoP), State Nodal Agencies (SNA) along with implementation agencies.
