PMU selected Bahratola, a hamlet from Vindhyachal cluster, as their first site of operation. Bahratola is a small hamlet of Pidariya Panchayat of Chitrangi Tehsil in Singrauli District, Madhya Pradesh with 200 households. This rural community is surrounded by forest area with modest vegetation and is considered as the remotest of all sites selected under the VE-SuRE programme.

The socioeconomic demography of the village is conventionally traditional. The hamlet comprises of a tribal community with patriarchal dominance offering less mobility to women. The economic cycle of the village comprises subsistence-based farming with paddy, wheat, maize and arhar as the dominant crops. Another main occupation of villagers is labour work, which results in migration, especially of young people to nearby towns for 2-3 months.

Based on seasonal demand fluctuations and technical limitations to fulfill the assessed demands, a comprehensive demand analysis was carved out based on two level - domestic and productive.

Domestic demand - The connected domestic load is considered for 3 CFLs of 18 watts each in 121 connected households. The power is continuously supplied from 17:00 hrs to 22:00 hrs every day.

Productive load - The productive load consists of irrigational pump set load and micro-enterprise load.

Irrigational pump set load - Farmers of Bahratola use diesel pump sets for irrigation, which are replaced with five electric motors of 5 HP each at nine irrigational sites for better irrigational methods in order to enhance productive.

Micro-enterprise load - Another prospective productive load to ensure financial sustainability of plant operation is micro-enterprise based load. The village has a seasonally operating flour mill and oil expeller which provides load demand for 6-8 hrs a day with a 10 HP motor.

About 121 households are receiving power via two biomass gasifiers of 20 kW each with three feeder transmission and distribution lines. The gasifier is functional on hardwood or ipomea for power production. Although the technology is dependent on natural fuel, yet it offers limitations for operations in terms of biomass security. Attempts have been made to smoothen out the fluctuations and duration of power supply and make it constant, but it continues to offer a significant challenge.

A unique characteristic of supply management here is community participation. The local community is operating and carrying out technical plant functions with the aid of training and capacity building

Biomass is a natural feed to gasifiers for continuous power production. This being an essential component, its continuous supply is necessary. Various channels in the form of active participation by villagers as a part of supply chain itself have been devised for continuous supply of biomass. They are also motivated for biomass-based plantation on wasteland as an activity to supplement their current income.

Various institutions have been developed by mobilising the community for active community ownership and engagement in various possible alternatives for sustainable development of the plant and its related impacts.

The Village Electrification Committee (VEC) has been devised with five women representatives from the village. VEC has been handed over the responsibility of plant-based operations and management functions. They act as a catalyst between the community and programme mobiliser for effectual load development and take care of supply management for the same.

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) are also formed in order to supplement gender-based socioeconomic development to enhance the triple bottom line effect.

Farmer Groups (FGs) are also formed as a part of community based load demanders from the plant for its effective usage and also complement the supply chain by providing biomass.

Thus, all the components are essential for ownership of plant and sustainable development. The intervention is assessed to bring about a triple bottom line effect in the following manner.

The village community is empowered to bring about good governance practices in the form of VEC as an institution for their own upliftment. Raising the communities’ self-consciousness and bringing about attitudinal and behavioural change is essential for the success of community owned programmes and initiatives.

Women are forecast as the catalyst for growth in community owned initiatives. Their active participation can mobilise and enhance engagement among community members for various need-based requirements. Hence, the intervention also means to unleash their potential to substantiate their mode of empowerment and awareness.

Economics is another significant component and this programme looks deeply over strengthening of various livelihood options based on power. Enhancing the potential of entrepreneurship among village dwellers irrelevant of their gender is certainly required and executed.

The current supply chain based requirements and other livelihood based demands are converged with available government based incentives, schemes or entitlements for better support of action.

Bahratola has been considered and has evolved as a model village for its nearby unlit and also some so-called electrified villages. The hamlet has been able to evolve the consciousness of other people for sustainable power connection to meet their daily socioeconomic based needs and requirements.

Rural electrification by an alternative source is a challenge in its own sense whether we consider technology, capacity building, evolving community based ownership mechanisms and strengthening the balance of load and livelihood accessibility. These modes of electrification have created and continue to carve booming stories for comprehensive upliftment and, thus, equitable, sustainable and climate sensitive as also resilient growth path.   q