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Asia / Island & remote community

Neelakantarayanagaddi Village Microgrid

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations4
System facts23
Sources reviewed7
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

SELCO Foundation's Neelakantarayanagaddi project is a very small centralized 48 VDC solar microgrid built for 41 houses plus a school and three temples in a river-island village in Karnataka's Yadgir area. The documented design uses 1.2 kWp of EmmVee PV, Primetech batteries, a Phocos 48 V controller, overhead DC distribution, 3 W LED lights, phone charging, per-house fuses and both local and remote timing/monitoring. The archived '1,600 Ah' storage label is electrically misleading, and the source deck itself contains an unresolved energy-versus-Ah conflict.

Research status
The system was documented as installed and operating in SELCO's 2014-2016 program material, but no reliable site-specific 2024-2026 operating report was found. A 2016 report said residents crossed to the mainland to charge mobile phones while monsoon flooding isolated the village. That raises a service-availability question but does not establish whether the microgrid had failed, lacked sufficient charging capacity, or was unavailable to those residents. Present battery condition, replacements, collections, expansion and grid arrival remain unknown; the record should not continue to label the project operational without qualification.
Historical classification
Community
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
16.33357, 76.57611
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Neelakantarayanagaddi Village Microgrid?

4 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Armstrong Energy Foundation

Reported grant funder, contributing approximately INR 600,000. [4]

Organization

Local business associate, entrepreneur and village committee

The local business associate reportedly contributed about INR 100,000; a village representative collected fixed monthly payments and the entrepreneur manually set service times and handled local operation. [3][4]

Organization

SELCO

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

SELCO Foundation

Program designer, technical implementer and author of the detailed case-study material. [3][6]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
1.2 [1]
Storage
1600 Ah [1]
Solar array
1.2 kWp: four 300 W, 24 V EmmVee modules on a raised mounting structure [3][4]
Battery source conflict
The case material lists eight 12 V, 200 Ah Primetech batteries and elsewhere a 48 V, 400 Ah bank, which would equal 19.2 kWh nominal; the same deck also labels storage as 9.6 kWh. The archived record's 1,600 Ah is merely the sum of eight battery Ah ratings and is not a valid bank rating. The reviewed sources do not reconcile whether the 9.6 kWh figure reflects an earlier four-battery configuration, usable energy, or a documentation error. [3][4][7]
Customers and loads
41 houses, one school and three temples; household service was designed around one or two 48 VDC, 3 W LED lights and a 48 VDC mobile-phone charger [3][4]
Tariff and finance
A fixed monthly service-package fee was collected locally; surviving summaries report approximately INR 50-100 per month depending on package. Armstrong Energy Foundation reportedly provided INR 600,000 and the local business associate INR 100,000, with collections intended for maintenance and future expansion. [3][4]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

PV modules

EmmVee

Four 300 W, 24 V modules, described as series-connected and installed on a raised metal mounting structure for protection. [3][4]

02

Battery bank

Primetech

Eight 12 V, 200 Ah batteries are listed. The public material does not identify battery model, chemistry, date of replacement, allowable depth of discharge or present state of health. [3][4]

03

Charge controller

Phocos — CR 48 V

DC charge regulation at the central plant; no AC inverter is needed for the documented 48 VDC load architecture. [3][4]

04

End-use equipment

Model not publicly disclosed

48 VDC 3 W LED lamps and 48 VDC phone chargers. The nonstandard voltage improved distribution efficiency for tiny loads but the program deck flags replacement-device availability as a challenge. [3]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • General

    Neelakantarayanagaddi Village Microgrid is a solar microgrid in India by SELCO foundation in Karnataka. [1]

  • General

    41 houses and 3 temples PV and batterySchool The village Bridge across river Subsistence farming Dam Nearest road access [1]

  • General

    The Model – Platform Microgrid [1]

  • General

    The model being piloted is therefore: 1. [1]

  • General

    Establish which services could be introduced later, building on-top of the existing infrastructure and operational model established. [1]

  • General

    Following this model at Mendare: 1. [1]

  • Storage

    8x 200Ah, 12V, series connection, Primetech Charge controller: 48V Phocos CR [1]

  • Generation

    PV panels: 4x 300W, 24V, series connection, EmmVee [1]

  • Distribution and protection

    The centralized plant supplies 48 VDC through overhead wiring. Service lines enter a junction box in each house and individual fuses limit household power draw. [3][4]

  • Controls and monitoring

    An entrepreneur manually controlled service timing, while a centralized data logger allowed remote monitoring, data collection and remote changes to system timing. Public material does not identify modem/network type, controller make, alarm response or historical telemetry. [3][4]

  • Operating model and lessons

    SELCO emphasized simple, robust designs, locally held spares and a strong community partner. Its own lessons note that specialized 48 V loads can be difficult to replace and that ongoing support is essential. [3]

  • Community isolation

    The village is periodically cut off when the river rises. A 2016 news report described residents going to the mainland for phone charging during isolation; this is a contemporaneous service signal but not a diagnostic record of the microgrid. [5]

  • Open evidence gaps

    No recent generation, load, battery replacement, uptime, collections, customer-growth or utility-grid interconnection data was found. Commissioning date is also not unambiguously stated in the reviewed material. [3][5]

Provenance

7 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-02-28

  2. [2]
    microgrid in India

    microgridprojects.com · Archived source · captured 2021-02-28

  3. [3]
    Microgrid Site Summaries

    SELCO Foundation (reposted by SlideShare) · Primary source

  4. [4]
    Neelakantarayanagaddi Village Microgrid

    MicrogridProjects.com · Secondary research

  5. [5]
    Pregnant Yallamma won't swim to mainland this time

    The Times of India · Secondary research

  6. [6]
    SELCO Foundation

    SELCO Foundation · Primary source

  7. [7]
    Archived Neelakantarayanagaddi Village Microgrid record

    MicrogridProjects.com via Internet Archive · Archived source

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