First time 24/7 access to renewable electricity

Mee Panyar, with the support of the province of Vlaams-Brabant, GivePower Foundation, and SunPower Corporation/ Maxeon Solar Technologies, recently completed a solar mini-grid system in southern Myanmar. The project partners provided equipment, technical direction, and logistical support for the Kan Byin community to install and maintain their own solar microgrid. In addition, the project has ensured that on-site technicians can reliably operate and use the system, while maximizing access to benefits of electrification through local ownership.

The new system enables first time access to 24/7 clean and affordable electricity for 1,078 people and 246 households, reducing the cost of electricity for households by >50%. The system also provides free electricity to all community facilities, including the local school, which serves 420 students from Kan Byin and nearby villages, two monastery buildings used as community centers to host celebrations, conduct village meetings, and host visitors to the community, and all the street lights in the village. The project also displaces the use of polluting diesel generators, avoiding an estimated 1,220 tons of CO2-equivalent emissions and generating 940 MWh of renewable energy over a 15-year project lifetime.

The need for more power

Kan Byin, a coastal village of located in the southern Myanmar region of Tanintharyi, is more than 100 miles away from the national grid. The village, together with most of the Tanintharyi region, is categorized in Phase 5 (out of 5) of Myanmar’s National Electrification Plan. This means that the extension of the national grid is planned to reach villages in this phase only at the very end of the government’s electrification efforts. In other words, there are no plans to bring grid-power to the village in the medium to long term.

Before Mee Panyar’s partnership with the village, electricity was provided by a small diesel genset system, operated by the village’s “meesayar” (electrician) U Htike Tan Thu. The system brought basic electricity to ~70% of the households for around 3.5 hours each evening. But both U Htike’s and the village’s aspirations were greater. As the community develops, households were looking to use more appliances, use them throughout the day, and make productive use of electricity to build local businesses.

Bringing solar electricity to Kan Byin

The Mee Panyar team first engaged with the Kan Byin community and U Htike in November 2019 as a part of outreach to villages in the Myeik delta region with legacy mini-grid systems. The village and village partners were quickly recognized as a good fit for solar hybridization. The needs of the village were assessed in detail by the end of 2019, leading to finalized system sizing, design, procurement and logistics in the first quarter of 2020. The Mee Panyar team visited the village again in February to deliver a “rehabilitation” training and hands-on practice to 5 site technicians on general electrical safety and concepts, as well as distribution system and household wiring skills. The meesayar and his team put that training into practice to execute the previously identified necessary upgrades to the existing distribution system and connect 68 new households.

As the Covid-19 situation in Myanmar worsened in March and strict restrictions were put in place through April and May, the project was paused to avoid transmission risk to the village. Equipment delivery and civil works construction restarted in June when restrictions were partially lifted. Finally, the full scope of construction, installation, and training resumed in July. A Mee Panyar team traveled to Kan Byin to complete construction and deliver a “hybridization” training to the meesayar and his team that equipped them to be the primary on-site personnel responsible for preventive and corrective maintenance and on-going system care. The 42kWp solar and 75kWh storage mini-grid, with its upgraded electricity distribution system, was commissioned at the end of July.

Celebrating great partnerships

The system commissioning was celebrated with a ceremony to bring our team members, village partners, and leaders together. It was a great moment to celebrate what had been achieved and look-ahead at what will be a lasting relationship with our partners in the village. The whole Mee Panyar team is grateful to all the partners that made this project possible. Tremendous thanks to the province of Vlaams-Brabant, GivePower Foundation, and SunPower Corporation/ Maxeon Solar Technologies, and to our village partners that will help ensure that this mini-grid is a long-term success.