Nearly all the 1.3 billion people in the world with no electricity access live in developing countries. On the one hand, electricity is a basic need. On the other hand, the environment should not be further damaged. Thus, sustainable electricity in developing countries is clearly needed. The aim of this dissertation is to analyse the mechanism of the diffusion and adoption of renewable electricity with particular focus on rural electrification among low-income inhabitants in developing countries. The dissertation is comprised of a cover essay and six appended papers with a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods based on several means of data collection. The first paper describes diffusion theory through a novel bibliometric tool. This novel method provides an overview, structure, and explanation of a large research area; complements a traditional literature review; and can be applied to any knowledge field. Here, the structure of the recent development of diffusion research, together with its application, are presented. With a specific focus on rural electrification among low-income inhabitants in developing countries, the diffusion framework is empirically applied with complementary concepts in the second, third, and fourth papers, based on three different cases. One case study investigates the adoption of electricity among rural inhabitants in Uganda and shows that a foreign company can be an important player in the rural electrification effort. Another case study addresses a large dissemination of photovoltaic systems provided by a local firm in Bangladesh and reveals that the diffusion of renewable energy can be effectively undertaken by a private local firm, rather than waiting for full government support or large multi-national corporations. The other case study discusses a small-scale diffusion of photovoltaic systems in a remote region in Thailand and presents an extreme case where full government support is necessary. In addition, through a systematic literature review, the barriers to adoption of photovoltaic systems are identified in the fifth paper, highlighting several remaining challenges. In the last paper, issues related to the transition to using photovoltaic systems in off-grid communities are discussed. The diffusion mechanism of renewable electricity has been shown to be a highly complicated process, having several unforeseeable and context-specific factors. A technology with superior qualities does not diffuse by itself but requires tremendous effort and close collaboration on the part of stakeholders. There are complex relations, on the one hand, between technology and society and, on the other hand, between technology providers and adopters. No single, fast, or straightforward remedy can address the complex nature of diffusion of renewable electricity in rural communities. Therefore, understanding the local context is highly important, indicating the need for empirical investigation. This dissertation offers several contributions concerning methodological, theoretical, empirical, managerial and policy. It also provides implications that may be relevant for actors who attempt to introduce, disseminate, and manage new energy technologies in rural communities. / Nästan alla av de 1,3 miljarder människor som inte har tillgång till el bor i utvecklingsländer. Å ena sidan är el ett grundläggande behov. Å andra sidan bör miljön inte skadas ytterligare. Det finns således ett behov av förnybar el i utvecklingsländer. Avhandlingens syfte är att analysera mekanismerna bakom diffusion och införande av förnybar el med särskilt fokus på elektrifiering av landsbygden bland låginkomsttagare i utvecklingsländer. Avhandlingen består av en kappa och sex bifogade artiklar som är baserade på en blandning av kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder och innehåller flera olika typer av datainsamling. Den första artikeln beskriver diffusionsteori genom ett nytt bibliometriskt verktyg. Denna nya metod ger översikt, struktur, och förklaring till ett stort forskningsområde; den kompletterar en mer traditionell litteraturöversikt och kan tillämpas oavsett kunskapsområde. Här presenteras strukturen av den senaste utvecklingen inom diffusionsteori tillsammans med dess applikationsområden. Med ett särskilt fokus på landsbygdselektrifiering bland låginkomsttagare i utvecklingsländer tillämpas diffusionsramverket empiriskt med kompletterande koncept i den andra, tredje, och fjärde artikeln. Dessa artiklar är baserade på tre olika fallstudier. En fallstudie berör elektrifiering på landsbygden i Uganda och visar att utländska företag kan vara en viktig aktör i denna process. En annan fallstudie tar upp spridning av solcellssystem i stor skala som utförs av ett lokalt företag i Bangladesh och visar att spridning av förnybar energi effektivt kan genomföras av privata lokala företag, snarare än att vänta på statligt stöd eller stora multinationella företag. Den sista fallstudien diskuterar småskalig spridning av solcellssystem i en avlägsen region i Thailand och representerar ett extremfall som behöver full finansiering från staten. I den femte artikeln har hindren för införandet av solcellssystem identifierats genom en systematisk litteraturöversikt, artikeln belyser också många kvarstående utmaningar. Den sista artikeln diskuterar frågor som rör övergången till, samt användandet av solcellssystem i områden som inte är anslutna till elnätet. Diffusionsprocessen för förnybar el har visat sig vara mycket komplicerad med flera oförutsedda och kontextspecifika faktorer. Teknik med överlägsna egenskaper kan inte spridas av sig självt utan kräver stora ansträngningar och nära samarbete mellan de inblandade aktörerna. Det är komplexa relationer, å ena sidan mellan teknik och samhälle och å andra sidan mellan teknikleverantörer och användare. Det finns inte en perfekt, snabb eller enkel åtgärd för att ta itu med den komplexa karaktären av diffusion av förnybar el på landsbygden. Därför är förståelsen för den lokala kontexten av stor betydelse och detta understryker behovet av empiriska studier. Denna avhandling bidrar med kunskap som täcker områden som metodologi, teori, empiri, ledarskap och politik. Studien visar även på relevanta implikationer för de aktörer som försöker införa, sprida och hantera ny energiteknik till landsbygden. / <p>QC 20150518</p>

