Afghanistan: Concern promotes micro-hydro power as a means of electricity provision in the north of the country

Until now, many villages in northern Afghanistan have had no dependable electricity. This is beginning to change – Concern is helping to bring electricity to the area through the use of micro-hydro power.
The project has had a huge impact on people’s lives. Electricity has brought improvements in health, education, agriculture and security.
The following appears on the Concern Blog

On a recent trip to Afghanistan, Concern engineer Daire O'Broin was impressed by the ingenuity of the local people in providing electricity to rural and isolated communities. This article appeared in the March edition of The Engineers Journal, a publication of The Institution of Engineers of Ireland.....plays a pivotal role in making sure that in all 28 countries around the world where Concern is working have a reliable and safe electricity supply.

Ingenious solutions:

He has recently returned from Afghanistan where he has been profoundly moved by the genius of the local people in providing electricity to rural and isolated communities.
Daire explains that in the Afghan capital, where Concern has an office, there is utility or city power, which is supplied through large utility generators. But in the north in the city of Taloqan, where Concern has its hub office for eight sub offices and team houses, there is no "town electricity". Indeed, right across the north of Afghanistan there is no utility electricity. So it is a matter of people generating their own electricity supply.

Unique approach:

He continued: “What I have seen of how people are generating their own electricity has to be unique in the world. Power is generated and supplied from small water powered turbo-generators called MicroHydro generators.
“These consist of a water supply canal, fed into a turbine which are all of the impulse or paddle type, ranging from turbines that look like old water wheels to more compact enclosed paddle types. These machines may be horizontal or vertically mounted with load controlled by diverting water away from the paddles or at the entry.”
Daire noted: “They build the machines themselves. Yes, they are rudimentary but tough. There are dozens of these MicroHydro stations dotted around the north of the country. Many of these schemes are currently fund-aided by US Aid via the National Security Programme (NSP). Concern act as administrators of this fund and have assisted with the design of many of these machines.
“The Afghans are great with irrigation. One of the things that is in abundance in the country is water, mountain water, and they manage to divert this water into the hydro turbines to generate electricity.
“They make the turbines themselves in local workshops and the generators are generally of Chinese origin. Much of the cable used in the distribution system comes from Iran. The output is generally between 20 and 100kws and there is no frequency or voltage control. The power is generally utilised in low power equipment such as lighting, TVs and telephone systems. This MicroHydro power supplies groups from small communities up to entire villages. Power is distributed via pole mounted village distribution networks with little protection installed against accidental occurrences.”
Daire explains: “Because of the voltage loss in low voltage systems such as these, the maximum distance from any of the supply source to its destination is always short. It really has opened my eyes and it is so ingenious. I have never seen the likes of it before."

Turning tanks into turbines:

In one installation he has seen bits and pieces from an old Russian tanks, which were utilised to couple the turbine and generator, including the gearing: “They used a wheel from an old cereal grinding mill coupled via gearboxes and shafts from a tracked tank. The same technology used 2,000 years ago to grind corn is being used today to generate electricity......