Overview
The Community-based Renewable Energy Development in the NAC project invested in micro- and mini-hydropower projects (MHP) to serve remote rural communities in the federally administered Northern Areas and Chitral District of NWFP, Pakistan. The project aimed to generate electricity from 90 projects ranging in size from 30 kW to 800 kW not exceeding 15 MW of combined installed capacity. These projects have supplied mini-grids which will be isolated from any regional and national grids existing in the region. The projects provided much needed power for meeting community energy needs at the same time substituting for the use of diesel fuel, thereby contributing to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
The majority of those that has been served by the MHP, have not had access to electricity from any source. However, there is a growing trend of consumption of diesel fuel, which is state subsidized, for power generation at the household level in rural areas replicating what is done in town centers in the NAC. Without a clean energy alternative, there would be a penetration by diesel generators into the proposed project area. NAC is facing an acute shortage of energy.
The region has rare alpine forest resources which are being consumed at unsustainable rates for domestic use, mainly cooking and heating. To a limited extent, the electricity generated by the project has provided cooking and heating energy at the household level. Although firewood use is not in the baseline for this project, its partial replacement for heating and cooking has had direct and positive impacts from reduced deforestation and will be an additional benefit of the project. Without the proposed project, use of fossil fuels and unsustainably harvested fuel wood would have continued to increase despite potential for generating adequate renewable and clean energy from local streams.
NAC has offered tremendous potential to generate renewable energy primarily from hydropower. NAC served as vital upper catchments for the River Indus, on which much of Pakistan’s irrigation and hydroelectricity depends. The perennial flow of water from snow melt in fast flowing streams, gives the area substantial potential to produce hydroelectricity through small, off-grid projects to serve the local area. Plants constructed under the project have been managed and operated by a community-based management system—backed by the Engineering Section of Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP), and subsidiary engineering firms established by AKRSP in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral for technical support.
Benefits
Mini-grids powered by micro and mini-hydropower projects (MHPs) can provide a large number of rural households in mountainous areas with electricity for both domestic and productive applications and provide motive power for milling, small enterprises, and other needs. Such renewable energy systems have direct local environmental benefits in terms of:
- Substituting for existing diesel-based power generation, reducing the consumption of diesel in the region. This resulted in reduced local air pollution from Sulphur dioxide and particulate emissions that would otherwise result from burning of diesel. There has also been reduced need to transport fossil fuels to these remote areas.
- Reduced GHG emissions as a result of avoided burning of fossil fuels and reduced use of unsustainably harvested fire wood.
- Reduction in the use of fuel-wood and kerosene for household cooking, heating and lighting, resulting in less indoor smoke pollution especially for women and children and reduced danger of in-house fires.
- Reduction in deforestation and degradation of natural habitats of rare plant and animal species threatened by excessive cutting of wood and shrubs for cooking and heating in winters.
In addition to the environmental benefits the project has created opportunities for economic development and alleviation of poverty in the underdeveloped and remote mountain communities of northern Pakistan through value added to agriculture and forestry products and value added to the local gems industry and tourism services. Provisions of basic amenities such as good quality power supply, television, and possibility of mobile phone networks as a result of electrification have contributed to improved quality of life. Improved health and education services have also been available to local people as these remote areas became more attractive for teachers and health workers to live in.