This research investigates what rural villagers perceive as important and develops recommendations for improved electrification project implementation centring on user-perceived values (UPVs). UPVs capture more than the basic definition of value in the sense that they include benefits, concerns, feelings and underlying drivers that vary in importance and act as the main motivators in the lives of project beneficiaries as perceived at a given time. Low access to energy continues in rural sub-Saharan Africa despite significant investment by the development community. One fundamental reason is that energy infrastructure adoption remains low, as evidenced by the lack of project sustainability. To counter this, the challenge for energy project developers is to achieve sustainable long-term interventions through the creation of value for beneficiaries, rather than the traditional approach of focusing on short-term project outputs. The question of what is valuable to people in rural communities has historically not played into the design and diffusion of energy infrastructure development projects. This research drew on design and marketing approaches from the commercial sector to investigate the UPVs of rural Ugandans. To better understand the UPVs of rural villagers a new method, consisting of a UPV game and UPV framework, was developed. This method is suitable for capturing, understanding and mapping what rural populations perceive as important. Case study analyses were carried out in seven villages across rural Uganda. The case studies included the UPV game supplemented by non-energy-specific and energy-specific interviews with villagers. Additionally, interviews with experts were conducted to verify the UPV framework and to identify the gap between experts’ opinion and villagers’ perception of what is important. The research demonstrates the effectiveness of the UPV game in deducing the values of rural villagers. The findings demonstrate a disconnect in the ability to accurately capture and design projects which resonate with and respond to the UPVs of recipients of rural electrification projects. A comparison between the villagers’ statements and experts’ opinion regarding what is most valuable to rural communities reveals striking differences that point to a fundamental misunderstanding of rural community UPVs which are likely to be contributing to widespread electrification project failure.

The aim of this study is to investigate, analyse and evaluate the installed off-grid PV system in Mavuno girls’ secondary school that is located in a rural area in northwest Tanzania. The original motivation behind this study was the rapid degradation of the installed battery bank within less than 3 years. The PV system was installed before the actual operation of the school, so the study aimed to answer a very pressing question which is "What is the actual load profiles in the school?". There was a high need to identify the actual school load profiles to enable several concerned social actors to evaluate the system and to decide for future extensions. Therefore, the study aimed to analyse the implementation of electricity in the school by creating actual load profiles, analysing the system performance versus the users’ needs and evaluating the sustainability and utilization of implementation. The study followed a multi-disciplinary approach combining the social and technical aspects of PV systems implementation to seek further understanding of the users’ consumption behaviours. It thus included a 1-month of field work in June 2018 during which participant observations and semi-structured interviews together with load measurements were carried out so as to create load profiles that are considering the patterns and deviations in users’ behaviours. During the field work, 2/3 of the students were in holidays so the taken measurements corresponded to the school at 30 % capacity. That is why the study also included 4 days of inverter data logging after the 1-month field work by the technical head of the school to overcome the limitations in held measurements. The observations showed that the actual installed system was slightly different from the documentation. In addition, the local installation practices are not fully appropriate from the technical point of view, and are affected by local social norms, as will be discussed. Besides, the participant observations and held interviews with relevant social actors showed that the daily behaviours of energy users do not exactly follow the school daily routine. Consequently, the social study was important to create actual effective load profiles. The observations and responses from interviews together with measurements were used to categorize the school loads into 29 different units. Those units can be used for current load prioritizations and for future load extrapolations. The created load profiles also represent a useful addition to load databases used by energy researchers who work on similar rural electrification projects. After the field work, several characteristics were calculated by Microsoft Excel such as apparent power consumptions, active power consumptions, battery bank state of charge, load power factor and PV generated energy. The characteristics were used in calculations evaluating the energy balance in the system. The results of held calculations showed that lighting during dark hours accounted for on around 78 % of the logged daily apparent energy use, as it has a low a low average power factor of 0.28. It also showed that some loads if time-bounded, they will significantly decrease the daily energy consumption. The calculations were also used to run PVSyst simulations to evaluate the system sizing which resulted in the recommendation that either the array size should be doubled, or the apparent energy consumption should be decreased to half. The study included suggestions for possible improvements such as decreasing the reactive consumed energy by either replacing the currently used light bulbs with ones that have higher power factor ( ≥0.8 for example) or by installing a capacitive compensation for power factor correction. In addition, it was recommended to quantify the school loads according to their priority or importance and to regulate observed time-unbounded loads such as "pumping water" and "ironing". Lastly, the study discussed how generated electricity is utilized in the school and what opportunities for women empowerment have become potentially possible with the provision of electricity.

