This blog is maintained by William Hong. He is a PhD candidate at Tokyo Institute of Technology in the International Development Engineering Department.
The projects and activities of ruralenergy.org serves as an integral part of applying and developing his research in pursuing sustainable development of communities. The blogs below showcase the works, trips, and experiences gained in his journey with ruralenergy.org. Communicate with William and the Project: william.hong@ruralenergy.org
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Energy Blogs
APVIA Singapore La!
(2012 - October 24) Blogger: William Journey: Singapore Marina Bay Sands
Today we finished presenting in a conference hosted by the Asian Photovoltaic Industry Association (APVIA): http://www.apvia.org. It was held in the Marina Bay Sands and Expo - Singapore; an amazing structure as modern as solar PV can be described. This particular session may hold more fruits from the sands than we can expect. During the conference I got to meet some key individuals that did valiant efforts for the rural electrification scenario. Mr. Islam Sharif of IDCOL Bangladesh and Peter Adelmann of Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) were quite inspiring leaders in this field of specialization. I look forward to connecting with them in pursuit of innovative programs and business models that can spread SHS to rural communities in the Philippines and the world. My doubts of ever commercializing an RE business vanished as I saw several success stories. The road to success, however, needs to be pursued with more vigour! This particular conference holds a special place in my heart. It was the first time my dad ever attended a conference with me. Our adventures around town all the way up to the conference were just priceless. This session gave me great confidence to pursue growing and developing ruralenergy.org into an organization that can truly transform and improve lives of people. More power la! William Hong Here is the abstract of our presentation. Title: A holistic multi-tiered approach to off-grid energy provision using solar PV Authors: Hong, G.W and Abe, N. - International Development Engineering Department, Tokyo Institute of Technology Renewable energy systems (RES), especially solar PV, are being diffused to rural communities to improve energy access. The sustainability of these systems is, however, becoming increasingly relevant. Two issues are important to consider in providing these RES for rural communities: (1) appropriateness of the technology and (2) the diverse capacity (and needs) of users within the community to sustain the systems. In this paper, these issues were addressed using a holistic multi-tiered approach in energy provision using solar PV. The recommendations were based on actual solar PV cases from the Philippines. For rural communities with diverse mix of users, a holistic multi-tiered approach in energy provision is recommended. A multi-tiered approach pertains to the use of different types of systems that cater appropriately to the different types of users with varying levels of available resources, capacities, and willingness to sustain a system. Two case investigations were conducted in rural islands in the Philippines. In the cases investigated, a community can be divided into three meaningful tiers: (a) upper tier, to have a more capital intensive sub-centralized PV system; (b) middle tier, to have a more affordable system such as an SHS; and (c) lower tier, to have the least costly option of rechargeable solar LED lamps. Considering different tiers (levels) of users lessens the variability of the necessary conditions required to sustain the systems provided. A holistic multi-tiered approach may, thus, facilitate both the appropriateness and the sustainability of the systems adopted for the community.
