The power plant has been set up at the ‘Agro-processing centre of Kasturba Mahila Mahasangha (a federation of 30 tribal women self-help group from villages in the Nandapur block) by TERI in partnership with the Society for Promoting Rural Education and Development (SPREAD), a non-governmental organization working with local community. The electricity generated from the two-stage gasifier will be used to power the milling units (rice and ragi) and cashew processing plant at the centre. The plant will provide reliable electricity supply to the agro-processing centre, which currently suffers from electricity shortage. In future, the gasifier will also supply electricity to households in two villages – Bilaput and Nauput, by feeding in power through the existing low transmission network of the Southern Distribution Company. The power plant will be connected to an existing 220V distribution network by feeding in at the transformer level. This innovative arrangement will eliminate the need to construct a parallel distribution network for supplying electricity to consumers in off-grid mode.
Dedicating the gasifier power plant to the federation of the women entrepreneurs, Dr. Sinha said, “The access to reliable electricity to power the micro enterprise is a genuine case of a win-win situation, as it will help diversify activities of the agro-processing unit, and contribute to economic empowerment of women while reducing their drudgery. Further, the gasifier ensures better quality and reliability of electricity supply for households in the villages during the evening hours when the electricity is most needed.”
The agro-processing centre strengthens the supply chain of agro products such as cashew and ragi and provides opportunity to women self-help group members from the nearby villages to earn more income from value addition and processing.
Expressing his gratitude to the Government of Switzerland for supporting this project and TERI and SPREAD for implementing the project in Bilaput, Mr. Prafulla Kumar Pangi, MLA Pottangi said, “This biomass based clean energy power plant will contribute towards economic development of the local community and provide enhanced income generating opportunities for women. He also announced a financial assistance from MLA Local Area Development Fund for the agro-processing centre and support for strengthening the value chain by linking to Odisha Jeevika (rural livelihoods) mission.”
The two-stage gasifier power plant has been financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation under its project on accelerated diffusion of biomass based clean energy systems in India. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is the implementing partner. The development and implementation of the advanced gasifier system has been the result of a twenty-year-old partnership between SDC and TERI, which has resulted in facilitating technology transfer, adoption and diffusion of clean energy solutions.
The technologically advanced two-stage biomass gasifier system for power generation has been developed by TERI in partnership with the Danish Technological University (DTU) and Effin’art, a Swiss energy efficiency consulting firm. Under SDC’s project, two other such biomass gasifier systems have already been established and made operational: one in Raygada district (Odisha) for reliable electricity supply to a micro-enterprise managed by a women self-help group and for improving electricity access to rural households and the other in Satna (Madhya Pradesh), which powers the bamboo processing facilities at a bamboo training center and uses waste bamboo for power generation. The fourth project is likely to be installed in Mayurbhanj district (Odisha) or in Ranchi district (Jharkhand), which will bring electricity to a previously un-electrified village.
For more information, please contact: Dr. Shirish Sinha, Deputy Director of Cooperation, SDC, New Delhi, Phone: +91 11 4995 9570 Ext. 800893
