Part one of the research: Case study in India

The case study in India was carried out during the first and second year of the project period.

In a case study, the researcher attempts to view a social unit as a whole, and organize data around this unit of analysis in order to answer the research questions (Mitchell 2000). The unit of analysis was the energy model with its actors, organization and technical solutions and how it worked in the various villages, including relevant factors outside the local level as explained. A case study allows investigators to keep the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life events in order to understand how and why social processes develop (Yin 2013).

Solar mini-grids in the Sunderban Islands in West Bengal were seen as a promising model for the future, and thereby a case that could provide relevant knowledge on how village-level power supply can become possible. The mini-grids were located in remote, poor villages and supplied electricity to households and other customers in such places. These villages could be representative for places in different parts of the world where the whole or most of the population does not have access to electricity. Such places have geographical, socio-economic and political differences, but have similarities in the need for lighting and other electricity services. Such places also typically have a general problem of poverty and marginalization, although the gravity of the problems will have some variations. By selecting villages in India with such general characteristics, and with functioning power provision at the village-level, it was anticipated that the research findings on the power provision could be relevant for villages in Kenya and in many other countries, and that it could be possible to transfer the energy model studied in India to Kenya with some adaptations. The further analysis shows how the differences and similarities in contextual factors influenced the transferability of the Sunderban mini-grid model to Kenya.

The fieldwork on the Sunderban case had three parts at three geographical levels – at the national level in the Indian capital city, at the state level in Kolkata (earlier Calcutta), and at the local level in the Sunderban Islands (see Figure 6 below). The data collection started with the national framework conditions, before the state level programs. The fieldwork in the villages followed before collecting some more information at the state level. A quantitative survey was conducted a few months later. Policy and planning documents and statistics were obtained at all three levels.

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Figure 6. The fieldwork sites in India: New Delhi, Kolkata and the Sunderban Islands. Source: Google maps.

4.2.1. Fieldwork in New Delhi

The purpose of the fieldwork in New Delhi was to understand which parts of the national policies and regulations that were relevant for the kind of local case studied. It was seen as important to interview people with different points of view. The seven informants were officials in the Ministry of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, technical and other experts on solar energy as well as other energy supply in India, and relevant NGO representatives. I conducted interviews in cooperation with a sociologist on the team.

Some of the informants had been identified during the fieldwork for my m.phil. thesis in 2003, some were identified by the Indian research partner and others were suggested by informants. All informants were selected due to their involvement in and knowledge about off-grid electricity supply in India in general and the Sunderban projects in particular. Some of them had been involved in the facilitation and financing of the projects and others had visited the projects and had views on the models used and how future models should be

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designed. Several informants had expertise on national framework conditions and policies for off-grid, renewable energy supply and how they had changed over the time period relevant for the Sunderban projects. Policy documents and academic literature on the Indian electricity sector were important background documents and complementary data for the interviews.

4.2.2. Fieldwork in Kolkata

The purpose of the fieldwork in Kolkata, the state capital of West Bengal, was to get insights in the planning and implementation strategies used for the solar mini-grids in the Sunderban Islands, reasons for the socio-technical designs, and the actual working of the power provision. Information on how the national policies and regulations influenced the Sunderban projects was also obtained from the implementing actors at the state level. Key informants were the former leader of West Bengal Renewable Energy Agency (WBREDA) and an official from the same organization. The first had been the visionary and driving force for the development of the projects and the second was responsible for sustaining and maintaining the projects. Other WBREDA staff was also interviewed. An informant represented an NGO that worked on another solar power activity, and two suppliers of technical equipment for the power plants were also interviewed.¹⁷ A workshop and field excursion for team members and Kenyan guests gave additional opportunities to interact with Indian solar energy experts who had first-hand insights in these or other relevant village-level solar power projects in India.

The documents obtained at this level included overviews of the solar mini-grids, the technical details, installation date, location, customers connected, and contractor companies involved. I carried out my fieldwork at this level in collaboration with two social scientists (a sociologist and an anthropologist) and three practitioners in the team (including a Kenyan and a Norwegian engineer).

4.2.3. Fieldwork in the Sunderban Islands

The third part of the fieldwork in India was carried out at the local level. The purpose of the fieldwork in villages was to understand the actual working of the mini-grid systems and access to electricity services for different groups, as well as the socio-cultural and geographical context. Solar power supply systems had been implemented as governmental projects in 17 villages in the Sunderban Islands from 1996 and onwards. Six of these systems were selected for the research, based on variation in time since implementation, size and geographical location. The selected power supply systems were in the villages Natendrapur, Khashmahal, Kaylapara and Mrityunjoynagar on Sagar Island, and the villages Bagdanga and Baliara on Moushuni Island. The model for electricity provision was mostly the same, but with local variations.

