20-year agreement to set up Mini-Grids in rural Nagaland

Dimapur, 24th January, 2022

20-year agreement to set up Mini-Grids in rural Nagaland

The Mon District Administration, Government of Nagaland and Mithun Rural Development Foundation (MRDF) sign a 20-year agreement to set up Mini-Grids in rural Nagaland
- The MoU aims to encourage the use of a clean energy platform to increase local household incomes by 15-20% per annum
- The first three mini-grids to be installed in three economically-constrained villages of Longkei, Totok Chingha and Chenwetnyu

In a landmark development, to deliver last mile access to electricity in rural areas of the north-eastern state of Nagaland, the Mon District Administration, Government of Nagaland and Mithun Rural Development Foundation (MRDF) have undertaken the initiative to set up solar mini-grids in the economically constrained villages of Nagaland.

MRDF is an SPV that is specifically designed to service the electricity access needs of the north-eastern states and is supported by organisations such as Smart Power India (SPI), ONGC and NABARD. The goal of the initiative is to enable last mile clean energy access, improve livelihoods, support women entrepreneurs and increase the GDP of the state, while reducing GHG emissions.

SPI will play an important role in supporting the entire programme framework and value chain including design, delivery and facilitating financial and market linkages. The programme envisages to improve access, covering 1000 villages in the next 7 years. The first three mini-grids will be set up as early as February 2022 in the villages of Longkei, Totok Chingha and Chenwetnyu in Mon District.

The Memorandum signed aims to align with the UN SDGs and reduce the carbon footprint along with generating green jobs. The initiative aims to encourage the use of a clean energy platform to increase household incomes by 15-20% and for enterprises by 20% in the targeted villages. The highlight of the MoU is the strong support that the local administration has brought to the initiative:

- For the first time, the setup of the mini-grids will aim to develop the community through an Integrated Village Development Programme involving all members of the community and not just the customers
- The local administration is facilitating coordination between the Village Councils / Village Development Boards and MRDF
- The District Administration is also assisting MRDF by coordinating the efforts of various departments such as health, education, renewable energy, rural development with the work in the villages

Talking about the memorandum, Jaideep Mukherji, CEO, Smart Power India/Samit Mitra, Senior Director, Smart Power India said, “We are glad to be a part of this Memorandum which aims at sustainable socio-economic development through DRE. It is also equally important to reduce carbon footprint, which would require a collective effort from every level of the society. We look forward to working with MRDF and the Government of Nagaland to establish a solar PV based mini-grid to encourage clean energy generation.”

Thavaseelan K, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Mon, Nagaland said,“We fully support MRDF and SPI in their efforts to improve the living conditions of our people in the villages. These clusters are economically backward and DRE mini-grid interventions will bring an all-round development to the region as they will integrate clean, high-quality and reliable energy with livelihoods, agriculture, health, education and public infrastructure. They will also help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25-40 tons per village per annum, which is an encouraging milestone to achieve.”

Samit Mitra, Director - Program Implementation at Smart Power India said, “The MRDF program undertakes an Integrated Village Development approach. The attempt is to address issues like energy - access & transition, education, health, community facilities and livelihood. It is a right balance between improvement of well-being and economic growth of the community.

Adding toMitra, Vijay Bhaskar, Managing Director, MRDF said,“Our association with these esteemed stakeholders is aimed at arriving at a sustainable and holistic model of rural economic development based on DRE mini-grids, which can be implemented and scaled to about 1000 villages of Nagaland. We hope that communities can achieveholistic wellbeing as a result of the initiative.”

About Smart Power India (SPI)

SPI, a subsidiary of the Rockefeller Foundation, was established in 2015 to develop and scalesustainable models to accelerate electricity access and spur economic development amongst the rural underserved communities. It is committed to creating knowledge and accountability in the public domain through robust evidence-based research and providing field and analytical support to the Government, private sector, implementers, and other donors in their pursuits for rural electricity access. SPI develops and disseminates relevant knowledge in the rural electricity access and services space to promote research and innovation and partner with policymakers, practitioners, and academic institutions to come up with actionable insights and innovative strategies.

While SPI’s work covers the spectrum of supply and demand-side issues of rural electricity, its focus is the last-mile customer. SPI exchanges knowledge by promoting and facilitating platforms for networking, knowledge sharing and collaborative research, networking, knowledge-sharing, and collaborative research.

About MRDF

Mithun Rural Development Foundation (MRDF) is an SPV floated specifically for rural development of North-East India through the platform of renewable energy based mini-grids. The first phase of their work is in the 132 villages of Mon District of Nagaland.