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Takeda Workshop
(2012 - October 18) Blogger: William Journey: Japan, Takeda Workshop Just 2 weeks after graduation, I was back in Japan again. I was invited by Prof.Abe to present our Lamps for Rent project to a workshop sponsored by the Takeda Foundation, entitled: International Symposium on Ecosystems for Regional Innovation in Asia (http://www.takeda-foundation.jp/en2/asia/sy04_posters.html) In this session, we were able to share our ruralenergy.org works with a panel of professors, industry experts, and organizational leaders from different countries – Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, USA, and more. The main topics revolved on how to inspire more regional innovation in the neighboring countries of Asia – through flexible collaboration. In this session I learned quite interesting thoughts: A) The RES industry is very competitive and unlike the BPO and IT business – RES requires huge capital investments. Therefore, it is advisable to learn and affiliate with big companies first before flying off on your own. B) Commercial is defined as a business without governmental subsidy. Given that, RE is still non-commercial and will take 15 to 20 or more so years to reach commercial levels. Let the technology makers and researchers do their share to bring it home. C) Bring medicine each time you travel. I got into a fever during the session and that was not so pleasant. This lesson is perhaps more important than the first two. I was overall quite happy with the experience. I met some individuals worth mentioning here. OMRomny from Cambodia, Jun Belizario from UP, Seetharam from ADB (charter cities), Jin Wakabayashi of JICA, Jamilu Choudhury of Bangladesh, and Yoshio Matsumi of Itochu were all respectable individuals that shared much of their thoughts with me – Thank you guys. In this session, I felt very much a young and promising social entrepreneur. As the young challenge the old, the old encourage the young. Thank you seniors for inspiring us to try harder to make ruralenergy.org succeed! Thank you Takeda Foundation for the opportunity to partake in regional collaboration. Until the next workshop, William Hong Here, by the way, is an abstract of our presentation: The Lamps4Rent Project is a rural lighting project based on community participation and entrepreneurial approach. This project provides rechargeable LED lamps to a community in an off-grid rural island in the Philippines (Pangan-an Island, Cebu). Currently, the community uses electricity from a solar power plant, which has decreasing efficiency. The electricity supply is no longer enough to provide light at night; hence a secondary storage of power, i.e. LED rechargeable lamps, can provide the needed power come nightfall. While utilizing the existing solar plant, the project creates an affordable and sustainable lamps supply service by applying a daily lamp rental system. The project has been in operation for 1 year and continues to increase in service coverage. The project is a flagship project of ruralenergy.org in cooperation with Abe Research Group - Tokyo Institute of Technology, and the Pangan-an Island Cooperative for Community Development (PICCD). The project was awarded the prize fund from the International Center for Social Entrepreneurship (ICSE) business plan competition in 2010. With the support of the above-mentioned groups, the Lamps4Rent project emerged from its trial to full operations stage in a span of one year. Since September 2011, the project has provided 20 to 25 lamps per day to households and has provided employment for 3 operators from the community. The social and economic impacts of the project were found promising to merit expanding and bringing the project to other rural islands in the Philippines. Pursuing this social venture has been a product of a variety of key ingredients: network, knowhow, creativity, and willingness. Having the network of people and organizations is essential in bridging ideas to reality. Entrepreneurs must have the skills to connect the pieces of the puzzle including ideas, people, and resources. Knowhow is an ingredient that determines success. It is knowhow that enables one to solve existing problems and boundaries that make the social problem evident in the first place. Creativity is what distinguishes a good idea from a great idea. Creativity can be applied in the broad sense of your project or in the little details that make the project effective to achieve the objective. Willingness is the final ingredient that places all things together. The entrepreneur and the people involved in the project must share the sprit and willingness to pursue the goal. The project proponents ought to have a deep sense of responsibility and desire to address a social problem in order to address it properly. With these ingredients in place, a social venture will have a better chance of succeeding. |
Doctor of Engineering
(2012 - September 25) Blogger: William Journey: Japan - TokyoTech.