Este documento mostra uma interpretação do comportamento do consumo de energia elétrica baseada nos dados numéricos que foram coletados com o uso de contadores de Ah em 38 instalações fotovoltaicas domiciliares. A pesquisa envolveu igual número de famílias de 10 comunidades rurais com diferentes características sócioculturais localizadas nos Estados de São Paulo, Pernambuco e Amazonas, no Brasil, e adicionalmente na região Puno, no Peru. Também se discute diversas questões acerca do consumo de energia elétrica em sistemas fotovoltaicos domiciliares e sua relação com o desenvolvimento socioeconômico. O objetivo principal é propor um procedimento para dimensionar esses sistemas que inclua os múltiplos fatores que foram identificados e que exercem forte influência no comportamento do consumo. Estes foram denominados fatores técnicos, gerenciais, psicológicos, geográficos, demográficos, socioculturais e econômicos. O procedimento proposto leva em conta a constatação resultante da análise estatística dos dados por meio da qual a função de distribuição Gama é a que melhor caracteriza o comportamento desse consumo. Em sua essência, esta função indica que “muitas pessoas consomem pouco e poucas pessoas consomem muito”. / This document shows an interpretation of the behavior of the electric energy consumption based on the numerical data collected with the use of Ah meter in 38 solar home systems. The research involved an equal number of families of 10 rural communities with different sociocultural characteristics located in the Brazilian States of São Paulo, Pernambuco and Amazonas, and additionally in the Puno region, in Peru. It also raises several points concerning the electric energy consumption in SHS´s and its relationship with the socioeconomic development. The main objective is to suggest a procedure for the sizing of SHS´s that includes the several factors that were identified and that exert strong influence in the behavior of the consumption. These were called technical, administrative, psychological, geographical, demographical, sociocultural and economic factors. This procedure takes into account the evidence resultant of the statistic analysis of the data by means of which the Gamma distribution function is the one which better characterizes the behavior of this consumption. Essentially, this function indicates that “many people consume little and few people consume much”.

Social variables are a predominant force to community development in rural areas. However, research on how social aspects affect the energy situation as a community expands is to date limited. This study aims explore this void and investigate the following question: “What could be a feasible pathway to reach a sustainable and resilient future state in Micaya, based on the impact of key variables within three different sectors: education, health and production?” In this study, theories and models of rural electrification and scenario analysis are transposed and applied to community operated rural electrification in order to frame development. The investigation is restricted to focus on three social sectors, healthcare, education and production. Current literature confirmed that social aspects are missing in rural electrification programs.  Through interview and discussion with an established expert group important social variables have been identified in the study community. These variables lay the foundation for the scenario building used to define a desirable future in the case study community. It was found that the variables within the production sector are most influential to future developments in the study community.  The study revealed that energy access, especially access to electricity, is an essential condition for the development of rural communities. However, it does not guarantee an increase in productivity or effectiveness in social institutions in the absence of other development programs. The study also concludes that well-planned, carefully implemented rural electrification programs provide enormous benefits to rural people. Once an area has reached a certain level of development, further improvement of societal institutions depends on the availability of a secure and stable energy supply.

