For decades, parts of Africa have experienced blackouts. Factories stop operating, homes go dark, and day-to-day life is forced to a standstill as unreliable grids funneling electricity through flimsy networks cause them to topple over and cut out. “Imagine sitting at home watching your favorite TV program and the power just goes off,” says Fortune Machini. “And that’s just in the cities — it’s a lot worse in rural areas.”
Growing up in Zimbabwe’s capital of Harare, before moving to Australia as a teenager, Fortune has experienced the frustration of power cuts first hand: “Even when I recently went back for my sister’s wedding, there were still pockets where blackouts were a common occurrence.”
Today, as a Commercial Program Manager in New Businesses within Power & Gas at Siemens Germany, Fortune comes up with new ways of solving Africa’s power crisis, and he thinks he’s found a solution — by using what’s already there but in a smarter way.
“Businesses need to think about diversifying their energy,” he explains, “and one way is by creating their own microgrids.” Blending together solar, wind, and gas turbines create a smarter, local power source, and it’s a solution that features prominently in a project he’s helping get off the ground in Uganda.
Don’t go off-grid, make your own instead
At the moment, only 10% of Uganda’s population has access to electricity, and in rural areas, it’s less than 5%. For those who do have access, frequent power cuts make it difficult for any business to grow, because so much time and money are spent trying to keep afloat. “Imagine regular power cuts in somewhere like Germany,” says Fortune. “It just wouldn’t happen.”
There is a backup for when the power goes down, but it’s far from perfect. Working out at roughly three times more expensive than the grid, most homes and businesses have emergency diesel generators. “To put this in perspective,” says Fortune, “some of the guys were telling me they spend $400,000 a year on diesel generation. From a household point of view, do you fire up the generator to watch your favorite TV program or the evening news, or do you save money and wait for the power to come on?”
Being faced with the choice of no electricity or an astronomical bill forces people to focus on the day-to-day, and not look towards the future. To better cope with blackouts and avoid the need for costly backup generators, Fortune is working on a project to introduce a mixed-energy microgrid for a cooperative of 3,454 tea farmers in Uganda, which will enable them to have more autonomy over their business. “They all own equity, so essentially they’re all shareholders,” explains Fortune.
Farmers will be able to take a flexible approach to the energy sources they rely on, switching from one to another as and when they need to. “Renewables really are much cheaper,” Fortune says. “Especially if you include solar — then it becomes almost free.” The only issue is the set-up cost.
A new way of crunching the numbers
Tea is a burgeoning market in Uganda; this year’s sales are already up 12% on 2017 figures. The combination of peace where there was once conflict, strengthened trade deals with surrounding countries, and easy to roll out technologies mean the tea farmers need to act now in order to take advantage of this growth opportunity and expand their business.
To install a microgrid, the farmers need to buy it outright. “I quickly realized some of our solutions may be a bit expensive for them, but that’s still something we can help them with,” says Fortune. “If they come back and say they want to use the technology, but don’t have the money or the bank won’t lend it to them, then we do have ways to help.”
His team is currently looking at creating a crowdfunding tool, based on the blockchain, that would allow people to buy a percentage of the microgrid for themselves. “With the blockchain, you set it up once in the beginning, and no one has to intervene for it to keep working going forward,” he explains. “So, if every farmer wanted to put in a little bit, the savings would help them generate additional income.”
Turning micro ideas into macro ones
Fortune knows the farmers have to be certain the microgrid is as good as he says it is before they’ll invest. And his team has created a virtual version, simulating the entire microgrid as it would work on the ground, to demonstrate the long-term benefits. “If the tea farmers generate more electricity than they need, they can also store it and sell it to their neighbors,” he says.
According to the World Bank, 70% of Ugandans work in agriculture. “Once the model is up and running we can copy and paste it all over Uganda,” explains Fortune, “After a while, instead of having one big power generator running an entire city, we’ll have a network of these microgrids.”
As Sabine Dall’Omo, CEO of Siemens Southern and Eastern Africa, told us in her Future Makers article: “Electricity is something the people are willing to pay for. We just had to come up with a piece of technology that both businesses and individuals could finance.”
Fortune has high hopes for the project’s potential: “It’s not just about generating new business,” he says. “It’s about creating a strong case for it. If we can model an idea and prove it works, then we can really start putting it into practice.”
Fortune Machini is a Commercial Program Manager in New Businesses and is currently working hard to uncover new ways of powering the future. Find out more about working at Siemens.
Illustration: Vanessa Branchi
Animation: Ross Turner
