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Abstract:
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"A field-based study of Thailand's 20 year experience with community micro-hydroelectric systems provides insight into the forces that work against community-managed, appropriate technology rural infrastructure. The low long-term costs of these systems, built collaboratively by villagers and the Thai government, suggest that micro-hydroelectricity is a superior rural electrification choice for many Thai communities. Yet 69,942 villages are served by grid electrification, while only 59 microhydro electric installations were ever built. Of these, only 25 remain in operation. This research seeks to understand why so few were built, and why so few remaining operating. Research findings based on interviews, archival records, and computer data logging suggests several complementary conclusions: First, community micro-hydro is plagued by a variety of (largely resolvable) technical problems, the most significant of these being endemic brownouts and frequent generator failures. Second, these problems are exacerbated by user behavior in which over-consumption by individual households leads to critical shortages for the community as a whole. Third, challenges observed in the field the must be understood in the broader context of the political economy of Thai electrification in which community micro-hydroelectricity has been marginalized as an electrification option in favor of national grid expansion. This marginalization has roots in key cold-war era decisions that limited possibilities for decentralized renewable energy and cooperative ownership of electricity infrastructure, while reinforcing the dominance of the state-owned rural electrification utility and the grid extension approach. The ensuing chain of historical consequences has severely curtailed resources and incentives to address technical and user-behavior challenges. Finally, recently adopted net metering policies provide a promising vehicle for increasing the chances that rural communities continue to benefit from these systems."
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