Sigora connects 3 420 households to 24/7 renewable electricity in northern Haiti thanks to ElectriFI support

At the end of 2016, Sigora raised USD 2.5 million from ElectriFI, the first international investor into Sigora. This was critical in attracting additional long-term strategic investments. Current leverage on ElectriFI investment is nearly three times the initial investment.

Since then, the clean-energy micro-utility has expanded its deployment in the Northern province of the country with two mini-grids in the municipalities of Môle-Saint-Nicolas and Jean Rabel, with 200 kW of solar PV array, multiplying by five the number of households with access to electricity. Today, Sigora customers are in the small minority of people with access to 24/7 electricity in a country where three-quarters of the population have no power, and where those that do have to cope with intermittent access of between five and nine hours a day.

The micro-utility plans to continue its deployment in the Northern province by adding another mini-grid in the municipality of Bombardopolis, interconnecting its mini-grids, and by connecting close to 10 000 active accounts by the end of the year.

Sigora leverages additional financing in smart grid technology, pre-paid electricity, and renewable generation to tackle the near-universal challenges facing frontier market utilities: a combination of poor revenue collection owing to bill-collection rates well below 100 %; energy theft; and unsustainable operational expenditure owing to outdated and labour intensive practices.

In Haiti, smart electric meters make operations more efficient and effective, allowing the micro-utility to remotely monitor and control grid performance, identify and deter theft, and collect consumer payments electronically, thereby overcoming the traditional challenges of keeping micro-grids working reliably and profitably. A pay-as-you-go model sidesteps revenue-collection issues related to non-payment and allows customers to purchase electricity that is directly in line with their consumption, meaning that even the smallest customer can afford to be connected and replace dirty, expensive and dangerous alternatives like candles and kerosene with readily available, 24/7 productive power.

The outcome of such an approach is a commercially sustainable business that has not only brought electricity into the communities it serves, but also jobs, skills and economic opportunities.

Sigora is a winner of the '2017 Microsoft Affordable Access Initiative' and the winner of the '2017 Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum (CREF) Best Micro-Grid'.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ0ZUvjvEFU

Photo credit: Sigora Haiti 2018