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How Pre-Paid Energy Services Aid In Rural Electrification
First time accepted submitter superfast-scooter writes "I wanted to let the community know of a research project I've been fortunate to be part of — it's a rural electrification project called SharedSolar at the Modi Research Group at Columbia University. The project has 17 pilot sites in sub-Saharan Africa to-date, providing prepaid energy services to over 3000 people who did not have access to electricity — a fraction of the over 1.3 Billion worldwide. The lab has been developing custom software applications to integrate off-the-shelf hardware components, and also provide the operational and management mechanisms needed. Communications with the sites are over the mobile networks. Consumers can recharge their accounts using either cellphones, or visit a designated local vendor who can do it at the site using an Android app. Software residing locally makes each site autonomous, and the online platform allows for remote visibility, localized consumer interactions and integration with payment solutions. And we're planning on deploying soon in Haiti and Kenya."
I'm no fan of the environmental movement, but I don't think that's why most third world countries are third world countries.
I just spent two weeks in Uganda, at a rural hospital in Kisiizi - there is no link to the national grid, so they generate their own electricity off of a waterfall that they have (really impressive).
With the excess that they generate, they sell to surrounding villages - the way that they get paid is that each building they link to the Kisiizi grid they also install what is basically a pay-as-you-use black box, as simple as you like. The locals buy pre-paid vouchers from authorised sellers, and they text the code to a number (basically everyone in Uganda, poor or not, has a mobile phone - landlines are extremely hard to find) and their box gets credited with the value.
It has really helped the villages surrounding Kisiizi, as while Uganda has a rural electrification project (again using pre-payment), its very very slow moving (I visited dozens of villages that were no more than 30 minutes off of major highways, and none of them have mains electricity). Fraud and theft of electricity has found to be very small, in general those in the villages are honest and pay their dues.
In the UK you could have a pre-pay meter installed on request, and also if the electricity company deems you to be a bad risk (refusal to pay debts etc), and has been this way ever since I can remember (I remember my gran having to stick 50p coins into her meter when I was 4 or 5 - a good 30 years ago).
Why [...] would you bring electricity to a society that doesn't have it?
Ignoring the obvious practical advantages of electricity and related appliances for a moment, this is indeed an interesting question.
In the end it's a good thing I'd say - modern civilization and infrastrucure gives people more time to use their brains. Unfortunately, that surplus time is often wasted by watching TV, going to church, or similar brain washing activities.
Yeah, the Africans will have the priviledge of getting half the service for five times the price, just like with pre-paid cell phones.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Because they already have uses for it - take my Uganda example, everyone already has a mobile phone (pre-paid - MTN usually) and its routine to see booths in major trading places with signs saying "mobile phone and battery charging available here" (usually done by generator or hand cranking - yup, young kids sat down all day cranking a handle to generate electricity).
Mobile phones allow for easy communication, which means you can accomplish trading easier - ring around to see which trading station has few bananas that morning so you can go there and make a little more money.
Electric lights allow for a much better, constant light source than fires or candles - which means work can carry on in homes later in the evening, more income for the family.
I really think most people don't understand these sorts of cultures until they visit the places - I certainly didn't three weeks ago, and my trip really changed my perspective.
Yeah sure, those big evil environmental groups that want to ensure smart use of natural resources, with their grandmother volunteers are repressing the entire third world.
You don't suppose it might have to do with IMF loans making debt slaves out of entire counties? Or the fact that certain developed nations meddle in the affairs of third world countries and destabilize them or prevent them from developing certain technologies? Or that it is caused by dictatorships in those countries? Or the systemic corruption and in-fighting/wars? Or all of the above and more?
If you really think about it, a nation's wealth ultimately comes from its natural resources. If there are none, the country has little to use/trade/sell to develop their industrial infrastructure and educate its citizens. What's left to offer? The cheap labour force. Combined with all the above, you have what many would call a third world country.
But in your view, hey, let's get those "oppressive" environmentalists (who advocate not wasting reources) out of the way and allow unfettered industrialization to occur, and wreck/waste/plunder that small amount of natural capital, rather than using it smartly. And using it smartly often means using the LATEST technology. So no, it's not environmentalists keeping anyone down.
