Introduction to Husk Power Systems 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

HPS Quick Facts History and Mission of HPS Organizational Structure of HPS Husk Power Technology The Daily Life of a Plant HPS Business Processes Revenue and Costs The management of HPS plants a. Training Process b. Installation Process c. Accounting Process d. Operational Metrics HPS and its Partners

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CONTENTS
History and Mission of Husk Power Systems ............................................................................................................. 2 The Husk Power Plant Ecosystem ............................................................................................................................. 2 Organizational Structure of HPS ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Basics of HPS Technology .................................................................................................................................................. 4 The Daily Life of a Plant...................................................................................................................................................... 5 Operational Metrics ............................................................................................................................................................. 6

HISTORY AND MISSION OF HUSK POWER SYSTEMS

Husk Power Systems(HPS) was founded by four entrepreneurs Gyanesh Pandey, Ratnesh Yadav, Manoj Sinha and Charles Ransler. The first plant was established as an experiment on August 15, 2007 in Tamkuha village in West Champaran district of Bihar. The plant lighted up the village for the first time in its history. On the 60th anniversary of Indian independence, we in Tamkuha have finally become free exclaimed an excited village headmaster. HPS has since been pursuing its mission of freeing millions from darkness with revolutionary zeal. After 2 years of experimenting and establishing the viability of the first plant, HPS installed 50 more in 2009 and 2010. More than 100 villages in Bihar were now powered by electricity from rice husk and this employed 250 local semi-skilled workers. In its 3-year journey, HPS developed a lot of technical and process innovations and nurtured a solid base of technical and managerial talent. The mission of HPS is to wow the world by establishing 2014 plants by 2014. The plants will provide power to empower more than 5000 villages and brighten the lives of 10 million people. It will provide employment to more than 6000 people. HPS wants to fulfill its mission with deep devotion to the welfare and growth of its employees, the delight of its customers and the success of its partners.

THE HUSK POWER PLANT ECOSYSTEM

The HPS plant in a village is largely a self-contained unit. It draws on local talent to run the plant, local sources of fuel supply and supplies power to a radius of around 2-3 km around the plant. The plants are thus a study in how communities can help themselves. There are specific reasons why a plant may reach outside of its village to the HPS Regional or Head Office for help, such as - reporting and submission of profits, spare parts supply or a problem that needs expert assistance. The complete ecosystem in which a plant functions, is illustrated below. [Rice mill owners Plant Staff Incense stick workers Customers Households, Small business owners, Farmers Cluster Office Regional Office Material Department Training Department

Legal Department Accounts Department] The tariff charged by the plant for electricity provides a significant savings to customers over the other options they have for electricity such as kerosene and diesel generators. By processing the rice husk char locally and marketing it outside, HPS wants to ensure that the village is paid back twice in monetary terms of the amount of money it pays for electricity.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF HPS

HPS has adopted an organizational structure that helps it accomplish its goals in an efficient and cost effective manner. Some of the goals that were considered most important in conceiving this organizational structure are: Provide timely and reliable support to every plant to maintain its uptime and customer service at a high level Ensure that new plants are continuously developed within budget and are within the quality parameters Ensure that manpower is continuously recruited and developed to keep pace with growth plans Ensure that alternative sources of revenue such as rice husk char and carbon credits are realized

Husk Power plants are grouped together based on geographic proximity to form a Cluster. Typically, the logistics for a cluster of 5 plants are managed together to optimize resources. Each Cluster has a Cluster Manager to manage the logistics for the plants such as husk procurement, rent collection, stopping electricity theft and maintaining the spare parts inventory. Each Cluster also has its own Mechanic to troubleshoot and fix the technical problems as needed. A group of 25 to 30 plants come under a single Regional Manager, who is assigned responsibility for the profit and loss for the entire Region. The Cluster Managers work under the direction of the Regional Manager and maintain the profit margins in their respective Clusters. The HPS Head Office drives a number of activities to provide operational support to the regional heads and to develop new aspects of the HPS business. The different departments housed in the Head Office are: o o o o Operations - monitors the results of all the regional units and supplies centrally procured spare parts for the machinery Installations identifies new franchisee partners and develops new plants Recruitment, Training and Technical Aggregation recruits and trains new staff for the company, compiles technical data and develops technical manuals New Business Development develops new sources of revenue for the company

The organization structure of HPS is illustrated below.

