Frontier Solar

About 53% of Nigerian population live in rural communities without energy access, which significantly affects economic and social life of rural dwellers as the importance of electricity in this modern age cannot be over-emphasized. Some of the rural dwellers use gasoline generators, some use crooked lantern to generate electricity from dirty fuel which is poor quality, polluting and expensive.

It is difficult for school children to read at night and businesses close when the dusk has come.

We propose a 35kWp solar hybrid system for Jagiodo rural community in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State, to provide clean and affordable electricity for the community people who majorly farmers and trader, trading on farm produce such a cocoa, palm oil, kolanut e.t.c.

The project will also boost the education of their children as they will have more time to study at night and empower wumen with productive equipment.

Nigeria has a population of over 200 million people with 53% of this living in rural areas. According to the word bank data, as at year 2012, 44.4% of Nigerians do not have access to electricity. The larger percentage  of these people reside in over 8,000 rural communities nationwide. These affects the economic and social life of rural dwellers as the importance of electricity in this modern age cannot be over-emphasized. Some of these rural dwellers resort to using gasoline generators as a way of generating electricity. These can only be afforded by few members of the community and larger percentage of them use crook lantern and battery torchlight that are nothing to being effective.

It is difficult for the school children to read at night and businesses close when the dusk has come.

The community people did not only rely on dirty fuel to generate electricity, they also cut down trees for firewood and charcoal production as domestic fuel for cooking.The hazardous firewood smoke emitted from traditional cooking methods have more fatal consequences for women. It also endangers the planet causing nearly irreparable  change to our global climate.

Frontier Solar proposed Green Mini-Grid which comprises Solar Photovoltaic System with battery bank, PV/Battery inverter, smart metering system and Diesel Genset Backup.

Solar PV: It is for generating sufficient solar energy from the sun to meet energy demand of the communities, it produces DC power.

PV/Battery inverter: It converts the generated DC to AC power which powers the load because most home appliances are adapted to work with AC power.

Battery bank: As energy generated by the solar PV is only available during the day. Batteries store the excess generated energy to be used at night time.

Diesel Genset: For emergency power generation and backup.

Smart metering system:  For monitoring and controlling each customer’s consumption.

Jagiodo is located in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo Statea, a rural community comprising of mostly farmers and traders who trade on the farm produce such as cocoa, plantain, kolanuts and palm oil.  It has a population of about 5,000 people with over 300 houses and 358 connections. Jagiodo is about 45 minutes’ drive from the main road at Kajola, Sagamu-Ore expressway. GPS Location: N06 46.823’, E004 28.865’.

It is not feasible to extend the national grid to Jagiodo community because of the distance and bad road networks that lead to the community. Jagiodo is 8km to Kajola, the nearest town with national grid. Moreover, there has been no power supply to the national grid in Kajola for the past twenty years. Jagiodo community people will continue living without energy access and that may last for years.

We have carried out comprehensive engagements with the people of Jagiodo community. During these engagements, the following forms were signed with the community leaders:

• Memorandum of understanding between the community and our company.
• Exclusivity agreement was signed.
• Letter of intent was written to us by the community leaders.
• Community Power committee was also established.
• Deed of Gift for Land document was also signed.

Activities carried out so far include;

• Site Survey/Feasibility studies
• Community leaders’ engagement
• General Sensitization of community members
• Documentation: MOU, Exclusivity agreement, Community Power Committee, Letter of Intent, Land Agreement
• Site Visit for Demand Analysis
• SLD and Electrical Design
• Design of Generation, Distribution and Civil Works of the Mini grid Project

The proposed project hope to address the following needs of Jagiodo community.

• Provision of clean electricity to Jagiodo community using Solar PV technology.
• Empower women through provision of productive equipment.
• Create jobs for youths within the community.

IMPACT

• Socio economic development in the community.
• Provision of employment in the community.
• Produces clean energy and therefore saves carbon emission

Solar power provides clean energy and is therefore eco-friendly.

Creates sustainable economic development through job opportunity for youth and empowerment for women, improves children education, helps maintain healthy ecosystem, socio-economoct development, tourist attraction, urban to rural migration and theft reduction

The project is still at the pre-development stage.

Activities such as Site Surveying and community Engagement, Sensitization of stakeholders and members of the community, House counting and energy demand estimation of the community, Design of SLD, Distribution and Generation have been carried out.

The project implementation activities such as Procure Generation, and Distribution Equipment, Installation and Commissioning, Primary Responsibility in Developing, Supplying and Installation of  Smart Prepaid Meters and Vending Software, Establishing Local Vending Partners, Establishing Local Technical Team are still in progress

The solution will use internet of a thing (IoT) to monitor system performance. It will use vending software to monitor consumption, the system will also allow electricity consumers buy electricity both offline and online through vending software.

Our solution is targeting a market size estimated at ten (10) million rural dwellers ans middle income Nigerians who fit our ideal customer profile. Of this market size, we intend to capture about 20% of this market as market leaders, amounting to about two (2) million customers.

People currently serving 30

People will be serving in one year = 358

People will be serving in five years = 1,000,000

Description of milestone

Required deliverable

Status

Site Survey and community Engagement

Sensitization of stakeholders and members of the community.

Completed

Needs Assessment

House counting and energy demand estimation of the community.

Completed

System Designs

Design of SLD, Distribution, Generation, and Civil Works.

Completed

Contracts Signing

Signing of Contracts with all customers; Productive, Commercial, Residential and Public

In progress

Funding

Fund raising Loan/Equity Investors

In progress

Procurement

Procure Generation, and Distribution Equipment

Scheduled for December, 2021

Project Implementation

Installation and Commissioning

Primary Responsibility in Developing.

scheduled for January, 2022

Commercialization

Supply and Install Smart Prepaid Meters and Vending Software.

Establish Local Vending Partners.

Establish Local Technical Team.

Scheduled for February, 2022

Full-time Staff = 2

Part-time Staff = 3

Total of 5 staff.

Frontier has experienced technical team to deploy and operate the mini-grid projects. We train our staff regularly to acquire new skills in their field. Where we lack expertise, we bring in consultants who put us through the necessary processes so we can achieve success in our projects. 

We have carried out comprehensive engagements with the people of Jagiodo community.

We conducted  socio-economic analysis of rural electrification in Nigeria to provide insights into the strategic planning on the project. Our findings show that community can profit more from  intensive use of solar energy. We sampled data from a variety of sources including academic and grey literature, operating mini-grids as well as informal conversations with relevant stakeholders including members of the community. The analysis shows the economic growth hindered by lack of clean and sustainable energy in the community.

We are fully prepared to execute this mini-grid project in Jagiodo community and are putting everything in place to take the project live.

At Frontier Solar, we are committed to building a team, organization and leadership structure where respect, dignity, fairness, caring, equality, and self-esteem is not an option but highly prioritized.