Health Facility Solar Electrification (HFSE) Programs in India: Documentation of Best Practices and Learnings
SELCO Foundation is an open-source, not-for-profit organization that engages in field-based R&D and ecosystem building for the deployment of clean energy solutions that alleviate poverty in tribal, rural, and urban poor areas. The organization works closely with practitioners in the social sector, energy entrepreneurs, and partners from various developmental sectors.
In India, as of March 2021, 12% of health facilities functioned without electricity supply. Among the rest, many faced unreliable electricity with frequent power cuts. Reliable energy is required for effective delivery of health services and optimum functioning of health facilities. It has been seen that on an average, health facilities that have reliable supply of electricity (through solar energy) provided treatments to 50% more patients, and also had increased institutional deliveries.
To meet the energy needs of health facilities, public (governmental) and private efforts have been made to solar power health facilities in more than 15 states across India. SELCO Foundation has solar powered over 1,300 healthcare facilities through the Healthcare Scaling program. Furthermore, by 2030, SELCO Foundation intends to solarize 25,000 health facilities.
Given that different stakeholders have participated in solar powering health facilities across the country, it is essential to capture the best practices of all similar programs. SELCO Foundation aims to study and document the learning and best practices from Health Facility Solar Electrification programs undertaken in India until 2021.This will inform program designs and help in developing a guidance document for the healthcare sector to provide reliable energy in all facilities.
The broad goal of the study is to document the best practices and learning in Health Facility Solar Electrification (HFSE) program by government and non-government agency in India.
SF is targeting to solarize 25,000 health facilities by 2030. Additionally, SF is also looking to scale a lot of its health work across Africa through Global SDG 7 Hubs. This study would help in learning and improving the quality of implementation by looking into the gaps in designing for scale, in terms of capacity building, financials, ownership, and services & maintenance, and other ecosystem components, which can then inform programs to appropriately scale the health operations in terms of cost and operations.
The study is designed as a qualitative program and solution design study to understand learnings from deployment of solar for public health facilities across various governmental and non-governmental agencies.
The aims of this study are multi-fold and have been elaborated below:
Needs at the Health Centre vs Systems Installed -With aim to gauge whether systems are over/under or appropriately designed
Methodology: Interview with main Program PoC from Energy or Health Department
Quality of Installations -With respect to the product quality of various components, current status of components and any other supporting design challenges or successes
Methodology:Visiting health centres- Methodology for selection to be determined as per the state progra
Capacity and Awareness of Health Centre Staff -With respect to awareness regarding the system, utilisation of the system, maintenance of the system, knowledge on impacts of the system as well as any unmet needs expressed.
Methodology: Visiting health centres- interviewing health centre in charge, and anyone else assigned for maintenance of the energy system installed
Collect any paperwork that the health facility incharge may have for the health facility
Servicing and Maintenance -With respect to the services offered by implementing agencies or solar energy enterprises involved as well as the accessibility of such services at the Health Facility Level.
Methodology: Interview with the deployment agency. Methodology to be determined after documentation of the servicing and maintenance mechanism
Collect any paperwork on maintenance and servicing visits by the service provider, or any service contracts signed locally.
Financial Flow and Ownership Models -With respect to the details capital and operating expenditures incurred, processes and models employed, agencies involved in the financial flow as well as, the success and challenges of chosen models.
Methodology: Interview with the key decision makers in the program, as well as health facility manager and district health officer
Collect any paperwork on financial allocations.
An initial desk research points to the following States to be considered for the study: Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Goa, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Manipur, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh Gujarat, Assam, Nagaland, Odisha, Bihar, and West Bengal.
3-4 States are to be selected on the basis of the kind of programs that have been implemented in order to select varying model typologies:
The key deliverables for the Study are as proposed:
SELCO Foundation will own the Copyright of this study. This will include data, photographs, reports, and any other material created and collected as per the mandate of this study. IPR of the study will also be with SELCO Foundation. All the information received for the duration of this assignment from the SELCO foundation has to be treated with confidentiality and must not be shared without prior written permission.
| SNo | Activity | M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Initial research and consultations in all 11 states | ||||||
| 2 | Selection Criteria and Study Design | ||||||
| 3 | Permissions and Study Tool Validation | ||||||
| 4 | Primary Study in 3-4 States | ||||||
| 5 | Data analysis and Draft Report | ||||||
| 6 | Review and Final Report |
The agency should have a qualified, skilled, and experienced team to carry out various activities as mentioned above:
The proposal needs to include CVs of key personnel, organizational credentials, data collection capabilities in specified geographies, and detailed costing. Please include a Gantt chart showing timelines and dependencies as well. The proposal should include the following elements: