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More Power for Small Hydro in East Africa! Peerke de Bakker Programme Officer Energy UNEP/DGEF Some of the East African countries depend up to a large extent on hydro based power generation. In Kenya around 70 % of all generated electricity hails from –mostly- large hydro schemes. Whereas the potential for large hydro power plants has generally been exhausted, many of the countries in East Africa have yet a virtually untapped small hydro potential that appears above all suitable for rural electrification. Strange as it may seem, even in the recent period of drought in the region, many of these small rivers kept flowing. With two different project proposals under preparation the UNEP aims to promote the use of electricity at competitive rates without the any Greenhouse Gas emissions. Greening the Tea Industry in East Africa Tea is commonly growing in relatively wet and hilly places. It follows that wherever there are tea factories, hydro potential is not far away. An initial survey carried out in collaboration with the East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) confirmed that indeed most of the 150 tea processing plants were aware of hydro potential nearby but most factory were either connected to the grid and/or used their diesel gen sets as main or as back up power supply. An initial study, financed by ADEME (the French Agency for Energy and Environment) was very encouraging: the 8 tea factories of the Kenyan Tea Development Agency (KTDA) in the Northern Aberdares would require approx 4 MW of electric power. When the experts came back from the field, studying river flow data for the last 20 years, they forecasted that Run-of-River hydro systems would not only supply enough captive power for the factories but be even more than sufficient for the electrification of all the immediate surroundings of the tea factories. The EATTA is an umbrella organization for the entire tea sector in the region: EATTA Member states include Burundi, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Even at times tea from Ethiopia and Congo is traded through the Tea Auction of Mombassa, currently the largest in the world and operated by the EATTA. The UNEP, the Private Sector Department of the African Development Bank and the EATTA are proposing a joint effort in the promotion of small hydro to meet the energy requirements of the tea processors as well as facilitate rural electrification wherever possible in terms of regulatory framework and/or feasibility of the distribution. In the project preparatory phase a scooping study was made for each of the participating countries. This yielded immediately over 50 interesting sites for future development. The EATTA and consulting engineers have selected a number of these sites for studies at pre-feasibility level. These pre-feasibility studies are combined with a number of studies contributed by the tea industry itself and this will form the basis for the selection of some 6 pilot projects divided over a number of EATTA member states for actual development. These pilot projects aims to demonstrate the reliability (and competitiveness!) of small hydro and serve as training ground for engineers of the tea sector, project developers and civil engineers alike. Over the next 4 years an EATTA-based Project Management Office, supported by funds from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is proposed to guide the entire process of detailed design/feasibility study, tendering, construction and installation, commissioning as well as operation and maintenance for the selected pilot projects and on top provide technical assistance plus legal, regulatory and financial advice in hydro power project development to the entire tea sector in all member states. More information is available on UNEP’s website: http://greeningtea.unep.org Small Hydro for Productive Use in East Africa This proposed project does not focus on the tea sector but on small, rural communities in Kenya and Tanzania that so far had generally been left to fend for themselves. Whereas the Mini Hydro Power Plants for the energy hungry tea sector will vary from 0.5 to 2 MW, the Micro Hydro Power Plants for small communities may be only around 50 kW and still play a crucial role in rural electrification and local development. The concept is actually derived from a quite successful approach of the UNDP in West Africa using so-called “Multi Functional Platforms” (MFPs). Power (mostly through diesel gensets) is introduced at any one single point in a village and all commercial initiatives concerning productive use were welcome without the need for expensive distribution: welding and woodworking, restaurants/bars, hair saloons, etc. For milling purposes not electricity but direct shaft power would already be sufficient. Realizing the abundance of small hydro potential in certain areas of East Africa, it only seems logic the combine the regions potential for small hydro with the MSP concept of West Africa in the form of “Hydro-Powered Multi Functional Platforms”. An 13 kW project, initiated by ITDG/Practical Action, is currently successful in operation for some 3 years. Apart from a welding shop, a bar restaurant and various shops, people flock to the center to have their mobile phone recharged. At night the systems pumps drinking water to the houses of the community. The proposed project aims to realize 4 of these small-scale projects in each of the two countries using local aggregates and labor as well as locally manufactured turbines to reduce costs to an absolute minimum as that will be the only way forward in future replication and electrification of rural/remote areas. Various models of project ownership (village councils, cooperatives, ESCOs,…) and financing are to be tried in the field with at the end a set of recommendations for future small scale community based hydro projects. FINESSE involvement Apart from obtaining official government endorsements in all participating countries, the two projects are seeking FINESSE support as components of both are in line with the overall FINESSE approach to Renewable Energy and Rural Electrification. Affordable and reliable power for rural electrification, while replacing or avoiding GHG emissions will be in the interest of all agencies, people and countries involved. |
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