ABB Access to Electricity Program
1. Situation
Company Information
ABB was founded in 1988 following the merger of ASEA of Sweden and BBC Brown Boveri of Switzerland. The group employs about 100,000 people in around 100 countries throughout the world; The ABB Group's revenues for 2004 were $20.7 billion from a business portfolio centered around power and automation technologies delivered worldwide.
Context
The Access to Electricity program is ABBs response to the United Nations Global Compact which urged companies and organizations to provide greater assistance to least developed countries. ABB was one of the first international companies to sign on to the Global Compact after UN secretary general Kofi Annan launched it in 2000.
Access to modern energy services is crucial in efforts to fulfill the UN Millennium Development Goals and a key enabler in the fight against poverty and disease.
The program is much more than a rural electrification project. ABB works with other stakeholders governments, companies, non-governmental organizations, aid agencies, civil society - with each partner bringing its complementary skills to the project. It is not an outside-inprogram emphasis is placed on working with local authorities to establish villagers needs, and ensure that whatever is introduced such as electricity is affordable long-term.
2. Targets
Access to Electricity concentrates on meeting the needs for electricity in rural and semi-urban societies in developing countries,, where the local culture and established practices have not yet been exposed to the socio-economic benefits associated with electricity.
The project therefore focuses on local, bottom-up projects to establish sustainable power systems that can bear their own operating and maintenance costs. The overall aim is to trigger and cultivate the organic development of commercial markets.
3. Activities
ABB, in partnership with the local community, the district council and WWF (the global conservation organization), has provided electricity to the remote Tanzanian village of Ngarambe just outside the Selous game reserve. The aim is to promote, susainable economic, environmental and social development, while helping local conservation efforts.
Underground power lines have been laid and electrical sockets installed to provide power from a local generator which is operated and maintained by two people from the village who have been trained by ABB.
4. Results
Tangible benefits include: the local school can stay open later in the evening, providing more classes and increasing educational achievement; the local doctor can now treat patients in the evening and is planning the installation of a refrigerator for the storage of medicines which will save some of his patients the long trek to the local hospital.
Further steps are planned. Feasibility studies are under way to introduce a windpower installation to replace the generator; to electrify a maize mill and a sawmill; and more homes are being linked to the mini-grid.
Further information
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