Villages - Tomorrows Power Generators

Best of myself - 5

The characteristic features of an ideal village could be listed as;

1. Open space suitable for en masse extensive solar and wind power harnessing.

2. Extensive livestock and green cultivation suitable for biomass harnessing.

3. Waterfalls and such....to harness hydro, tidal power.

3. Availability of unemployed/in-house labor.

4. Cost effective living environment.

5. Availability of sustainable basic human amenities.......

To arrive at a conclusion, relevant statistics with literature were borrowed from source:http://www.vasudha-foundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2%29%20Reader%20Friendly%20Paper%20for%20USO_Status%20of%20Rural%20electrification%20status%20in%20India.pdf

and it was found that Vasudha Foundation along with Synovate (market research firm owned by the Aegis Group) had conducted a survey on “ability and willingness to pay for energy services in rural areas in 2011, which also looked at the current tariffs, quality of electricity supply and also looked at the satisfaction of people with the current electricity services".

The survey had covered a total of 240 villages covering 16 districts of 8 states of India. The states covered in the survey are Haryana, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Orissa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Gujarat. A total of 30 villages in each of the districts were surveyed, covering a total household of 1919. Of the 1919 households surveyed, 1881 households had electricity connection, with only 108 households not being connected to the electricity supply.

36% of the total 1881 households had been found to receive electricity supply for 20 to 24 hours, while 30% of the households get less than 12 hours of electricity supply with 23% of the households getting less than 8 hours of supply and the balance of 11% had either not supply or were getting just less than 4 hours of supply every day. The villages which had 20 to 24 hours of supply are in the state of Kerala, Gujarat and Haryana, while those getting less than 12 hours of supply are in the state of Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Karnataka and villages which were getting less than 8 hours of supply or no supply are in the state of Odisha and Jharkhand as shown in the Figure 1. below.

Figure 1. Daily electricity supply data

That said the delivery cost of electricity to any location through grid was found to depend on three components:

a) Cost of generation of electricity at the bus bar of the centralized plant

b) Cost of transmitting electricity through the transmission network

c) Cost of distribution

The following graph in Figure 2. and Table 1. thus explains the supply costs from various sources of electricity and includes such factors that add up to the total cost of electricity supply.

Source: Shifting of Goal Posts: A report on rural electrification, Vasudha    Foundation

Figure 2. Generation, transmission and distribution costs based on distance between Village and Grid/33 KVA line

Sources:

(1)Shifting of Goal Posts: A report on rural electrification, Vasudha Foundation;

(2)http://www.climateparl.net/cpcontent/Publications/RE%20Briefing%20Paper%203%20-%20Costs.pdf

Table 1. Cost Comparison of various sources of Electricity

It was evident from the Figure 2. that even at a distance of 5 Kms from the Grid to a village, the cost of generation from micro and mini hydro systems were found to be more or less the same as the costs per kWh from coal fired grid based power plants; and at a distance of 7.5 km solar PV systems would cost the same to generate 1kWh of electricity as coal from the grid to a village.

These costs were to have taken into account very conservative plant load and efficiency factors for all renewable energy based systems, while taking the lowest current costs for coal based generation.

Conclusively it could be now said that with limited life span for all existing coal based plants and such non – renewable energy resources and rise in cost as found for per 5 km distance/s away from the grid, the power distribution supply networks towards the cities and villages in the future would seem to be more likely to reduce sharply for the villages as compared to the cities/urban areas, if it were coal based and the like sources........ However, the abundant ever green renewable energy resources found in the villages could serve in the future to become the main power generators supplying electricity for not only themselves but also for the urban/cities and serve to reverse the existing trend of heavy power cuts towards the villages in regard to sustain power supply distributions so as to serve the cities/urban demands. Again, however, in recent times due to government interventions many of the industries are moving away from the metropolitan cities and urban areas into the remote rural areas. 

So, the implications found are that the future with all industries moving into the remote villages and renewable energy resources available in the villages serving them could well mean that those residing in the cities may have to face the same type of power deficiencies.......as was experienced then and now too by our rural villages highlighted in Figure 2. and Table 1. unless a means to avoid such power crisis be thought of............

This could well be the cause of concern for all the metropolitan/cosmopolitan cities of the world.

Awaiting for any say on this?