Universiti Malaya Community Engagement Centre (UMCares)

Rural Electrification – Improving Sustainability Through Community-Aligned Renewables Empowerment (CARE)

Over the years, the government and NGOs have taken the initiatives to provide electricity to the rural communities using renewable energy (RE), particularly solar PV. Nevertheless, based on UMPEDAC’s experience and interactions with rural communities and NGOs, most of the systems fail after few years due to lack of maintenance and wrong modification. From this experience, it is concluded that apart from the technology, the sustainability of these rural electrification project requires empowerment of the local community. This project hence targets to impart knowledge on operation, maintenance, safety, troubleshooting and repair of renewable energy (RE) components for the rural communities. During the training, the rural communities participated in the classroom style lectures as well as hands-on training through training kits. A failed component was also intentionally assembled into the solar system training kit. The participants were successful in troubleshooting, identifying and replacing the faulty component. Near to the end of the project, a solar pv system failure occurred. Through our taught methodological step-by-step troubleshooting process, the villagers managed to identify the failed component and thus request for replacement inverter from us. Once received, they had also managed to replace the inverter both successfully and safely without being exposed to any risk of electrical shock. The incident is a testament of the success of this training program.

Based on UMPEDAC’s experience and interactions with electrified rural communities and NGOs, most of the systems fail after a few years due to lack of maintenance and wrong modification. In view of the failing electrified solar systems, the rural communities urgently needed a way to sustain their gifted solar system. The first time the idea of conducting training on troubleshooting and repair of the solar system was proposed, the rural communities had given encouraging feedback. That feedback secured active involvement from the communities.

Project information

Project Execution: 19 months
Location : Kampung Sungai Merah, Sarawak
Numbers of Community benifited: 130 people

Outcome

UMPEDAC had conducted a training on operation, maintenance, safety, troubleshooting and repair of renewable energy (RE) components for the rural communities. After the training, the villagers experienced a failure and they had successfully identified the failed component and safely repaired the system independently.

UMPEDAC had also delivered a training on the importance of initiating a self-regulated fund management system to be ready to replace any worn components in the future. Subsequent visits to the rural village had witnessed that funds had already been collected on consistent basis to prepare for any required replacement of worn components in the future.

Overall, the implementations of the above steps had empowered the rural communities to maintain a sustainable electrification system, which over the long run, will improve their quality of life.

Impact

Empowered the rural communities through uplifting their skills in operation, maintenance, safety, troubleshooting and repair of the gifted electrification systems
Empowered the rural communities to ensure long term sustainability of their solar PV system through the proposed adoption of a self-regulated fund management system within their community.
The communities had demonstrated their newly acquired skills to independently diagnose and safely repair the failed solar PV system when they encountered a failed solar system after the training.
Subsequent visits to the rural village had witnessed that funds had already been collected on consistent basis to prepare for any required replacement of worn components in the future.