17 These were Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Environ Energy Tech Service Ltd. and Agni Power & Electronics Pvt.

Ltd.

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Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with households, members of local energy committees and local operators of the power plants. Some of the selected households had an electricity connection (and/or solar home system) and others had not.

The perceptions of the solar mini-grids of these two kinds of groups could then be compared.

Both men and women were interviewed in their homes, although women were overrepresented because they tended to be the ones who were at home during daytime. Most of my interviews here were conducted together with an anthropologist in the team, and some of the data included was collected by her alone, while I was visiting other informants.

The observation in the villages consisted of visits in power plants and observation of the operations as well as use of electricity there, as well as interactions between local operators and community members. Some of the visits in power plants took place with five other team members, including engineers. Activities in markets, shops and households were observed, including the use of electricity in market areas after dark. Signs could be observed of how the use of electricity in the communities worked differently than stated by the rules of the power plants.

4.2.4. Survey in four villages

A survey was conducted in June 2010, four months after the fieldwork, among key institutions and 200 households in selected villages. The purpose was to follow up and quantify some of the findings from the fieldwork, for instance how many people have light in their kitchen. The survey was carried out in four of the six villages studied earlier, in the islands Sagar (Kaylapara and Khashmahal villages) and Moushuni (Bagdanga and Baliara villages). In interaction with the anthropologist in the team, I drafted five sets of questionnaires for: General information, households, commercial/business, schools and health centres. Various team members (social scientists and technical experts) also contributed with ideas for questions for the survey questionnaires. The processing of the data was done by the anthropologist, and the results are referred to as Winther (2014). Additional data was collected by master students during 2010 and 2012 (Andersen 2010, Vognild 2011, Huseby 2012), and through my communication with informants in Kolkata by email and through an Indian research assistant.

4.2.5. Overview of the data on the Indian case

The following table gives an overview of the data collected for the case study in India.

72 Table 2. Data collected on the Indian case.

Informants/source of data Method for data collection Reason for using the method Experts and policy makers in

New Delhi 7 semi-structured interviews, public documents obtained

Understand the relevant national policies and regulations, and how national level actors viewed the projects

Experts in Kolkata

4 meetings and semi-structured interviews, repeated email communication, project documents obtained

Get the implementers’ experiences and project documentation Local power plant operators 7 semi-structured interviews

(men) Get the experiences of those

involved in daily operations Local board members 6 semi-structured interviews Get the experiences of people

involved in management of the power supply

Households in six villages 18 semi-structured interviews

(13 women, 5 men) Get the experiences of the users of the electricity

Households and businesses in

six villages 15 informal conversations (11

men, 4 women) Get the experiences of the users of the electricity

All kinds of relevant details Observation in villages, power plants, businesses, schools, homes

Observe practices related to the electricity use, and characteristics of the socio-cultural context

State level offices in West Bengal

Statistics on registered customers and tariff payment, letters, tenders, and contracts

Get number of customers in each village, and compliance of paying tariffs. Understand the roles of suppliers and contractors for the operation and maintenance Households in four villages 220 survey interviews Quantify some findings of the

qualitative data Indian solar energy experts Notes and presentations from

workshop

Get the Indian experts’

explanations of various cases of solar power supply in India

4.2.6. Organization and analysis of the data collected in India

The interviews and observations were documented by taking comprehensive field notes.

Most interviews with key informants were also tape-recorded and transcribed. Team members shared notes and interview transcripts, discussed interpretations, and worked together on analysis and the writing of a report and paper as part of the analysis. I led and coordinated the teamwork on analysis.

An underlying pre-conception before the study in India was that the case represented a “success story”. This was based on previous literature and descriptions heard during some years before the study. The fieldwork led to a gradual replacement of these initial interpretations with a more nuanced picture. Continued communication and iteration between observation, household interviews, operator interviews and meetings with implementing actors gradually gave better understanding of the case. The local variations and similarities among the six villages made it possible to catch sight of a multitude of social and technical factors that had shaped the local power supply and how it worked for people.

Moreover, the efforts to get the points of view of a variety of actors gave significantly more

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and better insights than what could have been obtained by only interviewing the key informants who knew all the power plants, although these informants were certainly important.

The combination (triangulation) of interviews and observational data and use of various background documents as well as cooperation and discussions in the research team served to provide a good understanding of the cases. It was possible to discover weaknesses of various parts of the data, and further investigate and scrutinize inconsistencies in the data material. The tacit knowledge and long-term experience of the implementing actors was not likely to be fully accessed, but the last parts of the data collection showed signs of “saturation”

– there were few additional aspects that came up.