Community based micro-hydro village electrification schemes are used to electrify remote villages that
are not connected to the national / state electricity grids. Such schemes can be operated and maintained
by the community members themselves. A micro-hydro village electrification scheme can generally meet
a household’s basic electricity demand for lighting, TV, radio, phone charging, etc. In addition, it can be
used to power electric irons and small scale machines with limitations.
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These schemes can help improve the lifestyles of community members by reducing the money spent on
conventional energy sources, improving children’s education time and expanding the day’s productivity
by extended the working hours into the night (especially agricultural work), and improving safety. It also
helps open the village to the outside world through different types of media and communication devices
(radio, TV, phone). In addition, there are a lot of indirect benefits from these schemes such as being
environmentally friendly with no greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the demand for national/state
electricity grids, saving foreign reserves which would otherwise be used to import petroleum or coal, and
increasing the harmony and cooperation among the communities living in the villages.
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