DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Renewable ENergy Demand Assessment and eNtrepreneurial Growth (RENDANG) for Energy Access in Malaysia

Project disclaimer

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Description

Our project addresses challenges and opportunities in rural electrification, particularly for remote Orang Asli communities in West Malaysia. Despite the country's considerable urban development and high electrification rates, about 200 of these villages remain under-electrified. A critical challenge in deploying distributed systems in communities is assessing and growing demand for electricity. Current approaches in distributed systems involve surveying communities, then designing and installing systems such as mini-grids based on this initial assessment. Mini-grid construction can be a slow process, and during the wait, communities may lose interest or trust in the electrification process. When the mini-grid eventually comes online, demand can be disappointingly low, as the community is only just starting to develop their productive use businesses and grow their payment behaviour. We propose to address this problem by integrating the Community Energy Toolkit (COMET), a community engagement software tool to assess demand, and a mobile mini-grid to provide quick and temporary electrification to build demand, while deploying more permanent solutions. Our project involves a collaboration between Smart Villages Research Group (SVRG), Energy Action Partners (ENACT), and the COMET team, to develop an integrated model that merges COMET's predictive capabilities with the immediacy of mobile mini-grids in Pos Titom located in the state of Pahang, Malaysia. This approach will accurately assess energy needs to be met by cost-effective Clustered Solar Home Systems (CSHSes), foster demand for productive uses of energy using the mobile mini-grid, and encourage sustainable income via targeted capacity building for village-based enterprises enabled by these systems. This innovative model aims to bridge the gap between the initial community engagement and the installation and commissioning of a distributed energy system. It will help maintain community interest and grow energy demand gradually, a crucial step for scaling distributed energy systems sustainably. We expect the combination of the two technologies to be widely scalable. Whilst we will be validating the approach in Malaysia, the successful demonstration of the impact will allow us to apply this innovative suite of tools to improving minigrid and energy access development worldwide, where for example latest estimates (World Bank ESMAP, 2022) forecasts a need for at least 200,000 more minigrids to be able to meet SDG energy access targets in Africa alone.

Objectives

Our project addresses challenges and opportunities in rural electrification, particularly for remote Orang Asli communities in West Malaysia. Despite the country's considerable urban development and high electrification rates, about 200 of these villages remain under-electrified. A critical challenge in deploying distributed systems in communities is assessing and growing demand for electricity. Current approaches in distributed systems involve surveying communities, then designing and installing systems such as mini-grids based on this initial assessment. Mini-grid construction can be a slow process, and during the wait, communities may lose interest or trust in the electrification process. When the mini-grid eventually comes online, demand can be disappointingly low, as the community is only just starting to develop their productive use businesses and grow their payment behaviour. We propose to address this problem by integrating the Community Energy Toolkit (COMET), a community engagement software tool to assess demand, and a mobile mini-grid to provide quick and temporary electrification to build demand, while deploying more permanent solutions. Our project involves a collaboration between Smart Villages Research Group (SVRG), Energy Action Partners (ENACT), and the COMET team, to develop an integrated model that merges COMET's predictive capabilities with the immediacy of mobile mini-grids in Pos Titom located in the state of Pahang, Malaysia. This approach will accurately assess energy needs to be met by cost-effective Clustered Solar Home Systems (CSHSes), foster demand for productive uses of energy using the mobile mini-grid, and encourage sustainable income via targeted capacity building for village-based enterprises enabled by these systems. This innovative model aims to bridge the gap between the initial community engagement and the installation and commissioning of a distributed energy system. It will help maintain community interest and grow energy demand gradually, a crucial step for scaling distributed energy systems sustainably. We expect the combination of the two technologies to be widely scalable. Whilst we will be validating the approach in Malaysia, the successful demonstration of the impact will allow us to apply this innovative suite of tools to improving minigrid and energy access development worldwide, where for example latest estimates (World Bank ESMAP, 2022) forecasts a need for at least 200,000 more minigrids to be able to meet SDG energy access targets in Africa alone.

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Location

The country, countries or regions that benefit from this Programme.

Malaysia

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