After 5 years in the making, we finally did it. On that fateful day (September 25) were officially allowed to place a Doctor of Engineering at the end of our name. Receiving that diploma marked a life-long dedication to service as a doctor – both an honor and a challenge. If ruralenergy.org is to grow and prosper, a dedication of the highest kind is indeed necessary. Being a doctor gives us the license to do so, even more than ever. Our official dissertation title is as follows: Sustainable development of renewable energy systems for rural electrification: Off-grid solar PV cases from the Philippines. It took six full chapters to finish. Chapter 1: Introduction, Chapter 2: A review of rural electrification and RES, Chapter 3: Sustainability assessment (Panga-an Island Case), Chapter 4: Capacity and willingness of users assessment (Alumar Case), Chapter 5: Strategic energy provision modeling (LED lamps rental Case), and Chapter 6: Conclusions and recommendations. Amen to the 272 pages in total! For this meaningful milestone, I would like to thank all of those that have supported our cause. To my professor, Naoya Abe, who always believed that we could do it and challenged me to try my best each time – thank you. To my family, who was always there to support my every need – my warmest love. To my friends and colleagues, who provided the laughter, memorable moments, and truest support along the way – cheers! I will forever remember my time in TokyoTech and Japan. We then move forward with the spirit of discovering the truth for the greater good. Animo gozaimasu! http://animociv.blogspot.sg/2012/10/dlsu-alumnus-earns-phd-from-tokyo-tech.html William Hong Here is the short abstract of our work: This study focused on the sustainability of renewable energy systems (RES) through off-grid rural electrification case applications of photovoltaic (PV) systems in the Philippines – having recently pursued energy sector transformation and promulgated regulations to stimulate RES development. The first case, a sub-centralized PV application in a small rural island (Pangan-an Island), displayed how the limited financial capacity of users eventually led to the deterioration of the PV facility. The second case, a solar home system (SHS) project (Alumar Island), confirmed how users` capacity and willingness can be used to predict sustainability performance. For the third case, an alternative lighting strategy using rechargeable LED lamps was mathematically analyzed and was found to effectively serve low-income users. The findings of this study provide practical and theoretical contributions for communities, policy-makers, developers, and academic institutions pursuing off-grid rural electrification through RES. Here is how we concluded it: Overall, this investigation explored several key issues of off-grid RES (solar PV) sustainability. Chapter one and two discussed the foundations and scope of the investigation, noting the energy provision challenge using RES to be of global importance with local applicability. Chapter three investigated an actual sub-centralized PV system application which identified and clarified the then uncertain sustainability issues of off-grid RES projects. The challenges were summarized to be issues of users` capacity and appropriate technology matching. Chapter four explained a paradigm shift using a certain capacity and willingness approach to understand the link between capacity and sustainability. Chapter five proposed an innovative lighting provision system with sound practical and mathematical basis to address the lower-tier energy demand market of low-income users. The lessons learned have practical and theoretical implications, which can be used by several stakeholders. Through this study, important academic contributions and recommendations for further research were outlined. Furthermore, practical policy and project implications were recommended to enhance the sustainability of off-grid RES projects. |
Blog 12: A solar home survey in Alumar
Blog 11: Sand and Sun (Hawaii to the Philippines)
(2012 - January 16)
Blogger: William
Journey: Hawaiian conference and Philippine visit
A happy and energizing new year to everyone. It is always good to end the year and welcome the new one with a bang. In my case, it was full of sand and sun. We visited Hawaii for an energy conference before heading to the Philippines for a quick visit to our projects.
It was my first time in Hawaii and the 4th GCOE International Energy Conference took me to international waters one more time. The warm Hawaiian island atmosphere with its occasional drizzles was all too perfect to have a week long conference and socialization with energy engineers from all over the globe. I presented our lamps rental research discussing our supply model. I was glad it was received well by the audience. Once again I realize the uniqueness of our research as it deals with the people and how they interact with energy as compared to the more fundamentally technical researches out there. Lamps4Rent and SolarSea may have just had their first debut presentation in the energy research field. What were once simply business ideas now have found truly intellectual meaning worth researching about. I was more than happy to summarize my work for the last few months through this conference and I look forward to writing it into a journal. Hawaii indeed gave me several thoughts to ponder on: 1) How deep do we need to go about ocean energy? Can`t it be found in the shallows? 2) Will renewable energy cause man to abandon the fossil fuel based sources as fast as how sugarcane facilities were abandoned due to corn substitutes? 3) Hawaii seems so much like my home town Cebu, I wonder what we can learn from Hawaii to develop developing islands. I always believe in the thought that we do not need to travel time to see the future. All we have to do is go to a new place that has gone through more or a different experience than where we are. Or better yet, why don`t we create the future? Here here for my new found interest, development economics. I would like to be an expert at this particular field someday. Looking forward. After the Hawaiian sun, I headed to the Philippines to touch base with home. It was all but a fitting way to celebrate the Christmas season and the coming of the new year. And usually when I am home, I always like to keep my eyes open and feet active for new places to visit. Before that though, lets take a look of how our L4R project is doing. A visit to Pangan-an is always a treat. This time I was treated with a manta ray for lunch thanks to our local team`s hospitality. As for our lamps, all 19 + 4 lamps are still standing. It was good to