BASICS OF HPS TECHNOLOGY

Husk Power Systems runs mini power units, each of which supplies electricity to roughly 500 households or shops. HPS not only generates the electricity but also sets up a mini grid erected on bamboo poles to distribute the power. An HPS plant generates power by keeping the biomass, usually rice husk, at a high temperature inside a Gasifier. This causes the biomass to release a combustible gas called Producer Gas . The gas is then ignited and burnt inside a converted Diesel engine. The rotary motion generated by the engine is used to generate electricity in an Alternator attached to the engine. HPS has introduced some simple innovations to the Gasifier and engine available in the market. The heart of the HPS system is its simplicity and the ability of a semi-skilled operator to troubleshoot and keep it running. There are 3 main sub-systems in an HPS power plant set up: 1. A Gasification System for Gas production 2. A Generation System for Electricity Production 3. A Distribution System for Electricity Production The pages below provide some basic details as to how these sub-systems function. [Schematic of Complete System] Gasification System Biological matter such as plants, trees or their products are termed as biomass . Rice husk is one such biomass that HPS uses in its plants as fuel. When biomass is ignited in an oxygen rich environment, it burns completely and gives out carbon dioxide. But in the reactor of a Gasifier, the biomass is kept at high temperature in an environment that is starved of oxygen. It then does not burn completely but gives out a gas called producer gas that is itself combustible. The Gasifier is a cylindrical container made of cast iron and layered with cement inside that can withstand temperatures of up to 1000C. The container is called a reactor and its only function is to keep the biomass at high enough temperature without allowing it to burn completely. The Gasifier has a hopper at the top that vibrates periodically to inject the rice husk from the top at a controlled rate. Air flows down into the Gasifier from top in the system that HPS uses and it is therefore called a downdraft Gasifier. At the bottom, the gasifier has a mechanism to remove the rice husk char by pumping water. The HPS gasifier system typically consumes about 300kg of rice husk in a day. [Illustration of Gasifier System with Filters] However, the combustible gas that is produced cannot be directly used to run the generator system. The gas is dirty and contains particles and a sticky substance called tar. So the gas is cooled and cleaned by a venturi and a series of filters. The filters are boxes filled with rice husk char and rice husk itself. The gas is cleaned and dried in these filters and then sent to a generator. Electricity Generation System

Electricity is generated when a converted diesel engine is powered by the producer gas. The diesel engine is hooked to an alternator that converts the rotary motion of the engine flywheel into Alternating Current (AC) electricity. HPS plants use a generator that generates 32kW of power. To give an idea, this means it can power 1000 bulbs, each of 30W rating. Distribution System Power is supplied to a 2km radius around the plant in a 3-phase supply. Voltage is supplied at around 250V. There are fuses installed in the system to limit the use of power by a customer beyond the amount purchased by him. HPS is also installing pre-paid metering devices that will shut off connection to a group of consumers if their consumption exceeds the purchased amount. [Illustration of generator and distributor]

THE DAILY LIFE OF A PLANT

A plant has 4 employees on its roll. An Operator who starts, runs and maintains the plant A Husk Loader who is a part-time employee who loads husk into the gasifier An electrician who maintains the distribution system by rectifying faults and stopping thefts A collector who generates revenue for the plant by going door-to-door and collecting electricity dues from the customer A Cluster Manager supervises the logistics for a group of 5 to 7 plants. All the plant employees work under the Cluster Manager s direction. An Operator starts his day with doing routine maintenance on the plant. He is provided a chart that details the maintenance to be performed each day. The maintenance usually involves cleaning, scrubbing and checking the nuts and bolts of the system. The process takes on an average 1 to 2 hours a day. The collector too starts his day in the morning and begins door-to-door visits to collect dues for the month. The Cluster Manager is busy arranging for the delivery of husk to his plants or in providing other logistical help to the plants. The plants typically store about 3 days worth of husk supply. The Operator begins preparation to run the plant I hour before start time. He makes routine checks and performs a specific sequence of steps to form gas and start the engine. HPS plants are usually started at 4:30PM in the winter and 6PM in the summer. The plants run for 6 or 7 hours depending on local demand. During the running of the plant, the operator maintains a logbook to periodically note the system parameters such as voltage, current and oil pressure. The Husk Loader carries a sack of husk and empties it into the Gasifier typically every 15 to 20 minutes. The Electrician is most active during the running period and goes around the village to fix faults in the distribution line. The detection and stoppage of electricity theft is one of the most critical

activities during the running of the plant. HPS sells electricity in units of power or Watts. As such, it is easy for a customer to plug in extra devices and exceed the amount of power for which they have paid. Theft is controlled by first warning the defaulter and then disconnecting his or her supply if it continues. Technical Faults and Troubleshooting Like any technical device, an HPS plant can have interruptions or breakdowns HPS has put in place an operational system to quickly react to a technical problem to keep downtime to a minimum The average downtime of an HPS plant is less than 5%, which translates to between 1 to 2 days a month. HPS provides its operators and mechanics a detailed troubleshooting chart to diagnose and fix problems. When a plant shows signs of trouble, a plant Operator is trained to first consult a troubleshooting chart to diagnose and fix the issue immediately. However, a problem that emanates from the internals of the machinery requires a mechanic to be fixed. Typically, 5 plants together have one mechanic available on call that rushes to the plant after attempting to contain the problem by talking to the operator on the phone. [show a flowchart of troubleshooting process]

OPERATIONAL METRICS
HPS monitors the health of its plants on a monthly basis. Some of the metrics that are used to evaluate the health of the plants are: Plant uptime to make sure the customer is served as per promise Husk usage to make sure the system is performing optimally Voltage and current readings to monitor the quality and stability of supply Maintenance cost per plant