ACCIONA brings electricity to 15,000 people in Peru with a new model of self-sufficient energy supply

ACCIONA Chairman & CEO José  Manuel Entrecanales inaugurated yesterday in Cajamarca "Luz en Casa", a programme of implantation of domestic solar PV Systems based on a self-financing model.

ACCIONA Chairman & CEO José Manuel Entrecanales inaugurated yesterday in Cajamarca (Peru) the "Luz en Casa" (Electricity in the Home) programme developed by the Fundación ACCIONA Microenergía (ACCIONA Microenergy Foundation) through Perú Microenergía. The aim is to benefit 3,500 underprivileged families (around 15,000 people), initially, in the Cajamarca region, in northern Peru.

The Luz en Casa programme sets out to deliver an electricity supply using domestic solar PV systems. The systems are provided using a social micro-enterprise non-profit formula, ensuring sustainability and extending further the supply.

The Chairman of ACCIONA was accompanied by regional and local authorities, visiting several homes where electricity is already provided thanks to this initiative. José Manuel Entrecanales stressed the importance of counting on renewable energy as a source of electricity supply and the need to look into formulas that contribute to making them more accessible and turn them into a lever for development.

The "Luz en Casa" programme

The "Luz en Casa" programme aims at providing access to basic electric services of lighting and communication (radio and TV) by installing Domestic Photovoltaic Systems (DPS) comprising a solar panel, three lamps and a sealed battery. The system powers low-consumption electrical appliances in each home, using a model of payment for sustainable and low-cost service.

Perú Microenergía is a non-profit social enterprise which was set up formally in Peru in January 2009. Its objective is to deliver electrical energy via DPS to isolated rural areas not covered by the national grid using a model of payment for sustainable and low-cost service.

After installing ten DPS as demos for the local population, last August a further 600 ACCIONA-financed systems were installed, and there are plans to install more in the coming months. ACCIONA has presented a proposal for 1,000 systems which is currently being considered by Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines, as part of a tender for rural electrification co-financed by the World Bank.

A self-sufficient model

Under the legal formula of a non-profit association, ACCIONA provides the user with the service and receives in turn a fixed payment - currently set at 15 soles (approximately 3.77 euros) - with the commitment to lower it when the payment enters the Fondo de Compensación Social Eléctrica (Electricity Social Compensation Fund). The payment received will then be reinvested in the maintenance, repair and replacement of components, guaranteeing the systems' sustainability over time. In other words, the project guarantees the correct working order of the PV systems and replaces any necessary components across the entire useful life of the equipment.

Peru is the country with the second-worst coverage of electricity in Latin America, and Cajamarca is the region with the lowest rate of electrification in Peru. Less than 20% of the region's rural population (85% of the total population) has access to electricity services. Less than half (45%) of Cajamarca's population lives in extreme poverty, according to  Peru's Fondo Nacional de Cooperación para el Desarrollo (National Fund for Cooperation and Development) and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática  (National Institute of Statistics and Information Technologies). Peru's National Master Plan for Rural Electrification with Renewable Energies identifies the need for electrification using renewables in the case of 361,847 homes countrywide, roughly 90,000 of which are located in Cajamarca.