know that the rental rate has been maintained at more than 80%. This includes the times when the lamps are undercharged and are returned prematurely. It is a human inefficiency we can accept though. I was also glad that the 2 months of full operations yielded 2 new lamps to be added to the supply. I brought them in and they are colored yellow like the sun. I stayed in the rental station for some time and got to see all half of the supply being rented out one by one by users coming in. The solar power station however is not fairing as well though. Less and less energy is produced from the plant which forced the cooperative to purchase a diesel generator to be used at night. Caution for this though, they need a bit of help in properly costing and managing this new source. I do hope sir jun comes in to intervene and make sure they do it right. I also visited the DOE office. Sure enough I met our old colleagues there who welcomed me with happy smiles. I felt so at home there as we exchanged stories of the past few months I was away. Sir jun and mam lou were there and I was more than happy to update them on our research progress. I am looking forward to the new programs the DOE has for SHS distributions. Mam lou is involved with the household electrification program, HEP, and I am hoping our upcoming research will jive well with the program. I certainly am as ever interested in finding out how we can measure people`s willingness and capacity to sustain. I still believe these are key concepts to use when dealing with development projects, especially for electrification. It might very well be closely related to my new found interest, development economics. How indeed can a community develop properly? Yes electricity is a driver. But what is a driver for without a car and a road to follow? Hopping on. I was invited by our family friend to visit their island in Bohol which they hoped to develop into a resort. I took a 1.5hour boat to Bohol to Tubigon to the nearest access point to this small yet majestic of an island which I could not yet name. This island had a few inhabitants which were easily relocated so as to make way for an full development of the island into a resort. And naturally, this island would need energy. I happily discussed and went over the energy options and scenarios with the owner. While fossil fuel based sources are more reliable and economical in most scenarios, there is surely a market for eco-tourism who may very well go for green options. That is for the high end tourists though. What about the normal poor community islands? There were several other islands in the area. Just with my eyes I could count 5 to 7 islands which were similarly sized with populations varying from a handful to a hundred households. Certainly these were the typical off-grid low income communities we are studying about. Again, all these island would need energy and I seemed to know at the back of my mind what they needed. Here before me were potential markets for our SolarSea Project. I sure can`t wait to make that first pilot project and refine that concept to its commercial state. Until then though, I will keep an eye out for these potential islands we can serve. That trip to Tubigon was indeed a good eye opener. I took a picture of a sand dollar. Gets me thinking really. If we can find a dollar in the sand, how much more in a whole island? This past few weeks has truly been a sand and sun adventure. Thank you to all the friends and colleagues that have supported me through the journey. We now come back to Japan refreshed and ready to push the pedal to the metal once again with research. I do hope to keep focused on our year`s goals: 1) Graduation and 2) the next step. We have a wide ocean ahead of us to explore and enjoy. Cheers to the new year 2012!
William Hawaii, USA
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All lamps still standing |
New recruits (units 25 and 26) |
Diesel Gen-set for night |
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Panels are not looking too good |
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Blog 10: Research as Usual (RAU), Solar-Sea and IDAcademy
The Solar-Sea Project proposal debuts at ICSE Business Plan Competition 2011
winning the top prize given by NEC.
Solar-Sea Project winning the NEC Award with fellow IDA entries
was mentioned in Nikkan Kogyou Shimbun
(Daily Industrial Newspaper, November 10, 2011)
・日刊工業新聞2011年11月11日記事
・転載承認済(承認番号:N-4741) The recent election of the new IDAcademy Core 3G!
Renewed strength, refined vision.
October 26, 2011
The International Development Academy - TokyoTech
Our humble organization pursuing international social development,
encouraging students to practice what they preach!
Founded in year 2008
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Blog 9: An energizing trip to Germany (EUPV)
(2011 - September 30)
Blogger: William
Journey: Euro trip to Germany through (Bankok, Copenhagen, Germany)
Our last adventure took us to a 2-week energy-learning marathon through the fields, mountains, and rails of Germany. This was all for the attendance to the biggest Photovoltaics Conference to date, the European Photovoltaics Conference or the EUPV. It was a great privilege to be in this conference. The lessons learned, experience gathered, and the sights seen are testimonies to the beauty of the journey of learning about energy.
The ConferenceThe EUPV is, for the PV experts, the biggest show on air when it comes to the latest technologies, trends and anything buzzing with the word PV or solar in it. Our Abe Research team, Abe Sensei, Mukai San, Ishio-San, went to participate in the event by presenting two of our researches and attending several sessions. With the gazillion academic presentations, industry booths, and poster sessions, we could finally say that the PV industry is really as big as the sun.
