Joint ownership through a special purpose vehicle between grantees, operators of the grid and the community does not guarantee sustainable outcomes over time. The evaluation found that grantees and operators did not have strong enough incentives to develop viable business plans that will be sufficiently profitable to offset operations and maintenance (O&M) costs through energy sales over time. The evaluation identified several examples of operators taking a hands-off approach to O&M due to the low profit potential of the grants even as communities were not prepared with the technical skills to maintain the assets. In a case where subsidies from district government could have revived a financially strained plant, assessment of the operator’s financials and projections proved inadequate and consequently the plant became non-operational.
Lesson Learned