DC system and DC microgrids are gaining popularity in recent times. This thesis suggests a method to state the workability of a DC based PV system using the softwares Simulink, PVsyst and HOMER. The aims of this project include suggesting a DC based architecture, finding out the performance ratio and a cost analysis. The advantages of the DC based system, the cost benefits associated with it and its performance will determine its feasibility.   Not many softwares have the functionality to simulate DC based PV systems. PVsyst is considered as one of the most sought-out softwares for the simulation of PV systems. It can simulate a DC based PV system but has a lot of limitations when it comes to the architecture and voltage levels. Due to these factors, the results from softwares Simulink, Homer and PVsyst are used to calculate the performance ratio of the suggested DC system.    The simulation of the DC system involves modelling of a DC-DC converter. DC-DC converters are used in HVDC transmission and are being considered for small scale and medium scale microgrids. The DC-DC boost converter is coupled with a MPPT model in Simulink. P and O algorithm is chosen as the MPPT algorithm as it is simple and widely used. The Simulink model of PV array and MPPT based boost converter provides the power output at the needed voltage level of 350V. The input for the Simulink model is obtained from the results of HOMER. The inputs include solar irradiation data and cell temperature. The same input data is used for the simulations in HOMER and PVsyst. The performance ratio is obtained by combining the power output from Simulink with the other aspects of the system from PVsyst. The performance ratio is done only for the month of January due to the limitations in Simulink. The performance ratio is found out to be 65.5 %.   The cost estimation is done for the distribution and power electronics aspects of the system. It is found out that the cost associated with the conductors will have an impact on the total cost only if the conductors used for distribution is more in length. The cost associated with the power converters will make a difference in total cost only if the system is within the range of 100kW. The study shows the workability of the PV based DC system based on the above mentioned aspects

A research report submitted in partial partial compliance compliance with the requirements for the Master's Diploma in Technology: Electrical Engineering, M.L.Sultan Technikon, 1995. / The purpose of this study is to investigate the most cost effective way of electrifying rural areas in the Transkei concentrating in the district of Lady Frere. One Administrative Area (A.A) was used for research. Questionnaires were send to people of this area where a like rat format was followed. For the purpose of this study, 20 families were randomly selected for investigation. / M

Energy is an important input for various activities that provide impetus to economic, human and social development of any country. Among all the energy carriers, electricity is the most important and sought after energy carrier for its quality, versatility and ability to perform various technology driven end-use activities. Therefore access to electricity is considered as the single most important indicator determining the energy poverty levels prevailing in a country. Demand for electricity has increased significantly, especially in the developing countries, in recent years due to growth in population and intensification of economic activities. Therefore, providing quality and reliable electricity supply at low-cost has become one of the most pressing challenges facing the developing world. Although sufficient efforts have gone into addressing this issue, little progress has been made in finding a satisfactory solution in alleviating this problem. Currently, electricity supply is mostly dependent on centralized large-scale power generation. These centralized systems are strongly supply focused, fossil-fuel intensive, capital intensive, and rely on large-distance transmission and distribution systems. This results in electricity cost becoming unaffordable to the majority poor which comprises more than 70% of the total population in developing countries like India and the benefits of quality energy remaining with the rich, giving rise to inequitable distribution of energy. Continuous exploitation of fossil fuels has also contributed to local and global pollution. Therefore it is necessary to explore alternate means of providing energy access such that the energy carriers are clean, easy to use, environmentally benign and affordable to the majority of the rural poor. India is at a critical juncture of passing through the path of development. India is also in a unique position that its vast majority of rural population is energy poor which is disconnected from the electricity grid. In this context, the proposed research is an attempt towards developing a greater understanding on the issue of rural energy access and providing a possible solution for addressing this gap. This has been proposed to be achieved by adopting a decentralized energy planning approach and distributed energy systems mostly based on renewable energy sources. This is expected to reduce dependence on imported energy, promote self-reliance, provide economically viable energy services for rural applications and be environmentally safe. The focus is limited to biomass energy route which has many advantages; it is a geographically equitably distributed resource, geographical advantage of having potential to setup energy systems at any location where vegetation is present and not seasonal like other renewable energy technologies. A mathematical model-based approach is developed to assess the feasibility of such a proposal. Models are developed for performing biomass resource assessment, estimating end-use-wise hourly demand for electricity, performing capacity and location planning and assessing economic feasibility. This methodological framework was validated through a case study developed for the district of Tumkur in the state of Karnataka (a state in southern region of India). The literature survey was conducted exhaustively covering the