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What is BASIX and CEED and what are their roles?
CEED or Centre for Environment and Energy to rural poor households under one umbrella. They have recently
Development, represents a network of NGOs, ventured into energy services for the poor through BASIX Urja and
CSOs, think-tank organisations in Bihar to they aim to focus on micro-grid based energy delivery in the future.
support renewable energy development in http://www.basixindia.com/
the state. CEED is primarily supported by
Greenpeace and is working on the Dharnai The Operator (BASIX Urja) will serve three major functions: community
project towards garnering grassroot-level engagement; operation and maintenance; and payment collection.
support and building awareness about microgrids
and enhancing energy access in the Community Engagement – Community mobilisation and awareness
state of Bihar.
raising activities like face-to-face interactions and demonstration
http://ceedindia.org/
at group meetings, village meetings, etc., will be organised in order
to communicate functions and benefits to potential users. These
BASIX is a livelihood promotion institution activities will continue even after the launch to further increase the
established in 1996, working with over 3.5 number of users as well as to collect user feedback for improvement.
million customers, over 90% being rural
poor households and about 10% urban slum Operation and Maintenance – BASIX Urja’s trained local technician
dwellers. BASIX works in more than 17 states will monitor the system performance on a daily basis; set up new
across the country. Its mission is to promote connections (e.g. wiring, installing meters); provide the first level
a large number of sustainable livelihoods, of support for technical problems; and conduct minor repair and
including for the rural poor and women, maintenance work. For the major technical problems, such as
through the provision of financial services equipment replacement, developer’s engineer will provide the second
and technical assistance in an integrated level of support.
manner. They strive to yield a competitive
rate of return to its investors so as to be able Payment Collection – BASIX Urja will enrol domestic, commercial
to access mainstream capital and human and agricultural users, keep track of electricity usage of each user,
resources on a continuous basis. BASIX also calculate the billing amount and collect fees from users on a regular
provides a comprehensive set of livelihood basis. Multiple models and tools such as pre-payment and digital
promotion services which include Financial meters are being tested and used in the market to reduce transaction
Inclusion Services (FINS), Agricultural/ costs and increase payment rates and revenues. The team will
Business Development Services (Ag/BDS) determine which ones are most appropriate for this project after the
and Institutional Development Services (IDS) detailed analysis phase.
Community Engagement
Operation and Maintenance
Payment Collection
MEDIA MANUAL | Micro-grid in Dharnai
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