Smart MicroGrid - Gram Power: Innovation by Yashraj Khaitan
Twenty-two-year-old Yashraj Khaitan finds it difficult to explain to his parents what exactly he is doing in a remote village in Rajasthan.
One year ago, as a fresh graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, Khaitan turned down a job offer from Ericsson, the world's largest maker of wireless network equipment, to start his own company.
Gram Power, the venture he founded along with a batchmate Jacob Dickinson, enables villagers to produce and store renewable energy. It helps them integrate and generate energy out of biomass, solar or wind on-site.
"Initially, there was uncertainty about this innovation. My parents told me to get some corporate experience first," says Khaitan, who was motivated to work on electrification after he experienced the power of jugaad, or local innovation, in rural India.
While on a university project to identify challenges faced by rural India, Khaitan met a grassroots innovator in a remote village in Bharatpur, who had built a vehicle out of junkyard parts to transport people.
In another village visit, he noticed that children were unable to study due to lack of electricity and had to inhale toxic fumes from kerosene lamps. This spurred the young innovators to devise their own energy solution for low-income consumers.
The Gram Power model helps rural consumers bypass conventional grid supplies and also costs less than the monthly spend on kerosene. Consumers pay Rs 75 per month under the pay-as-you-go model for standard grid connection instead of spending Rs 200 on kerosene and cell phone charging.
One year ago, as a fresh graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, Khaitan turned down a job offer from Ericsson, the world's largest maker of wireless network equipment, to start his own company.
Gram Power, the venture he founded along with a batchmate Jacob Dickinson, enables villagers to produce and store renewable energy. It helps them integrate and generate energy out of biomass, solar or wind on-site.
"Initially, there was uncertainty about this innovation. My parents told me to get some corporate experience first," says Khaitan, who was motivated to work on electrification after he experienced the power of jugaad, or local innovation, in rural India.
While on a university project to identify challenges faced by rural India, Khaitan met a grassroots innovator in a remote village in Bharatpur, who had built a vehicle out of junkyard parts to transport people.
In another village visit, he noticed that children were unable to study due to lack of electricity and had to inhale toxic fumes from kerosene lamps. This spurred the young innovators to devise their own energy solution for low-income consumers.
The Gram Power model helps rural consumers bypass conventional grid supplies and also costs less than the monthly spend on kerosene. Consumers pay Rs 75 per month under the pay-as-you-go model for standard grid connection instead of spending Rs 200 on kerosene and cell phone charging.
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In May, Gram Power set up India's first 'Smart Microgrid' in a village close to Todaraisingh Mandal in Tonk district of Rajasthan, which had no connection to the state electricity grid. The startup now supplies power to around 200 people, allowing them to operate CFL bulbs, TVs, fans, buttermilk machines, radios and other common household appliances.
"Our smart grid site is the only village in the entire area that is receiving reliable ondemand power 24x7," says Khaitan. The service includes innovative metering and monitoring devices that allows people to purchase power in prepaid schemes.
In centralised electricity systems such as the national grid, around 65% of energy gets wasted due to theft, pilferage, heat loss in transmission lines and power stations. Gram Power's technology detects and eliminates energy theft and pilferage to increase energy distribution efficiency.
Eric Brewer, vice-president of infrastructure at Google and a professor at UCBerkeley who mentors Gram Power, believes people in rural areas are historically left out because the set up costs are too high, whether for grid connection or for home solar systems.
"Microgrids spread these costs across more homes, and the Gram Power solution further reduces costs via efficiency and clever financing," says Brewer.
posted by we_d_living @ Friday, July 06, 2012
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