whole span of supplyside and demand-side management of electricity systems, and grid-connected and stand-alone power generation systems, their technical, economic and environmental feasibilities. Literature pertinent to GIS applications in biomass assessment, facility location planning and scheduling models were also reviewed to discern how optimal capacity, location and economic dispatch strategy was formulated. Through the literature survey it was understood that there were very few attempts to integrate both demand-side management and supply-side management aspects in the rural energy context. GIS based mathematical models were sparsely used in rural energy planning and decision making. The current research is an attempt to bridge these gaps. The focus in this study is on effectively utilizing the locally available biomass resource. Assessment of Biomass Potential for Power Generation As a first step, the supply option was studied at village level by overlaying LULC (land use land cover) and village boundary GIS maps of Tumkur district. The result was fortified by the NDVI results from remote sensing images of land use pattern in Tumkur district. A detailed village-level assessment of wasteland potential was made for the entire district. The result showed which shows that in Tumkur district, roughly 17.3% of total geographical land was under exploitable wasteland. Using secondary data and literature, biomass potential indices were prepared for different wasteland types to determine the total biomass potential for power generation. The results based on the GIS data the assessment shows that Tumkur has roughly 17.3% of exploitable wasteland. A complete village-level annual power generation potential was assessed considering both energy plantations from wasteland, existing degraded forests and crop residues. Assessment of end-use-wise hourly Demand for Electricity at Village Level Household survey was conducted for 170 sample households randomly chosen from 15 villages, again randomly selected to represent different socio-economic categories. Using statistical tools like k-means clustering, one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD test, first the households were classified into three economic categories to study the distribution of the households in each sample village. Later based on the number of households of each type in a village, the villages were further classified into five groups based on their socio-economic status. This was done to select the right representative per-household power demand for a village of any particular socioeconomic category. The representative per household power demand in each economic category along with secondary data helped in deriving the electricity daily load profiles for all the villages. Representative demand profiles were generated for different seasons across different sectors namely domestic, agriculture and industry sectors at the end-use level comprising of activities like home lighting, appliances, irrigation pump sets operation and small industry operations. Mathematical Modeling for Optimal Siting of Biomass Energy Systems Since the power has to be generated through biomass route, biomass may have to be transported over a large geographical area which requires efficient design of logistic systems. Apart from that, a major component of cost of biomass power is the cost of transportation of biomass from source to the power plant. Therefore it is important to determine the optimal siting of biomass energy systems to minimize the cost of transportation. Since these optimal locations are based on minimizing Euclidian distance, installing the power generation systems at these locations would also minimize total cost of local transmission and distribution. In order to locate the biomass energy system, K-medoid clustering algorithm was used to determine the optimal number of clusters of villages to minimize the Euclidean distance between the medoid of the cluster and the villages within the cluster, and minimize the total installed capacity to meet the cluster demand. The clustering algorithm was modified in such a way that the total capital cost of the power generation system installation was minimized. Since the total project cost not only depended on capital cost alone, but also on biomass transportation and power transmission costs, these costs were also included in the analysis. It was proposed to locate the energy systems at the medoids of the clusters. Optimal Capacity Planning Installing biomass power systems requires large investments. It is therefore necessary to reduce the peak demand to bring down the installed capacity required. This was achieved by developing heuristics to arrive at an optimal scheduling scheme of the end-use activities that would minimize the peak demand. The heuristics procedure was demonstrated on five representative villages, each from different economic category. The optimal demand profile was used as input in HOMER micro-energy system simulation software to perform a techno-economic analysis. The simulation facilitated a thorough economic feasibility study of the system. This included a complete analysis of the cash inflows and outflows, capital cost of the system, operation and maintenance cost, cost of fuel and estimation of total GHG emissions. There are many limitations in planning at village-scale. The results indicated that capacity planning done at the village level was prone to over-estimation of installed capacity of the system increasing the investment requirement, under utilization of the capacity and suffered from supply scarcity of biomass. This emphasized the need for looking at a bigger conglomerate of villages in other words cluster of villages. In the next step, the optimal capacity planning was performed for one of the clusters formed using the K-medoid clustering algorithm with the power generation system located at the medoid. For demonstrating the practical feasibility of extending the methodology to cluster level, a cluster with maximum number of villages was chosen from the optimal cluster set in the k-medoid algorithm output. The planning was conducted according to the socioconomic category of the villages in the cluster. Economic