A Case Example - Utility-in-a-Box: India’s Next Generation Mini-grid
The Single Largest Electrification Event in History

Join us to learn how an innovative technology and a creative partnership among philanthropists, technology experts, and the private sector are bringing clean, reliable, and affordable power to 20 million of India’s poorest rural households.

Featured Speaker:

Shashi Buluswar is the CEO of the Institute for Transformative Technologies and author of the groundbreaking study to identify the “The 50 most critical scientific and technological breakthroughs required for sustainable global development”

Although India has made great strides in electrification infrastructure and connectivity, many rural areas remain either unserved or under-served. The mini-grid project, which lays the foundation for India’s smart grid of the future, combines the talents of ITT, Tata Power, India’s largest power generation company, the New York-based Rockefeller Foundation, and Smart Power India, a Rockefeller Foundation program.

One of the key objectives of the electrification project, in addition to improving health conditions and quality of life – particularly for women, who benefit most from the introduction of clean and reliable lighting – is an economic stimulus. Clean, affordable, and reliable electricity is a key catalyst for small businesses, particularly in rural areas with limited formal employment opportunities. The same is true for the growth of micro-economies that often emerge from the ground up.

Buluswar will showcase how ITT’s new model of technology development and deployment can be duplicated across geographies. This model, which fuses rigorous science and engineering to produce technology innovations, is notable for its related objective -- developing attractive business propositions for emerging market companies. Such established, private sector companies are typically wellpositioned to combine profitable enterprise with solutions to social problems at a large scale.

The project’s modular, Utility-in-a-Box combines hybrid solar, battery storage, and diesel/biomass. It is delivered pre-assembled to the site with an installation time of less than one week and is nearly 50% cheaper than the next-best market alternative. Phase 1 will target more than 10,000 villages across five of the most underserved states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkand, Assam, and Odisha.