Powerhive – A Company on a Mission to Bring Electricity to 1.3 Billion Who Don’t Have It

May 26, 2015 – If Powerhive has anything to say about it the next decade will see all of sub-Saharan Africa and underdeveloped areas of South Asia fully lit using renewable energy and microgrids. Founded in 2011, and located in Berkeley, California, the company is on a mission. It wants to work with local utilities and power producers in countries where rural electrification doesn’t exist by introducing microgrid solutions for almost 1.3 billion people.

The company has developed a proprietary system combining software, hardware and third-party renewable energy solutions. Its software can analyze multiple sources of information including on the ground and satellite data to quickly determine a sites suitability for a microgrid. It then chooses the best renewable energy technologies, backed up by battery storage, and combines them with proprietary smart meters, inverters and a cloud-based management system for continuous oversight.

In 2015 the company established its first African subsidiary. Powerhouse East Africa Ltd., is the first private provider of energy in Kenya. Prior to its launch Powerhouse worked out the kinks at four pilot project sites in Kisii, Kenya. To motivate its first 300 customers upfront payments were kept low. In addition each was given a mobile app to monitor their own energy use and manage payment. Mobile payments are big in Kenya. The build-out used local materials and labour. Installed capacity amounted to 80 Kilowatts. The illustration below is of a typical Powerhouse microgrid site.

What are the challenges of microgrids?

It is not in deployment so much as in ensuring that all customers get power and that no one customer steals power from the rest. Reliable continuous power is another challenge. In the past when microgrids failed in remote areas it could take days to get them up and running again. Powerhouse wants to attain the kind of reliability in its microgrids that can be found in power grids throughout the Developed World.

The gold standard for reliability set by telecommunications companies is “five 9s” which means uptime of 99.999% which translates to downtime of less than 2 minutes per year. Many national power grids in the Developed World approach that standard but in the Developing World such reliability has been unattainable to date even from national grids.

Powerhive’s solution provides them with access to their installed microgrids through the Internet, giving them the means to monitor and provide remote troubleshooting continuously 24/7. A typical microgrid includes a community of homes each equipped with a smart meter and a base number of outlets and chargers. Customers choose the level of service that fits their economic means. For the poorest it gives them electrical lighting replace the cost of running and fueling kerosene lamps in their homes. For some customers it means getting their first refrigerator. And for small business enterprises in remote villages it means having enough power to operate equipment for manufacturing or services.

One customer story says it all. Dominic Ratemo Ondieki, a Kenyan describes how it has changed his life.

“Before signing up for Powerhive, I was a casual laborer. I earned enough to get along, but it was difficult…..when Powerhive came to our village, I started a business operating a posho [the Ugali word for corn or maize] mill, which has increased my daily income to 450 KES [about $4.50 U.S.]. I now have enough money to pay my children’s tuition. I hope Powerhive comes to other villages in Kenya so that more people can benefit.”

Currently the company with funding assistance from the United States government is working to provide microgrids to 20 million homes in Kenya as well as in Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania. Within a decade it may light up all of sub-Saharan Africa.