implications of Stand-alone (SA) vs Grid-connected (GC) Mode of Operation Other important question that was answered in this analysis was a comparison of GC systems with SA systems. Since extension of grid to a village that is not electrified involved drawing high voltage transmission lines from the nearest grid point, installation of distribution transformers and low transmission lines within the village for distribution. Since these involve high costs it was necessary to study whether or not it is feasible to extend the grid or install a stand-alone system. This question was answered by the breakeven distance for which grid extension becomes more economical than a SA system. For each village breakeven distance varied with the total installed capacity and the operational costs. This helped to compare the GC systems vis-à-vis SA systems from the point of view of economic feasibility. Summary It is necessary that planning and strategies be rational and reasonable for effectively assuaging the rural electrification imbroglio. The current study has highlighted the importance of integrating both demand-side-management and supply-sidemanagement of energy systems in the context of planning for power generation and distribution in rural areas. The key findings in the current study are: • The study showed the feasibility of biomass power systems in meeting the rural electricity needs. • Biomass assessment results showed that, if the power demand could be brought down by replacing the existing appliances with efficient ones (ex. compact fluorescent lamps and improved irrigation pump set valves), Tumkur district has enough biomass potential to meet both the current as well as increased future demands for electricity. • The optimal number of clusters minimizing total capital cost of biomass energy systems, transportation cost of biomass and distribution cost of power, was 96 for Tumkur district. For Kunigal block, the optimal number of clusters was 37 and 32 for supply and demand scenarios 1(BAU -Business As Usual) and 2 (with 10% increase in cropland and 20% increase in demand). • The optimal capacity planning emphasized the importance of clustering of villages for minimizing the total installed capacity. The result also showed that the breakeven distance was the determining factor about the choice of GC vs SA systems. The main contributions of this thesis are: i. Hourly demand pattern was studied to estimate the aggregate demand for electricity at village level for different sectors across various seasons. ii. Village-wise biomass resources potential for power generation was assessed iii. Optimal locations for siting biomass energy systems were identified using k-medoid clustering algorithm iv. An optimal scheduling of end-use activities was planned using heuristics method to minimize the installed capacity v. Optimal location, scheduling plan of end-use activities and optimal capacity were determined for individual villages as well as village clusters vi. The economic implications of grid extension vis-à-vis stand-alone mode of operation of the installed biomass energy systems were studied The generalized, multipronged approach presented in this thesis to effectively integrate both demand-side management and supply-side management in rural energy planning can be implemented for any rural region irrespective of the location. The results emphasized that for efficient demand-side and supply-side management, it is important to plan for clusters of villages than at the individual village level. The results reported in this thesis will help the policy and strategy makers, and governments to achieve rural electrification to a satisfactory extent to ensure continuous, uninterrupted and reliable power supply by determining the clustering strategy, optimal cluster size, optimal scale and siting of decentralized biomass power generation systems.

Oliver Tambo Institute of Governance and Policy Studies. / MPM

The Energising Development (EnDev) initiative, for which the GIZ acts as implementing agency, promotes the supply of modern energy technologies to households and small‐scale businesses in the rural communities of 24 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. In Indonesia, this has been achieved through off‐grid micro‐hydro (MHP) and solar power mini‐grids and since 2006 230 MHP and 117 solar projects have been supported to varying degree at substantial cost, reaching more than 167 thousand people. The objective of this study is to assess this contribution of the EnDev-Indonesia initiative regarding the MHP performance and ultimate long‐term sustainability prospect of the rural energy infrastructure in the country. As such a comparison between EnDev and non-EnDev MHP projects in the country was undertaken and based on the established Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) survey methodology and the DB&amp;TO sustainability model specifically fashioned for the purpose of this study. This approach involved on‐site visits and comprises technical, social, economic and environmental aspects. As a result, the analysis has shown important differences among the different supporting schemes, with the second implementing phase (2009‐2012) of EnDev outranking the other systems largely due to the high level of technical sustainability achieved by these sites. Such a good performance is even more surprising considering that the EnDev1 sites implemented during the first phase of the program in the early years were among the least‐sustainable investigated in this study. However, despite the high costs necessary to reach such a high level of sustainability as regards the quality of the civil works and electro‐mechanical equipments, this aspect alone was found not enough to guarantee the long‐term sustainability of MHP in Indonesia. On the other hand, lack of social and economic sustainability appeared having fatal consequences onthe operations of many plants. Therefore, such complex interrelation among the different aspects of sustainability was investigated and also external factors, like the regional and cultural differences among the different beneficiaries, were addressed. Finally, recommendations for future eventual courses of action were proposed.