Husk Power Systems (HPS)
Location
HPS has successfully modified currently-available compressed natural gas generators to create proprietary 35-100kW “mini power-plants” that use rice husk as fuel to generate electricity. The firm sets up village-wide distribution systems that wire each household, irrigation station, and commercial enterprise with electricity.
About You
Section 1: About You
Section 2: About Your Organization
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
Organization Name
Husk Power Systems
Organization Website
Organization Phone
91-9430247663
Organization Address
S.K. Puri, Boring Road, Patna 800013
Organization Country
India
Is your organization a
For‐profit
How long has this organization been operating?
1‐5 years
Your idea
Name Your Project
Husk Power Systems (HPS)
Describe your Social Enterprise
HPS has successfully modified currently-available compressed natural gas generators to create proprietary 35-100kW “mini power-plants” that use rice husk as fuel to generate electricity. The firm sets up village-wide distribution systems that wire each household, irrigation station, and commercial enterprise with electricity.
Country your work focuses on
India
Innovation
What makes your innovation unique?
HPS has taken a decades old technology and with some crucial modifications to the off-the-shelf machines, the company achieved what has traditionally been considered an impossible task by a novel and diligent machine management systems. It must be noted that Rice Husk powered Biomass Gasifiers have been in use for a long time but almost all of the previous applications have focussed on the 'Dual-Fuel mode' where the Producer Gas (produced by the gasifier) is used in conjunction with Diesel (the ratio being 50-60% Producer gas and 40-50% Diesel). Rice Husk has not been considered worthy of 'Single Fuel mode' application due to some inherent disadvantages associated with the fuel resulting in higher Tar content of the gas produced. With some critical changes in the metallurgy and certain other parameters of the engine and a novel and comprehensive maintenance system, HPS has been able to produce electricity using 100% producer gas based system and ensures over 95% uptime across the company since August 2007 ( a record of its kind).
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
HPS has electrified more than 90 villages so far which means a direct effect on the lives of over 120,000 people. From these villages, HPS has employed more than 50 workers who have been trained with technical skills and employs 50 more unskilled workers.
The impact of electricity in rural lives can be well understood qualitatively as well. HPS's electricity has literally added hours to the lives. What used to be a dead dark zone by 9:00 pm is bustling with activity till as late as midnight. Housewives love to cook in the ample light of a CFL; children get a couple of hours to study in the evening; shopkeepers and traders get a little extra business. There has been a significant decrease in theft and snakebites in the villages (zero snake bites last year). HPS has also enabled local entrepreneurs. From sale of simple appliances to photo studios and computer shops, the diversity is ever increasing. Another big impact has been increase in spread of cellphones. Before HPS provided power, users paid on an average of Rs 6 (US $0.15) per charge of the phone and he/she had to travel as much as 15-20 kms to get that done. In less than what they used to spend on charging their phones, they can charge the phone multiple times and light two CFLs for a month (8 hours a day) spreading light as well.
Problem: Describe the primary problem(s) that your innovation is addressing
Rural electrification in India is in an “acute crisis” as a total of 125,000 Indian villages are presently un-electrified . India currently has over 480 million citizens (44.5% of the population) without access to reliable power. The Indian government has designated 18,000 of these villages as “economically impossible” to reach via conventional means . Without electricity, these villagers are forced to live at the whim of natural forces and lack basic communication, education, and healthcare infrastructure required in modern life. This impedes both economic and social development and undermines the viability of India’s long-term growth. Husk Power Systems (HPS) will provide power to millions of rural Indians in a financially sustainable, scalable, environmentally friendly, and profitable manner. HPS has created proprietary technology that cost-effectively converts rice husks into electricity. The organization uses this technology to produce, own, and operate 35-100 kW “mini power-plants” that deliver electricity as a “pay-for-use” service to villages of 400-500 households in the Indian “Rice Belt.”
Actions: Describe the steps that you are taking to make your innovation a success. Include a description of the business model. What might prevent that success?
The Company plans to build a robust platform in 2010 to enable five years aggressive scale up plan of building over 2,000 plants across multiple countries. The key to building many plants in a highly de-centralized fashion is to be able to build a very large and effective team to expand organically and through franchise model. It is imperative that HPS builds a highly motivated senior leadership team as well as an effective operating team on grounds. To execute this strategy, HPS plans to build a training university for senior leaders and associates with a high quality program content, well trained trainers and an assembly line like throughput. Tactically, in the next three years, HPS plans to train a total of 750 team members: 700 operators, 35 cluster level managers, 10 mid-level managers and 5 senior managers. At the risk of stating the obvious, HPS needs to maintain a constant focus on training the trainers to maintain a good quality of trainee at all levels. On technology front, HPS plans to invest over $100K/year in the coming years to continually improve power generation systems’ efficiency and significantly reduce tar content from gasification system. Such improvements will result in significantly reduced regular maintenance expense and longer equipment lifetime. HPS is working with Shell Global Solutions, Avantha Group and IDEO to innovate new ways of addressing technical challenges. The recent success includes, but is not limited to, developing under $8 SMART METER that can detect current levels of few milliampere (mA) reliably and result in cutting down overall theft to below 5%. HPS research team has also been working on continuous improvement principle to further reduce the overall plant installation cost to under USD 20,000 for 32kW by removing the redundancies and innovating simpler ways of execution. As a direct impact of its R&D efforts, the company has developed quite a few innovative versions of the gasifier (e.g fuel agnostic, dry discharge, brick reactor) to be used as suited at the location The Company plans to accomplish this target within the next two years that will help in reducing the break-even timeframe for each power plant.
