Bhutan: Rural Renewable Energy Development Project

Energy / Electricity transmission and distribution - Renewable energy generation - biomass and waste - Renewable energy generation - solar - Renewable energy generation - wind

In Bhutan, domestic demand for electricity has been growing by 17% per year on average over these 5 years. This demand growth is expected to escalate in the long run due to the increase in the number of new customers connecting as ongoing rural electrification is completed. Experiences with rural electrification indicate that overall electricity consumption will increase as rural economies develop and households increasingly rely on electricity and acquire new appliances. Bhutan has already experienced power shortages, particularly in the dry winter periods when hydropower generation is reduced due to low river flows. Despite the nation's annual net power surplus, Bhutan's power generation from run-of-the-river hydropower plants is very seasonal, as the water flows and levels are difficult to control in the dry season. Consequently, the existing generation systems have been unable to meet the recent fast-growing demand during the dry winter peak periods. In the last two winters, the BPC has been forced to limit power supply to industry, resulting in economic and revenue losses. In the 2010 winter, it is estimated that the power generation shortfall against the growing demand will be around 25 MW, which will have significant impacts on industry's production. The Druk Green Power Corporation (a state-owned generation company) also reported that levels of water flow in rivers had been declining in the past 2 years due to changes of monsoon patterns, leading to less hydropower production. Increased power imports from India would not be feasible due to more severe power deficits on the Indian side.

To improve national energy security, the DOE intends to issue the Renewable Energy Policy that aims to promote alternative renewable energy sources other than large hydropower, and diversify the energy supply base through wind, solar, biomass, and small and micro hydropower. Based on wind mapping data and subsequent surveys, the pilot wind power mills are designed to support this objective. Since wider rural electrification coverage is expected to make the domestic demand supply balance even tighter, additional alternative energy sources will need to be developed to meet the country's demand without reducing exports of surplus power and its revenue-earning opportunity. It will be an option to export additional power from renewable energy to neighboring countries if there is surplus power in the future.

- Expanded coverage ratio up to 99.9% by both on-grid connection and off-grid electrification.

- Expanded mix of clean energy supply by completion of wind power plants, construction of more biogas plants than the target, and installation and rehabilitation of solar systems.

- Village Electrical Entrepreneur and Electrical Technicians (VEEETs) has been engaged and are working for O&M.

On-grid rural electrification sourced from hydropower, and its related skill training and livelihood improvement activities

Off-grid rural electrification sourced from solar power, and its related skill training and livelihood improvement activities

Wind power generation plants

Domestic biogas plants

[On-grid] 5,891 households(HH) were already electrified against the targeted 5,075 HH.

[Off-grid] (a) For the installation and rehabilitation, BPC and DRE agreed to engage a consultant to update the exact number & location of HH which require the solar home systems since some of the HH are already extended grid connection.

1,121 new solar home lighting systems have been installed as of April 2017, and 1,675 sets of old solar home systems were rehabilitated.

(b) Training, livelihood improvement and disbtirubtion of manuals are ongoing.

[Wind power] Construction of wind power plants in Wangdue was successfully completed in Jan 2016.

[Biogas] 4,965 biogas plants have been constructed as of December 2017, against the targeted 4,600 plants. These were well-recognized by users and public awareness has been well-developed. 10,500 have attended the awareness building workshops; 2,745 have attended O&M training, and 817 attended construction training.