IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2020 - 72

NEWSFEED

PELS Honors Innovators for
Energy-Poor Communities
IEWING IEEE'S MISSION TO
advance technology for
the benefit of humanity as
both a high-level aspiration and
a bottom-up action plan, the IEEE
Power Electronics Society (PELS) organized a global competition to crowdsource energy-access solutions that
would be scalable, sustainable, affordable, expandable, extendable, and
regionally relevant. More than 475
teams signed up, 170 proposals were
submitted from more than 70 nations,
82 teams went to a Shark Tank-style
regional round (covering four continents), and 23 teams went on to fieldtest their solutions before competing
at the Global Final on 29 September
2019 in Baltimore, Maryland.
While competition prizes are a
valuable outcome, the feedback teams
received from experts in energy access,
business, and technology was invaluable. With the data gleaned from field
testing in communities without energy
services, where people live on under
US$1.90 per day, the IEEE was essentially eliminating risks associated with
market entry for solutions to energy
poverty while supporting the IEEE mission and growing a more cohesive
energy-access community.
In the report "Making Power Affordable for Africa and Viable for Its
Utilities," the World Bank noted that a
comparison of electric supply costs
and cash collected in 2014 showed
that 95% of utilities in Sub-Saharan
Africa could not recover their operational and capital costs. Further, using
today's technologies to bring the energy-poor communities to levels of livelihood set by the Organisation for

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MELE.2019.2962894
Date of current version: 4 March 2020

I E E E E l e c t r i f i cati o n M agaz ine / MARCH 2020

Economic Co-Operation and DevelopThis organization collaborated with
ment would result in 3.7 G-tons/year
Okra Solar of Cambodia in remote
of additional carbon dioxide emisareas of Southeast Asia to scale up
sions. Clearly, using sustainable,
groundbreaking solar and modular
renewable, and clean 21st-century
microgrid networks at drastically
technologies would be financially and
reduced prices. Using a charge conenvironmentally essential.
troller in every house and enabling
With input from the World Bank,
any panel and battery to connect
the U.S. Agency for International
together into a microgrid, houseDevelopment, the Energy Sector Manholds with a controller can both
agement Assistance Program, the
share and receive power, and there is
International Finance Corporation,
no limit to how many controllers
academia, and industry, tracks for
can join the network. A software-asholistic solutions
a-service (SaaS) platwere identified. Reinform remotely moniWhile competition
vention was not retors generation and
prizes are a valuable
quired, but forwardconsumption, manoutcome, the feedback
thinking, regionally
ages payment, and
teams received from
relevant business
e n s u r e s the most
plans were necessary.
efficient breakdown
experts in energy
The Grand Prize
of p o w e r s t o rag e
access, business, and
went to Team SoULs
through the entire
technology was
from the Indian Instinetwork in real time.
invaluable.
tute of Technology.
The winner of the
Team SoULs develBest Commercial Utiloped an open-source
ity Prize was Havenmodel for the procurement/assembly
hill Synergy. This company identifies
of standardized flexible off-grid solucommercially viable rural communitions with more than 6,000 women
ties and deploys smart solar miniinvolved in local assembly/service
grids. With the aim of catalyzing ecoand training while growing into localnomic activities, Havenhill Synergy
ly owned factories, installation outis currently on the verge of scaling
lets, and sales kiosks, with the capital
this solution to hundreds of commuremaining in the community.
nities across Nigeria.
The Best Emerging Utility Prize
The winner of the Best Emerging
winner was Entrepreneurs du Monde.
Decentralized Prize was SolarWorX.

IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2020

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