Off-grid Community-owned RE Projects: Solar PV Distributed Generation Systems in East Sumba

The objective of this Millenium Challenge Account funded 2017-2018 project was to provide electricity to villages in the Nusa Tenggara Timur Province, specifically the district of East Sumba.  The solar photovoltaic technology was designed to be modular by utilizing the concept of distributed generation and storage.  As the needs grow, the generation and/or storage capacity could also easily be added to match the specific needs.  In addition to providing electricity, a microgrid was to be connected to esnure specific productive use of energy projects.

To implement that project, several steps included 1). project mobilization and preliminary review of existing data, 2). on site survey and 3). detailed assessment based on previously mentioned steps. End product of this activities are Detailed Feasibility Studies and Front and Engineering Design for small scale solar home system project implementation at six villages. Castlerock Consulting was in charge for the following aspects of the feasiblility studies:

• Review of regulatory framework, permitting and license required for a small scale off-grid renewable energy power generation
• Institutional setup of cooperative scheme to run an off-grid power system
• Environmental and social impact assessment