GOOD WORKS
use in each home and diverts excess power to water tanks, which are actually just simple rice cookers. Babak Roodsari, a former U of C PhD student in electrical engineering, developed the high-tech DELC prototype in the school’s power electronics lab, using digital microprocessor technology. Meanwhile, Dr. Wood and Ram Chandra Adhikari, a U of C PhD student in mechanical engineering who hails from Nepal, visited the country to scout out potential villages to collaborate with. They
spent a week trekking to a dozen remote villages, consulting with the locals and inspecting hydro installations. Dr. Wood is no stranger to Nepal, having worked there regular- ly over the past 14 years on wind energy projects. He reached out to his contacts at the Kathmandu Alternative Power and Energy Group (KAPEG), an organization focused on bringing renewable energy to rural Nepal, and the group agreed to coordinate logistics. “They were essential to provide the link between what we thought we could offer, and what was actually needed and required on the ground,” says Dr. Wood, NSERC/ENMAX Professor of Re- newable Energy in Schulich’s Department of Mechanical Engineer- ing. KAPEG also came up with an innovative idea: Why not use wa- ter tanks not only for drinking and cleaning but also for cooking rice and soup? As a result, each of the 50 homes was provided three cookers, one each for hot water, rice, and soup. This aspect of the project — using hydro power to enable villagers to pasteurize water and cook — is something that hasn’t been done elsewhere. A KAPEG engineer refined the DELC prototype, converting it to analogue technology and reducing the cost per unit to just $20 from $220. “At first we thought we could build maybe five controllers, but KAPEG ended up building 50 units using a simpler technology,” says Dr. Nowicki. “They took ownership and made their own version. We were very happy about that.” Dr. Nowicki and Mr. Roodsari tested the prototypes on a few homes near Kathmandu in the spring of 2014. By December that year, the project was mostly complete, including the latrines, green- houses, and DELC installation. Latrines and greenhouses may not be the kind of international development projects you expect Professional Engineers to work on, but these ones certainly benefited from the holistic approach taken by Dr. Nowicki and Dr. Wood. They looked at the work as a chance to improve villagers’ overall living, health, and hygiene standards. “Let’s not just build one project and ignore the rest. You have to work together with the community in order to have some suc- cessful impact,” notes Dr. Wood. Indeed, community collaboration was essential to the whole project’s success. “We needed to have the local people as equal partners from the beginning to the middle, and continuing into the future. We want them to own the project,” says Dr. Nowicki. To ensure the long-term viability of the project, each household that received a controller pays a monthly fee — about $2 — which goes into a village account. The money is used to pay for the system’s ongoing operation, maintenance, and repair. The project could have economic spinoffs. For example, excess food produced in the 36 greenhouses could be sold. Excess hydro power could be used to power woodworking tools or sewing ma- chines to develop local industries.
COOKING UP SOMETHING GRAND An adjusted version prototype of the Distributed Electronic Load Controller operates in 50 Nepalese homes to measure electrical use and divert excess power to water tanks. The tanks are actually
converted rice cookers for water pasteurization and cooking. -photo courtesy Dr. Ed Nowicki, P.Eng., FEC, FGC (Hon.)
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