Solar Power to Villages in Karen State, Myanmar

The 3^rd Phase of installing solar systems to 5,200 household in the Karen EAO areas started in Dec.,2018 and was planned to end by the middle of July 2019.

In the mean time , as the extra fund is procured due to the competitive bidding procedure ,BHN decided to add 915 more houses to install solar systems.

The rainy season is now in its highest stage in Myanmar and the access to many villages are becoming extremely difficult.   Hence, BHN coordinated with the EAOs to choose villages accessible even in the middle of rainy season.

Due to such consideration, the additional installation work was accomplished by early August.

BHN has been employing 22 young villagers from the EAO areas and gave them on-the-job training. (They are named as “System Supporters”.)   Those young villagers are joining in the installation work teams of Contractors and worked to install & repair the solar systems.

To improve their working knowledge on solar electric systems BHN conducted “Follow-up Training” to the System Supporters after all the installation work is completed.   System Supporters are expected to become “Village Electricians” after all the projects are finished.

With the successful completion of Phase 3, BHN is now planning to start Phase 4 from Sep. 01.   The outline of Phase 4 is conceived as under:

1. In the Karen(=Kayin) villages under Karen EAOs = 5,013 solar systems

2.In the Mon villages under NMSP(New Mon State Party) = 2,313 solar systems

In 2018, NMSP, an EAO in Mon State ,signed the Ceasefire Agreement with the central government and, soon after the signing, requested the installation of solar systems in their villages.   Many villages under NMSP are located adjacent to the villages under KNU(Karen National Union) and they were watching the improvements of daily lives in the KNU villages after signing the ceasefire agreement and wanted the same improvements in their areas.

In January, as the contractors were chosen to undertake the installation works of 5,200 solar systems in the EAO(Ethnic Armed Organizations) controlled areas we started the visits to villages to explain our plan to villagersin Karen & Mon States.

Along with this village visits engineers of BHN visited factories of equipment suppliers in Shenzhen & Ningbo , China to confirm the shipment quality. 

Basically we could confirm that the production procedure and the quality control were improving and the shipments of equipment were approved.  

From early April , installation works started and engineers of BHN is guiding & confirming the construction works to secure the standard working procedures.    As the rainy season is gradually starting in Myanmar we have to accelerate our construction works to finish all the works before the end of May.

Since the 2^nd Phase we have been employing 12 villagers (as “System Supporters”) and trained them to become the electric technicians in their villages.   For this 3^rd Phase BHN employed 4 additional villagers also to become System Supporters in their villages.   After training by BHN they are already joining the installation works as team members of the contractors.

Considering the difficulty of construction works during the rainy season BHN will complete the 3^rd Phase by the middle of July and, during the rainy season, will concentrate to the planning and preparation for the 4^th Phase.   Already we are receiving a substantial number of new requests of solar systems from EAOs.