Comment on rural electrification strategy in Cambodia

Unlike my previous writing, this is only a thought or you can say a comment. When I read a survey study on rural electrification in Cambodia, I was surprised that the country set rural electrification target as an intermittent modality rather than a fix one. As implied from the government plan, rural electrification by means of renewable energy will be taken over when the grid comes. This also means that rural electrification enterprises will be phased out in the future. While at present this is too early, we must see this development.

Debunking the argument of reaching of electrification target

While you might see the title as provocative, since the goal of full electrification of a nation is a target every country wish to, I will expose how putting emphasis on the timeframe of the target without a clear roadmap would lead to a waste of money and redundant effort. As one example, I have just read again and again studies showing one of Southeast Asia countries (Cambodia) with the target of providing 70% village electrification by 2020 and 100% of household electrification by 2030.

This is good for the country having around 80% of its population lives in rural areas with limited electricity access in 2011. As a consequence for such strategy, the setup of rural electrification enterprises emerged and through these enterprises people in provinces and villages far away from the grid have access to electricity. Two means of electricity generation are available: diesel with fuel or biomass gasification. Across the time,it is true that electrification ratio in the country increases. It was noted that in 2013, when a workshop on rural electrification was held in Myanmar, one participant from the Electricity Authority of Cambodia stated that at the end of 2012 the electrification ratio is around 40% as compared to 27% in 2011. This was largely contributed by the use diesel and also biomass gasification where on the first instance, around 7,000 kW (7 MW) capacity of biomas plants was installed only as a demonstration project.

The use of biomass gasification is plausible. The country inherits a lot of biomass feedstocks particularly those from rice husks. Thus, the fuel price is either zero (for rice planters and millers) or very low. The output generated can go to a substantial capacity especially for the productive use of energy (PUE). The cost of installing gasifier can be spreaded through regular payments from villagers or from cooperative. In the case of the 7 MW above, as an impact four more gasifiers were requested. Accordingly, the know-how of biomass gasification was tapped and the technology was adopted. Local manufacturers tried to construct the technology to be used domestically.

What happen then was due to lack of technology details, many local manufacturers fail to produce a sufficient standard of biomass gasification. Some of them managed to produce with mediocre results. The electricity delivered was not stable and some were unable to continue operating. Only those small developers that imported the gasifiers from proven technology were able to sustain their operation.

This was also quite similar with the experience of fulfilling electrification ratio target in Vietnam. While during the last ten years the country has successfully raised its electrification ratio to a substantial number, there are and will be issues of grid and off-grid quality that need to be seriously taken. And this comes with very expensive price.

The Misconception of Networking

People often fail to recognize that when they are expanding their network, it starts from the nearest things they can ever imagine. This is because probably the term ‘networking’ itself creates an attribute whereby 'face-to-face' network is established with a rite of exchanging a business card. I found that most often this sequence does not last long except if the rite is followed up by a mutual transaction from both sides.

Often when I observe the existing networking practices, the use of conventional networking tools undermines our ability to develop unlimited network through a device in front of our desk or at our hand. The tenet is that the more individuals involved in a physical network, the more we increase the possibility to optimize our network. It is therefore not unusual for professional to spend their time to ‘shop’ for workshops, seminars, symposiums, conferences or exhibitions just to expand their network.

Here, is the problem: The money and effort spent to these networks often are more expensive than the benefits created from the networking. Most of the time we spent on these efforts would go into a chit chat session on business profiles and sometimes hobby (yes, it’s true that talking a similar hobby can create a chemistry, but then what?) and politics rather than business portfolios and opportunities. At the end of the day, the network is gone with the wind, we fail to recall our networks and when we need them, often the business cards have been expired or missing. Then we start from scratch again just to find another network with the same purpose.

Realizing that this may not work well, professionals seek a specific network that would not only create but convert sustainable benefits for them. The network is mostly embedded in a so-called professional organization or association with quite some 'annual investment'. While this can be seemed as the most efficient tool, the utilization of this network is even overshadowed by daunting tasks preoccupied by these professionals. How often do we deal when we ‘network’ in association or professional organization? How often do we get the insight benefits from networking that can be converted into real value?

The paradigm of ‘face-to-face’ meeting still preoccupies us as professional. It is true that we need to meet our targeted network physically to get the first impression. The level of trust can be built and ensured during physical networking. Yet, we can also search for credentials. Through social media we can examine the level of trust that can be built when we network virtually. I found that when I obtained the credibility from my network virtually, there is no barrier to enter into the next beneficial follow up. I often found that here at LinkedIn, people with credential do really take the most benefit from virtual networking. They can ask what their needs, request information or even exchange knowledge. And the great thing about this that cannot be found in physical networking is it costs less money (well, you may have to pay the internet line) and we can expand our network without limit.

Issues on rural electrification

With the vow to have equity on energy access, many institutions, government, NGOs, private as well as international donors are becoming obliged to provide energy access for those living in areas far from the grid access. In 2008 alone, it is estimated that around 1.5 billion people lack of energy access. These people lives in areas where due to the geographic conditions, access to electricity is barely possible (IEA, 2010). Often, these people are those unfortunate fraction of individuals living in the lowest line of economy.

There are some benefits of rural electrification. In fact, these benefits are similar to having access to electricity. For the sake of discussion, this article limits the benefits to the scope of social and economic benefits.

Having access to electricity improves social life. Through adequate lighting, people can prolong their time to interact socially. This also applies in electrified rural areas. By its virtue, human is social being. They tend to interact to each other to fill social needs. Interacting with others results in generation of ideas, perceiving information as well as filling the need of social exchanges. In areas where the economy is less developed, the only leisure activity that may happen is social interaction whether within the family members or with the neighbours. With electricity access, time to interact socially can occur in the afternoon after villagers have finished their productive activities.

Rural electrification also facilitates information access. Where printed media is accessible, educated people living in rural areas can read newspaper or magazine in the afternoon. If the economy is more developed, villagers having affordability to buy TV or radio will have the benefit to access information. News or entertainment broadcast on TV or radio fulfills the need of perceiving information.