Results: Describe the expected results of these actions over the next three years. Please address each year separately, if possible
2010: HPS plans to install a total of at least 50 plants in off-grid villages of Bihar, India by the end of 2010. It already has 30 power plants up and running and another 24 in the process of manufacturing and installation. Additionally, it has trained a total of 35 operators to cover the next 25 installations. These 50 plants can potentially cover approx. 200 villages and impact 200,000 people's lives.
2011: HPS intends to expand the operations to a total of 150 power plants to off-grid villages of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal in India and some rural parts of Nepal. Additionally, HPS plans to develop channel partnership with appliance companies and cell phone companies to bring world class quality products in the hand of rural population at a reasonable price.
2012: HPS intends to install a total of 500 power plants in India, Nepal and some other South East Asian countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia and Philipines.
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$50 - 100
Does your innovation seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If your innovation seeks to impact public policy, how?
HPS already works with Ministry of New and Renewable enery on its policies of expanding de-centralized power supply system with minimal requirements for licenses/permits and subsidies to make some of the very remote areas financially viable.
Sustainability
What stage is your Social Enterprise in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
No
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your Social Enterprise
We are partnering with appliance companies to ensure that rural people can get access to high quality Compact Fluoroscent Lamps at almost 20% cheaper rate than the market for a poor quality product. We do that by ensuring an exclusive access to villages we supply power to.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
We have received grants from Shell Foundation and subsidies from Ministry of new and renewable energy. That was the seed money for us to launch few power plants. Each power plant generates enough cash that on an unit level it becomes operationally profitable in the first 3-months of its operation. On an unit level with three employee to support day-to-day function of the plant, each plant has ~ 40% EBITDA margin. A group of 5-6 plants constitute a cluster that has a manager and an accountant for maintaining operations and books. Similarly, a group of 10 clusters forms a region which is managed by Regional Manager, Accountant and HR manager. We are financially viable upto the region level (with 30 plants now) but we cannot support the salaries of Senior management (C-level executives) until we expand to 100-120 villages.
The revenue sources are:
1. Payment by household for energy received on a monthly basis.
2. Payment by businesses for energy received on a monthly basis.
3. Selling rice husk char based products such as incense sticks and bricks.
4. Undergoing a CDM certification process right now that will generate approx. $1200 per plant per year.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
After working in the U.S. for four years after finishing my Masters, I realized that while I have access to all the facilities of 21st century - my own relatives dont even have access to basic amenity such as electricity. I left my cushy job in the U.S. in order to devote time to find out a solution that can help people in the area I grew up in and empower them. In my quest to find a really good energy solution, I came across a waste product - rice husk that can be gasified and I then applied some basic engineering skills to develop a proprietary process to generate electricity at one of the cheapest price points in the world. I could nto have been more happy than the day when my power plant actually fired up and lighted the village - it is a priceless experience and brings butterfly in my stomach even today when we have expanded to 30-power plants.
Tell us about the person—the social innovator—behind this idea.
Gyanesh Pandey really was very instrumental in coming up with an energy solution that used a waste product and could be produced at a price that nobody believed until they saw it. He also actively figured out the distribution mechanism and basic pricing model that gives people ample amount of savings (by not burning kerosene lanters) and make the business financially viable.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Email from Changemakers
If through another source, please provide the information
 | sasikanth gorantla said: Excellent stuff about this Competition Entry. - 548 days ago read more > |
| sasikanth gorantla said: Excellent stuff about this Competition Entry. - 548 days ago read more > |
| shrivastava1984 said: I have been following the news related to "Husk Power System" since long. I am native of Bihar and know that lack of electricity is the ... about this Competition Entry. - 552 days ago read more > |
| antonvipin said: Dear Gyanesh and Manoj! Congrats on making it to the Finals. All the Best. Best Vipin about this Competition Entry. - 553 days ago read more > |
| violetabendersky said: Dear Manoj Sinha, According to your experience what are the main barriers or challenges so that social business model can ... about this Competition Entry. - 584 days ago read more > |
| gyaneshpandey said: Praveen, Thanks for asking the question. We can definitely address the issue economically and electric motor is much more efficient ... about this Competition Entry. - 588 days ago read more > |
| jpraveenrao said: Hi Manoj and HPS team, Congratulation on successfully installing and running over 30 power plants. It would have been a dream come ... about this Competition Entry. - 592 days ago read more > |
| gyaneshpandey said: Raj, In theory your suggestion works well and in certain situation that is a right way to approach the rural part of India. We ... about this Competition Entry. - 610 days ago read more > |
| gyaneshpandey said: We buy Rice Husk from local farmers and pay them for the waste product (through rice mills). Thanks, Manoj about this Competition Entry. - 610 days ago read more > |
| Rachna.13 said: Hi Manoj, The rice husk is bought from local farmers or do you have your own plantations? Does the supply meet demands? about this Competition Entry. - 611 days ago read more > |