I chose to end my comments, not with a rim shot, but a long decaying F#7sus4
They do that in the UK too, you just take a little USB stick type device (not actually a USB stick) to the shops and they load it up with credit, then you stick it in your meter and get credited. It's often used in rented premises so the landlord doesn't get hit with a big bill if the tennants default. Hardly a new idea.
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
Why don't we just grind working class people up and feed them directly to loan sharks altogether. It would cut out predatory measures like these at least.
May the Maths Be with you!
True, Virgin Mobile USA is 20 cents per minute if you're on the cheapest $7/mo payLo plan. Such a plan is fine for people like me who use a cell phone for arranging rides, much as one might have used a pay phone before they disappeared. People in this use profile delay calls other than arranging a ride until they get to a land line with unlimited local minutes. They may use fewer than 400 minutes per year. But if you use your phone more than that, such as if you use it to replace a land line, you can sign up for a prepay-per-month plan that's a lot cheaper per minute: $35 for 500 minutes of voice and more text and data than you know what to do with (tethering not available).
Once their economy is kick started through these programs more jobs can be outsourced from the US.
The Balassa-Samuelson model predicts that an economy focused on goods and services consumed locally will have an undervalued currency. But whenever "jobs [are] outsourced from the US" or from another developed country, some country is exporting services. As an economy begins exporting goods and services, its currency will become stronger as makers of local goods and services raise their wages to keep workers from flocking to export sectors. Thus the developed countries help the developing countries industrialize.
I'm the submitter and one of the SWE's on the project. Prepayment meters are not new, and are quite commonly available and in use. Distributing scratch cards for purchase and validation are also not a novelty, and as noted in the summary this is an option we provide. What seems to be uncommon is the use of software management systems at the sites themselves - a high-level one at that, and not logic embedded in hardware like the meters. Because of this, we're able to control several networked devices at the sites, and add on service features as we learn.
Using intermittent renewables like we do (solar), we need to know how much was generated and ensure everyone is guaranteed a fair share. The software provides us that platform. We haven't implemented demand-response [yet] that will help with better management (for eg: cloudy-day scenarios), but do ration based on how much load is plugged in and how much is being consumed by each consumer. This helps to make sure that just a few heavy-duty consumers do not hog all the resources and exhaust the supply all by themselves.
Also, because this is all in software, it doesn't matter what the source is as long as we use devices that we can network and get readings from. In this sense, the generation could be from solar, wind, hydro, or even the old diesel gensets. We went with solar, hence SharedSolar, but it's really SharedSupply.
Another thing to note is that we can adapt and add more features to a service by changes in the software, without the need to make changes in the hardware configurations themselves. We can replicate the same model, or try new ones out, in different settings using different components as we see fit. For instance, we're evaluating different metering devices now but since everything about the service is in the distributed software platform, we only need to get devices that do AMR/AMI, without the need for even basic logic like prepayment. I wrote about where the software intelligence should sit depending on the quality of IP-based communications channels in a blog post here - http://sharedsolar.org/?page_id=13 .
Also, just by having the software at the site, it allows us the possibility of tuning the service remotely, along with short turn-arounds between malfunctions and fix.
The points others made about reduction in line theft etc are spot-on. One commenter asked if the consumers pay for the cellular interactions - they don't. This is actually a good case for having developed the local vendor solution the consumers seem to prefer - the entrepreneur who used to sell them kerosene is equipped with an Android device and now helps sell prepaid electricity. This was only possible because of the web services we could build on the local software platform and not because of anything inherent in the hardware/meters.
Also, mobile service providers are also slowly getting interested in this space, as they have been with banking, health etc and they are our partners where we deploy. There are also interesting projects where the excess power generated at the base stations are distributed to the nearby populace.
Thanks.
Haven't been paying attention to what the UN and environmental groups have been doing for the last 25 years? They pay 3rd world nations not to industrialize, to not build power plants. To only built low quality 'renewable' sources of energy that can't suit their needs. That's not enough. Cheap, plentiful energy is probably the biggest game changer for any society. With power you can provide easy ways to move water. With that, you can easily clean it, with that you can provide lighting and reduce crime. And give cheap, easy ways to provide long-term food storage, and refrigeration. With that you have and start to gain a stable food supply.
These are moderization basics. And on, and on, and on. As countries industrialize, their productivity increases, their living standards go up. As their living standards go up, their birth rates decrease because not as many people die from preventables(like we have in the west).
Om, nomnomnom...