Energy entrepreneurs:

Business models for off-

grid energy & social

impact

Smart Hydro Power GmbH

2

Smart Hydro Power designs,

builds and commercializes

kinetic hydropower plants from

1 kW to 100 kW and packages

systems for rural electrification

Shareholder:

- Kolmsee family 36%

- eCapital (VC fund) 35%

- KfW (German development

bank) 12%

- HTGF (private/public) 12%

- Private investors 5%

• Smart Hydro Power (SHP) is techno-logy provider for off-grid electrification

• SHP is active in Eastern Africa, India and Latin America with first projects installed

• SHP has two unique proprietary products which help bringing down the cost and making projects more reliable

– Smart Hydro-Kinetic river turbine

– Smart Energy Management Systems

• SHP provides technology enabling business models

Introducing SMART Hydro Power

3

Utility Scale Off-Grid Distribution System

4

• Distribution System single phase or

three phase

• Hybrid serving PV, wind and hydro

power – battery and diesel interface

• Grid functionality (UPS enabler)

• Load management to control

separate circuits (independent

steering, prioritize and limit loads,

meter loads with different tariffs)

– Load shedding

– Load adding

– Load shaping

• Remote monitoring – remote

controlling (GPS interface)

ON and OFF grid

Generation Costs for typical Village

• 40 households with approx. 250

W demand each (40 kWh por día)

• Productive use in daytime with

kiosk or similar low capacity

device

• Night demand with water

treatment system

Available Resources Sun and Water

Val

ore

s m

ed

ios

de

cau

dal

de

l río

Atr

ato

1.2 – 1.6 m/s

3 – 5 kW / m2

LCOE even at low velocities 0.34 U$ / kWh

Replacing Diesel and Kerosene

Light and Water only

•Flat fee

•No meters necessary only circuit

breakers

•Approx. 7 to 15 U$ spending for 20

to 25 kWh per month and household

(0.50 U$ / kWh)

•Two phases of system development

− Limited acceptance to charge for additional energy (people pay for

satellite TV but not for the additional electricity needed)

− If excess electricity is sold electricity usage reflect the ability to

pay and hence the social status

All other business models require

metering and differentiated tariffs

• Individual meters and a pre-paid

tariff permit utility scale systems

• Meters allow different tariff

structures (per kWh, per kW, per

hours, flat for selected hours)

• Meters help stabilizing grid as

“cheating” (re-wiring) becomes

technically more difficult and easy

to detect

• “Digitalization” allows data analysis

for forecasting (extrapolating

demand, demand-supply match,

plan diesel supply or even adapt

tariff structure to adapt demand)

Community House introduces payable

services and generates revenues

• Possible services offered:

– Ice machine

– Refrigerator

– Potable water

– Internet / TV

– Re-chargeable batteries (instead of

micro-grid)

• Larger single demand but

competitive pricing required

• Strong social impact on

community development (less

individual development)

• Individual entrepreneurs or

subsidies of larger corporates build

operative centers (cacao dryers,

mills, ice production for fishermen,

Internet coverage) in rural areas

• Excess electricity is sold to

neighboring households

• “Traditional development model”

taken to most remote areas with

impact on individualization and

differentiation of societies

• Possible co-operative approach

with different impact on community

life but all open questions regarding

co-operative governance

Individual Entrepreneurs as Nucleus of

Electrification

12

More straightforward: Replacing diesel in

Agricultural Market

• Connecting kinetic turbine directly with pump or mill via frequency inverter running device according to water velocity

• 1 kW hydro-kinetic pumps 36m3 / hour 10 m height

• Replacing diesel motors at 30% of the cost: Kinetic Pump: 5 € / 1.000 m3 water Diesel Pump: 18 € / 1.000 m3 water

13

Lessons Learnt

• Indigenous and community models

are difficult to implement

• Single main points of demand

facilitate technical installation while

strong project owners facilitates

economic success

• Technology has to support business

model (metering, tariffing, stability /

priorities)

Instalación Marisol – Perú 2014

Instalación Marisol – Perú 2014

www.smart-hydro.de