Institutional Arrangement
Rural Energy Development Programme’s effort at creating comprehensive institutional arrangement has resulted in a number of remarkable achievements. Besides, the establishment of activity level coordination with donors, promoters, line agencies and other stakeholders at the central level, REDP has been successful in creating congenial atmosphere for rural energy development in all the programme districts. Most notably, all programme DDCs have embraced the programme wholeheartedly in all districts and taken up ownership of the district level activities. It is for the first time that a rural energy agency is created within the umbrella of the DDC in Nepal. DDC: REDP has set an example in the context of decentralized development for the institutional arrangement that can be emulated by other sectors as well. REDS has also taken the lead in the formation DEC and DEF. Works are underway to strengthen REDS as the Energy Technology Promotion Center in the district.

Creation of self-governing institutions at the grassroots has supported the principle of decentralization by providing the rural people a platform in the form of CO to launch activities directly concerning them. As of 31 December 2003, a total of COs male COs and female COs) have been formed in 15 districts.

Among others, the elaborated networks at the center and the districts have, up to an extent, addressed the pervasive problem of repetition and duplication of works prevalent in Nepal. Micro Hydro Promoters’ Group (MHPG) and Rural Energy Consultative Forum (RECF) have been helpful in sharing experiences among the members for avoiding duplication and streamlining activities, particularly on the training. Similarly, establishment of Rural Energy Development Board (REDB) and Management Committee (MC) have supported in coordinating activities of REDP and government line agencies.

Community Mobilization
REDP considers community mobilization as an essential vehicle for active involvement of local people in the programme activities for promoting sustainable rural development. Experiences have shown that the community mobilization process being followed by REDP is strong in developing and strengthening social capital among the villagers. The best approach to harness people’s potential to help themselves in the energy development is the mobilization of the community members, both male and female. The six principles of REDP Community Mobilization process - organization development, capital formation, skill enhancement, environment management, technology promotion and women’s empowerment - are highly effective in motivating the community members to undertake community development initiatives by themselves. People have initiated and taken ownership of not only energy schemes but also other development initiatives undertaken even without REDP’s financial support.

Decentalized Energy Planning
REDP has provided support to DDCs and VDCs to carry out decentralized (bottom-up) energy planning that will culminate in the preparation of long term and short term district energy development plans and programmes. Energy Planning Workshops were organized in the programme DDCs. In first five programme districts the energy planning process was fully followed while preparing the District Energy Development Programmes for fiscal year 2055/56.

Micro Hydro Demonstration Schemes
REDP is moving ahead to enhance rural livelihood and preserve environment by supporting MH as an entry point. Nine MHDS have been completed and 13 schemes are in different stages of construction. Altogether these 22 MHDS would generate a total of 400 kW. In 1998, two peltric sets have also been installed with the technical assistance of REDS in Baglung district. Along with the technical assistance, REDP provides financial support to the communities for the installation of MH schemes, the operation of electricity based micro enterprises and the implementation of environment preservation activities. The programme provides support up to 50 % of the total non-local cost required for installation of MHDS. The communities are also assisted to mobilize financial resources in the form of grant, loan and investment from various sources, namely DDC and VDC, government line agencies and Agricultural Development Bank (ADB/N). The DDC and VDC have contibuted about 10 percent of the total non-local cost in each demonstration scheme. The local beneficiaries have provided voluntary labor and locally available materials required for the installation of these plants. In the same manner, works are underway to install twenty MHDS in five new districts. For this, pre-feasibility studies of these potential schemes have been completed.

Human Resource Development
One of the focus areas of REDP is capacity building at three levels - center, district and grassroots. REDP has established Human Resource Development Center for the capacity building at all three levels. At the central level REDP is providing support to a number of private sector organizations (PSO) to build-up their capacities to undertake energy related activities. Training organized for engineers on design of MH schemes and involvement of engineering students in different R&D projects in collaboration with Kathmandu University will help alleviate the dearth of engineers in rural energy development sector.

District level activities are focused on building-up the capacity of DDC to plan and manage rural energy development programs. In this regard, DDC are being supported to integrate decentralized energy planning with overall development strategy. For this, the orientation on decentralized energy planning for DDC and VDC officials have been organized. Similarly, local leaders are given technical support for the preparation of annual energy plans. The capacity of DDC to handle the DEF is being enhanced through the preparation of its constitution and operational guidelines. Besides, an NGO in each district has been supported to develop as a SO to implement community mobilization activities in the settlements. In the same manner supports have been given to train potential enterpreneurs to establish RESCs to provide technical assistance and to undertake repair and maintenance works related to energy technologies in the districts.

The capability of the self-governing community organizations and functional groups are enhanced to handle rural energy systems by implementing various training programme. Operation, management, accounting and bookkeeping training are provided to the CO officials in all districts. Training on leadership and group dynamics were also organized for community members. Specialized training on Micro Hydro (MH) operation, MH management, MH repair and MH maintenance, biogas plants and solar pv systems installation, nursery management and house wiring have helped create a pool of specialists in all communities.

Research and Development
Under R&D, REDP is supporting development of appropriate rural energy related technologies in general and micro hydro in particular. In 1998, the design and fabrication of three phase induction generator controller, fabrication and field testing of portable pre-stressing machine for on-site production of RCC poles, and propeller turbine have been completed. With the aim of reducing consumption of imported fossil fuel and utilization of wasted forest based resources, Jatropha seed oil is being tested to use as fuel in conventional stove. In Kavrepalanchok district, a 3 kW gasifier is being tested to determine its durability, reliability and acceptability by rural community. The low head turbine installed and field tested in Katunjebesi is the first of its kind in Nepal. The technology has opened up the possibility of adding electricity generation component in most of the irrigation schemes constructed in the country.

Natural Resource Management
Although MH power plant is considered to be an environment friendly technology, its implication cannot be ignored. REDP has thus adopted a policy to prepare Environment Assessment Report (EAR) of each MHDS site. So far, EARs of 11 MHDS have been prepared.

REDP has incorporated various environment management activities under its Natural Resource Management component. Altogether 27 Community Forestry Functional Groups (CFFG) have been formed in five districts. Each CFFG is responsible for management and sustainable exploitation of the forest resources within its jurisdiction. These CFFGs have initiated plantation in degraded land covering about 22 hectares. A total of 38,000 fuel and fodder trees seedlings have been planted. Besides, community members have planted more than 4,000 seedlings of different fruit trees in their private land. In 1998, 13 nurseries have been established in five districts with the cumulative capacity to produce 100,000 tree seedlings in a year.

Documentation and Dissemination
One of the priorities of REDP is the documentation and dissemination of information about its experiences. All of the programme activities including problems encountered and successes achieved are documented and disseminated in the form of internal, updates, reports, newsletter and various publications. Community Mobilization Guidelines, Tariff Determeniation Guidelines, Community Managed Rural Energy Development (A Strategic and Conceptual Framework) and Navirkarniya Urja Prabidhi (Renewable Energy Technology) were major publications of 1998. Two bi-monthly newsletters - URJA in English and URJA Vitte Patrika in Nepali were published and widely circulated.