I presented the recent works we completed at the DOE about Pangan-an Solar Project, renewables for off-grid rurals. We did it quite well actually. I felt quite happy to share what we learned about our community in the Philippines and it seemed several others were also inclined to that direction. I was approached by a Belgian researcher who really wanted to know more, since Belgium did donate the system. I must say though that the our rural community approach to RE diffusion is still a minority endeavor in that huge event simply because social research and community development isnt really the focus but rather technology and grid integration when it comes to PV. It clearly shows though that more focus and efforts need to be done for the communities out there needing light and energy. There was also an industry exposition portion. There I bought a small solar windmill and got a free solar lamp from Mr.Christian Repky of http://www.sol-expert-group.de/. I certainly will give their products a shot for the next solar lantern projects. It was good to see that the PV industry is thriving. A lot of groups were working together, from manufacture, installers, researchers and policy makers. A noteworthy group would be PVPS (Photovoltaic Power Sytems Prgramme) where we met the glue that holds them together Mrs.Mary Brunisholz the executive secretary. PVPS is a non-profit group attached with IEA where they have formed several tasks to pursue for PV technology involving several countries. I would like to become the PVPS contact in the Philippines someday. What do you think Ms.Mary? We also got to meet Ms.Virginia of PV Cycle, on of the select few groups that thinks about the future recycling of PV to date. Indeed, the industry is thriving and its a great time to start building a future career in this industry.
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Blog 8: closing remarks to the internship
(2011 - September 1) Blogger: William Let me reiterate that already three months has passed. My internship, a wonderful learning experience. My last day at doe was pretty simple yet memorable. I had to finish up the report for pangan-an. It was my last horrah for that project. Sir jun and I finally completed the decision options report for the island which for years has been elusive for DOE to accomplish. We finally decided on the best recommendation we could have for the project. That is, we recommend the transfer of ownership to the electric cooperative which holds the franchise for the area to begin with. This gives DOE some breathing space while the ER1-94 funds can get to work. It will perhaps be a new era of renewable energy projects. Slowly, the pilot projects are beginning to reach the hands of privately run organizatons. Recently, we have been seeing a lot of technology push efforts for renewables in the Philippines. The renewable energy act has solidly been backed by the ER1-94 and other government programs, such as the household electrification program, to enable the quick diffusion of RESs in the rural areas. I feel I just hit the jackpot of things to know about. Recently, I learned and got convinced that the big companies in the Philippines are indeed moving to energy. Although it has been here for ages, interestingly, we could say that energy is the future.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank a few people from DOE that have supported my stay there. Firstly to Engr. Magdaleno M. Baclay Jr., otherwise known as sir jun, who has been my man-to-man guide throughout my internship. The times learning together have been memorable. Next is Mam Lou Arciaga who has been like a mother to me. Also to Director Tony Labios who has been the source of approvals from the beginning. Then to the other staff of DOE, sir Ed Amante, sir Agi Briones, mam Sally, kuya Jerry, kuya william, sir Roland, and all other staff that have been so helpful and welcoming. I look forward to meeting you all in the near future. Also to the staff of PICCD and Alumar, Roldan, who have all contributed to a safe and memorable journey to the projects. Cheers to the pancit (noodles), bread and coke meriendas (snacks) at DOE-VFO headquarters. I'm back in Japan now. The plane just landed for the nth time for me an now I'm headed back to the barracks. Its been quite a while ever since my last train ride. The outside scenes are slowly reminding me of what life was before the internship. Anyhow, the journey continues for research and learning. Il have tomorrow to prepare for the Euro trip on Friday. I must say, to study about energy, you need a lot of it. Success beholds those who spend it on the right things too. Patience and focus.
