Ramasubramaniam V (Village Energy Renewable Solutions) on Failure: Great projects fail too

Could your objectives clash with the path of development? How important is competition in the larger scheme of things? Are good intentions enough?

These are the questions that Ramasubramaniam V of Village Energy Renewable solutions faced as when he started out in the development sector.

The Context

As someone from a background in activism, Ramasubramaniam’s primary objective was helping out communities that were displaced by large industrial projects.

This meant, at least to him, that he was at odds with the government. His outfit often set up in remote parts of the country, bringing light and electricty to these communities, even setting up rice hullers and flour mills.

As Ramasurbamaniam put it,

“Our main focus was being compassionate to these communities who were displaced by these massive projects. We weren’t that interested in the know-how, we just provided them what we felt they needed.”

The Failure

In a remote village in Ladakh, a local politician had promised to bring electricity if he was voted into power. His solution was to bring in a diesel generator, providing a year’s worth of fuel and consider it a job well done.

Had Ramasubramaniam worked in collaboration with the government at this point to bring the village under the central grid as opposed to working within the limitations of an ad-hoc solution, it is arguable that things might have panned out differently.

Ramasubramaniam also expected that a local NGO in the area would take care of the management of the system and it’s the collection of tariff rates ,as they weren’t aware of how they would manage systems. It is important to note that this was done after they had been provided operator training and technical training, but the crucial element of project management went completely overlooked.

Commerce was the last thing on Ramasubramaniam’s mind, so the rice hullers and flour mills were set up as end use products for the electricity and most people used it for free, even though it eventually fell into disuse.

The Diagnosis

After taking stock of the situation, Ramasubramaniam felt that the entire product design needed to be reevaluated.

He came up with better systems to manage the grid, starting with simple steps like moving equipment closer to the villages, as the buffer time when something went wrong was immense, a lull that hurt the communities he was serving.

He also used local materials that were familiar to the local fabricator who assembled the system.

With his end use systems like the rice huller and flour mill, Ramasubramanian ensured there was adequate training and also took a comprehensive look at ownership of these devices, who would run it effectively, preventing it from falling into disuse.

This change in design and the it’s complete rehaul for the product end use made all the difference for Village Energy Renewable Solutions.