Newsletter
New Delhi: USAID’s South Asia Regional Energy Partnership (SAREP), has announced the grant recipients of the first round of the SAREP Partnership Fund (SPF) call for applications. This USD 12 million fund is slated to issue multiple grants over SAREP’s five-year program period (2021-2026).
SPF’s first round, which was announced in 2021, received 53 applications of projects ranging from pilot demonstrations to clean energy technology incubation support, feasibility studies, knowledge management, knowledge sharing, institutional capacity building, policy advocacy, amongst others.
Of these, Swayam Shikshan Prayog; AutoGrid Systems Inc.; and New Buildings Institute have been awarded the SPF grants in this round.
Grantee 1 – Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) aims to utilize the capacities of its widespread network of rural women entrepreneurs to drive adoption of cost-effective and energy-efficient innovation and livestock waste to energy solutions. Examples of these solutions include storage systems that do not require any external energy, and prefabricated bio-digester solutions which convert livestock waste to energy and, as a by-product, produce bio-gas slurry – a highly effective natural fertilizer for small-scale farmers. Estimated direct impact of this project includes reduced wastage of harvested produce and energy cost, along with increased income of small-scale farmers and rural women micro-entrepreneurs.
Grantee 2 – AutoGrid Systems, in collaboration with a leading power distribution company operating in Delhi-NCR, proposes a large-scale Behavioral Demand Response (BDR) program to reduce peak electricity consumption. With a BDR program, consumers can choose to optimize their electricity load in response to signals relayed via text messages, emails, or a combination thereof, and be incentivized for providing this capacity shed. With thermal power as a predominant source of energy, these small electricity sheds by individual consumers can add up to significantly reduced power consumption of the city and reduced carbon footprints, while also reducing consumers’ power bills.
Grantee 3 – New Buildings Institute will develop methodologies and metrics for optimizing energy use in buildings by better and integrated operation with the electric grid. These methodologies will facilitate building-grid optimization by identifying key behind-the-meter, time-oriented energy efficiency and demand flexibility strategies for various kinds of buildings and grids in Indian, and subsequently South Asian contexts.
The second call for proposals will be announced in the near future. SAREP looks forward to receiving applications from all six countries the program covers – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.