Let me end by sharing the wisdom of sir Agi Briones. What is greater than God and worse than the devil? You cannot live with it and if you eat it, you will die.. (share it?) the answer is, nothing. Nothing is greater than God and worse than the devil. You cannot live with nothing, and if you eat nothing, you will die. Certainly one of the few jokes cracked by sir Agi to keep the energy in the office alive. According to Mr.Hal Harimoto (a venture capitalist expert), if you can tell a joke about a certain field, it means you are an expert at it. I sure do hope Sir Agi comes up with more riddles about something other than nothing. Well, how about a joke about energy? Do you have one? All I know is, more energy mas happy! (the more energy you have, the happier you are.) With that, lets bring happiness to the world by energizing the rurals!
Until then, William |
Blog 7: Final Corner
(2011 - August 24)
Blogger: William
Journey: DOE-VFO Headquarters and Barangay Alumar
Well who knew the 3 months internship (2.5 actually) would just pass by so fast. I am now in the final week of this visit to the DOE-VFO as a researcher/intern. It has been exciting in many aspects though the fun and challenges are not far from over. We still have the final report to finish up for our Pangan-an Island Evaluation Project which I will be presenting the the staff here at DOE this coming Friday. Along with that, I have a few other reports to finish up; The upcoming EUPV paper st
ands first in line.
Today though I finally got my Europe/Schengen Visa. Thank God for that. I am looking forward to the EUPV Conference in Hamburg this coming September 9 to 12 where we will present our research output during this 3-month stint here in DOE. It will be my first time in Europe and I guess RuralEnergy. org will soon get some pictures of the beautiful places there soon.
Back to our works though. Last week we successfully deployed and collected the surveys in Barangay Alumar, Bohol. This survey was done to investigate on the SHS users` Capacity and Willingness to Sustain. I recon that being able to define and measure these two variables (CTS and WTS) would give us a better idea of how individuals in communities differ in certain characteristics which enable them to perform better or worse in sustaining the RE projects deployed in their areas. With the gracious help of our local contact there, Mr.Roldan Salabao, the survey was completed in a week`s time. Now I just have to sort through each of them and interpret the data we gathered. We will hear more about that in the coming months. As for our Lamps project, basing on the latest feedback from our local staff there, the lamps are renting like hotcakes. It seems the users are seeing the advantages of our rechargeable lamps being cost-effective to bring light in their homes. I had distributed a user`s satisfaction survey recently and by next week we can retrieve them next week along with the rental data that has been logged for the last 20 days. I do look forward to the results. Ill share them here in the blog soon.
These are the updates for now here. Stay tuned for more ruralenergy.org action soon. Next stop would be Europe.
Cheers!
William
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Blog 6: Rest, Study, and Action
(2011 - August 6) Blogger: William Journey: DOE-VFO Headquarters and Visit to Pangan-an It has been weeks since my last blog. Its good to be writing this again. It all started with a week of getting hit by a crazy case of tonsillitis then it was followed by a week of planning and reports and finally ended up being able to deliver the deliverables to the island. Rest, Study, and Action pretty much encapsulates my updates. Ill skip right up to the meaty parts though. Getting thereAfter some weeks of keeping up with the work (reports and discussions) at DOE office, I finally got to visit the island once again to bring the rest of the lamps to officially swing the project to full operations mode. Remember that a few weeks ago we brought 5 lamps to the island to give our staff a chance to practice charging and using the lamps for themselves. After some weeks of getting used to the cycles, it already seemed right to start RENTING out the lamps. Bringing the last batch to the island was a boat ride to remember. Usually around this time of the year (July to August), the Habagat, or southwest monsoons, comes blowing in to the little islands of the southern part of the Philippines. As you can imagine, the seas aren`t as pleasant, especially when all you are riding is a medium-sized outrigger boat across the channel from Cebu to Pangan-an. Anyhow, we made it across and back safely (as I am still alive writing to tell about it). This time I went alone actually since sir Jun had some other matters to attend to. Charging the LampsAs all the 20 lamps were now together, we finally, for the first time, got to charge the lamps all together in the island. It was quite evident that the electricity consumption went up. I am now estimating that the entire system would take up about 0.5 kWhs per day of charging. That`s roughly about 15kWhs per month. In no time, we will become one of the few users in the island who consume about 12 to 15kWhs per month (thats actually big considering that the users average about 6 to 9 kWhs only and about 43% of users are using less than 3kWhs per mont). Anyhow, we did foresee this aspect anyway and we will allot a budget to pay for the electricity consumed.
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