Pre-electrification of Selected Rural Villages in Madagascar

Background

The project PERER (Promotion of rural electrification through renewable energies) aims to improve the capacity of the Rural Electrification Agency ADER and local private operators to define, plan and implement rural electrification projects, focussing on small hydropower. In 2010 a public-private-partnership (PPP) project was initiated by PERER regarding the pre-electrification of remote villages with solar power.

The current rural electrification scheme in Madagascar is based on privately operated insular systems. ADER grants investment subsidies to the private operators who recover their part of the investments and the operation and maintenance costs by contributions of beneficiaries. This scheme has proven successful e.g. for hydropower projects but does not work in large parts of Madagascar where water resources are scarce. For these areas solar power presents a possible alternative. However, there were no established schemes in Madagascar how to apply the private sector approach to a (pre-) electrification with solar energy.

The idea of the PPP project is to electrify the social infrastructure (key public services) and link this to the provision of electricity to selected private households with sufficient purchase power. With the support of SolarWorld (provision of panels) and TRITEC (technical planning, training, provision of solar equipment) 2 villages of Southern Madagascar were already pre-electrified in October 2011, 2-4 more villages will be (pre-)electrified in 2012 with the additional financing of ADER and a mining company.

The following services are now available in the pre-electrified villages:

• Electricity for social infrastructure provided by independent small PV systems
• Solar battery charging station (SBCS) for households with sufficient purchase power
• Solar lanterns (provided by the social company ToughStuff) for renting per night or for instalment purchase also for poorer households

Cost, Financing and Business Models

Fee for Service

All systems are run on a fee-for-service basis, meaning that even public services pay tariffs to the private operator.

Cross-financing

The income generated with the battery charging and lantern rental covers the costs for maintenance of the charging stations themselves and the PV systems for the social infrastructure. It also allows for a reasonable profit for the private operator. The contribution asked from the public users (local government, schools) are so low that they can only cover replacement cost of batteries and are not enough to ensure benefits for the private service provider.

Blocked bank account for battery replacement

The private service providers sign a contract with the mayor of the municipalities and ADER. The money allocated to battery replacement for the systems at the social infrastructure has to be regularly placed on a blocked bank account. Access to the account by the private operators is monitored by ADER.

Tariffs

• Social Infrastructure:  € 5 / 100Wp x month
  (The tariff for the social infrastructure had to be based on the capacity of the system (kW) as the energy consumption (kWh) is not measured.)
• Battery charging: € 3 / month battery rental  plus  € 0.50 per charging
• Solar lamp rental: € 0.07 per night (compared to 10€cents for a candle)

Configuration of the systems (exemplary village of Mahaboboka with 4700 inhabitants) and investment costs

Infrastructure	Element	Investment Costs [€] *
Health center	Panel: SolarWorld, 24V, 520Wp	936
	Charge controller: Moringstar Tristar, 12V, 30A	79
	Converter: KACO KI 1000, 24V, 1000W	819
	Battery: AGM, Rolls, 12V, 960Ah (4 x 240 Ah)	2 651
	Cables, accessories	164
	Total	4 650
Administration offices	Panel: SolarWorld, 12V 260Wp	468
	Charge controller: Moringstar Prostar, 12V, 30A	79
	Converter: KACO KI 1000, 12V, 1000W	784
	Battery: AGM, Rolls, 12V, 480Ah (2 x 240 Ah)	1 326
	Cables, accessories	75
	TOTAL	2 732
Secondary School	Panel: SolarWorld, 12V, 50Wp	90
	Charge controller: Moringstar Prostar, 12V, 15A	59
	Converter: KACO KI 250, 12V, 250W	177
	Battery : Gel, SOLAR TECHNOLOGIE, 12V, 100 Ah	258
	Cables, accessories	52
	TOTAL	636
Primary School	Panel: SolarWorld, 12V, 130Wp	234
	Charge controller: Moringstar Prostar, 12V, 15A	59
	Converter: KACO KI 1000, 12V, 1000W	784
	Battery : Gel, SOLAR TECHNOLOGIE, 12V, 200 Ah (2 x 100 Ah)	515
	Cables, accessories	58
	TOTAL	1 650
Public Lighting	Lighting point: 8 x ecoliGhts, Ecostar, LED-lamp 1100 lm, Panels 58Wp Battery 48 Ah	10 400
Battery Charging Station	Panel:  5 x SolarWorld, 12V, 80Wp	520
	Charge controller: 5 x Morningstar SHS, 12V, 10A	105
	Cables, accessories	140
	Battery : 6 x Gel, SOLAR TECHNOLOGIE, 12V, 55 Ah	834
	TOTAL	1 598
Total		21 666

Financing

The investment costs (without costs of planning and installation) were financed by the European partners (GIZ, SolarWorld, TRITEC). The Malagasy private partners participated in the project with in-kind contribution for planning and installation, in-kind and cash contributions for the protection of the PV systems (boxes, etc.) and investment in solar lanterns and further batteries for renting.