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Practice-to-Policy Exchange for Grid Interconnected Micro and Mini Hydropower in South and Southeast Asia
From 26th to 29th January 2016, Janathakshan hosted the HPNET Practice-to-Policy exchange focusing on the topic of grid interconnection of micro and mini hydropower installations in South and Southeast Asia. Despite MHP practitioners expressing a strong interest in grid interconnection, its development is still at an early stage and there is wide variability within the region. Currently, once main grid connectivity is established, MHP projects often become underutilised or abandoned.
In order to address this challenge, the practice-to-policy exchange in Colombo, Sri Lanka, offered the opportunity for project developers, government representatives and energy utility stakeholders from India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan and the Philippines to exchange know-how on policies, strategies and the potential of grid interconnectivity.
During the thematic sessions on the first day, the current state of grid interconnection in the different countries, as well as the technical, financial, regulatory and social challenges facing MHP projects seeking grid connectivity, were discussed. After this theoretical introduction, the field visits on the second and third day provided participants with the chance to experience at first hand examples of different sizes of grid interconnected hydro plants (12kW to 3MW). Following this practical experience, potential strategies for making progress in terms of grid interconnectivity were discussed in various small groups over the next two days of the event. The results of these discussions will be available shortly in the proceedings of the workshop. Further information is available on the HPNET website.
