![]() ![]() As in the rest of the world, India’s main power grid is based on alternating current (AC). Let’s first consider how to shore up the power supply to households that already have a grid connection. The Rajasthan village of Bhom Ji ka Gaon was the first to be electrified using solar DC microgrids, at a fraction of what it would have cost to extend the traditional power grid to such a remote site. In fact, we believe every household in the world, whether in Cincinnati or São Paulo, could benefit from having a solar DC microgrid. They appreciate having lights to prepare a meal or study at night, watching an entire TV program without having it interrupted by a power outage, sleeping through a hot night under the cooling breeze of a fan.Īnd while India faces a unique challenge in the sheer number of homes that lack electricity, our technology could find uses far beyond India. And yet, in every place we’ve deployed our system, the recipients have been immensely satisfied because they now have electricity around the clock. Indeed, in the typical northern California home, the “idle” load -that is, the electricity used by devices that are plugged in but turned off-far exceeds 125 W. Now, with funding from India’s Ministry of Power, we have two large-scale projects under way that will eventually reach more than 100,000 households.īy Western standards, the 125-W load provided by our microgrids is quite modest-an ordinary household vacuum cleaner uses anywhere from 500 to 3,000 W. The following year, we expanded deployments to about a thousand homes in three cities and multiple villages. ![]() In 2014, we began field-testing our DC microgrid systems in dozens of homes, offices, and dormitories at IIT Madras. For connected households, the microgrid acts as a backup power supply to let lighting, fans, TV sets, and cellphone chargers continue operating even during brownouts. For homes not connected to the grid, a 125-watt microgrid can serve as the sole source of electricity. This strategy, developed by my group at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in conjunction with industrial partners, relies on solar-powered direct-current (DC) microgrids. It can also address all aspects of the electrification problem at once, reducing the gap between demand and supply, bringing down electricity costs, and providing reliable, always available electricity to everyone. But there’s a better way that’s more affordable, more efficient, and much faster and easier to deploy. The problem is this: The Indian government has taken a traditional approach to electrification, which focuses on building up generation, transmission, and distribution. A government Web portal that tracks rural electrification efforts shows that in only four of the country’s 29 states do all of the households have access to electricity. ![]() And yet these efforts have made only a modest dent in the problem. In recent years, the Indian government has invested heavily in electricity generation (including solar- and wind-power plants), state-of-the-art high-voltage transmission lines, and a multitude of household electrification projects. For a country where science and technology has otherwise advanced at a breathtaking pace, this sorry state of electrification is a disgrace. Then, too, roughly a quarter of a billion Indians, or one-fifth of the population, live without access to any electricity at all, according to the International Energy Agency. Those who can afford to often install diesel generators, an expensive and polluting option. ![]() In many parts of the country, even middle-income households still find themselves held hostage to frequent power cuts that can last anywhere from a few hours a day to most of the day. Chief among the reasons they cited were poor reliability, quality, and affordability. In a 2015 study of villages in six Indian states, for example, the vast majority reported having fewer than 4 hours of electricity per day nearly half of the households that reported having a grid connection nevertheless had effectively no electricity. But in India, where blackouts are a sad fact of daily life, being connected to the grid is no guarantee of reliable electricity. In the industrialized world, the power grid is so reliable that we take it for granted. ![]()
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