Ubu Oleta, West Sumba

Published by Dedyaja on October 31, 2021

JOIN US TO BRING CLEAN ENERGY SOLUTIONS TO TRADITIONAL VILLAGE OF UBU OLETA IN WEST SUMBA, SUMBA ISLAND, INDONESIA

While the Indonesian grid continues to expand toward off-grid communities, Sumba kept its unique challenge of scattered communities living between valleys and rolling hills, making the national grid expansion financially expensive. These communities live in a typical compound called Kampung Adat, which retains its charm of the traditional vernacular houses, megalithic tombs, natured dyed weaving known as Ikat, and beautiful savannahs. Unfortunately, these hamlets are still difficult to access and vulnerable to fire hazards due to the use of kerosene lamps for lighting and burning firewood. This demonstration project aims to provide the local community and government with sustainable PV management learning. In doing this, we are working together with locally trained technicians in Sumba for procurement, installation, and Operation and Maintenances (O&M) to ensure optimum system lifetime and proper waste management.

Check out the village video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lqOZl63uf8

Where is the project location?

Ubu Oleta is a small hamlet consisting of less than 40 families living near the edge of a beautiful cliff looking out to the ocean. Located 50 km away from the district’s capital of West Sumba. The majority of people here rely on the cultivation of agricultural products and herding. Despite being a small closed related hamlet, traditionally this humble hamlet has a significant role in the customary system in this region as the gatekeeper to some important customary festive such as Pasola, an ancient war ritual showcasing Sumbanese men riding colourful decorated selected horses fling wooden spears at each other. This cultural richness has a huge potential to contribute to building a strong tourism sector and source of the economy if managed well. Google coordinates for the village -9.740833, 119.238333

Picture of the hamlet. Each of these houses is home to 2-3 families

Access to energy

This hamlet has located ±10 km from the national grid, and due to a small number of houses, it is less likely to be connected to the grid in the near future. Currently, families here spend more than AUD$3 every month for kerosene to light their lanterns; while cooking is mainly relying on firewood. Women and young girls are responsible to collect wood and ensure the lights are on in the house. Another big expense apart from energy is clean water. Currently, their options are either to fetch water from small natural spring water located not too far from the village or to buy water for AUD$ 150 per 5,000 litres.

Technology and business model

We propose a microgrid DC system that can connect up to 3 houses clustered together. With the current setting of the village Ubu Oleta, we will need at least three systems like this. However, this pilot project will seek funding to start with one system and extend it as the awareness of clean energy increases. A PAYGO system will be offered to the remaining houses. Each house in this pilot will have 3 lights as a basic package and a fan or television as a premium package. Installation and O&M will be done by local technicians. The community will have to pay a basic O&M service of AUD$2,5 monthly/house.

About Solutions for Renewable Energy Group Offgrid (SREG)

SREG is established by three Australian Alumni

Dedy Haning, Director of PT RAKARU
Erna Megawati Manna, working with local government (Regional Planning, Research and Development Board of Southwest Sumba) will responsible for training operation to the local community and engage local government to introduce them to the overall concept and technology, including engaging tourism board
Gus Firman, working with Hivos, an international non-goverment organization working in Sumba Iconic Island project will contribute to monitoring and evaluations, and gender mainstreaming training to the community.

The team members are the recipient scholarship for Renewable Energy Technologies in Eastern Indonesia 2019, brought by Australia Awards Indonesia and Murdoch University