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Asia / Island & remote community

Rampura Village Microgrid

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

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations5
System facts15
Sources reviewed10
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

Rampura was an 8.7 kWp community-managed solar mini-grid commissioned on January 26, 2009 in a previously unelectrified village about 17 km from Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh. It used 60 photovoltaic modules, a 48 V battery bank, and roughly 0.75-1 km of local distribution for basic household and street lighting. Contemporary sources strongly support the project's early operation and social effects, but recent repetitions are retrospective; no credible source located confirms the plant's physical condition, battery replacement history, village-grid interconnection, tariff collection, or continuing service in 2026.

Research status
Contemporary 2009-2011 accounts describe the system as commissioned, community-managed, and operating without a day of outage over the reporting interval. A 2020 academic study still uses Rampura as a community-energy governance case, but does not establish current plant availability. The Microgrid Projects page still labels it operational, yet supplies no dated operating evidence. Current status should therefore be recorded as historically operational, present operation unverified—not confidently operational in 2026.
Historical classification
Community
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
26.35649, 79.18307
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 Rampura Village Microgrid?

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

Organization

DD Solar23 India Pvt. Ltd. / Bergen Group India

Technical-knowledge and installation support identified in case-study sources; the precise division between DD Solar23, Bergen Group, and Unitron is inconsistently reported. [3][6]

Organization

Development Alternatives

Selected and mobilized the beneficiary community, supported the local governance model, and documented the project and its outcomes. [2][3][4]

Organization

Scatec Solar

Conceived, financed, and managed the pilot through its Indian affiliate; contemporary reporting gives an approximate Rs 5 million project cost. [2][5]

Organization

Unitron Energy Systems

Named as installer by Business Today, creating a role conflict with sources that identify DD Solar23/Bergen Group; no contract record was located to resolve it. [7]

Organization

Village Energy Committee / Rampura community

Community operator and manager, including local rules, connections, street-light switching, and user participation. Current legal or operating status was not found. [3][5]

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
8.7 [1]
Solar capacity
8.7 kWp from 60 modules rated 145 W each; Development Alternatives describes the plant as polycrystalline. [3][4]
Battery
24 cells at 2 V each, giving a nominal 48 V bank. A case-study source says it could support four to five cloudy/rainy days, but no amp-hour or kWh rating, chemistry, maker, usable depth of discharge, or measured autonomy is published. [3]
Distribution
Approximately 0.75-1 km village mini-grid. Contemporary sources describe compact fluorescent lamps in homes and street lights operated on a separate dusk-to-approximately-4 a.m. circuit. [3][5]
Connections and population
The best-resolved contemporary accounts describe about 69-70 households, a population near 350, and 44 initially connected families. A Business Today report says 'some 400 homes,' which conflicts with the village population and is retained only as an unresolved reporting error or scope ambiguity. [5][6][7][3]
Service level
Business Today reported roughly five hours/day of service. Other early accounts emphasize lighting, television/radio and education benefits, not full household electrification or productive-load capacity. [7][2]
Energy mix
Solar PV plus electrochemical storage. No verified diesel backup, utility intertie, biogas unit, or other generator was identified for the Rampura plant itself. [3][10]

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

Photovoltaic modules

Model not publicly disclosed

60 polycrystalline modules at 145 W each. Manufacturer and model were not found in reliable public documentation. [3][4]

02

Battery bank

Model not publicly disclosed

24 series cells at 2 V each. Chemistry, maker, model, Ah/kWh capacity, replacement dates, and present condition are undisclosed. [3]

03

Power electronics and controls

Model not publicly disclosed

A local powerhouse, inverter/charge-control equipment, separate street-light switch, and household distribution are implied by the operating description, but no manufacturer, model, inverter rating, protection scheme, meter type, or remote-control system is documented. [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.

  • Generation

    PV, storage [1]

  • Commissioning

    Commissioned January 26, 2009. The launch was framed as India's first community-based/community-managed solar power plant. [3][7][2]

  • Governance

    The project emphasized a Village Energy Committee and local management rather than a conventional utility operator. Contemporary sources do not publish audited tariff collection, maintenance reserves, battery-replacement funding, or long-term governance performance. [3][8]

  • Early outcome

    A 2011 report said the plant had not experienced a day without power over its observation period and documented changes in evening study, communications and village activity. The observation window and technical logs were not published, so this is a case-study claim rather than an independently audited reliability metric. [3][2]

  • Current-data gap

    No source located reports post-2011 battery replacement, module degradation, inverter failure, grid arrival/interconnection, current customers, hours of supply, collections, or 2026 operator. Later academic treatment is retrospective and cannot establish continued operation. [8][9]

Provenance

10 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 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
  3. [3]
    Access to Energy for the Poor: The Clean Energy Option

    Vasudha Foundation / Oil Change International · Secondary research

  4. [4]
    Knowledge Base Compendium - Case Study of Village Rampura

    Development Alternatives · Primary source

  5. [5]
    The Sun Shines on the Future

    The Times of India · Secondary research

  6. [6]
    Switching to a Different Life

    The Indian Express · Secondary research

  7. [7]
    Electric Goes Local

    Business Today · Secondary research

  8. [8]
  9. [9]
    Rampura Village Microgrid

    Microgrid Projects · Secondary research

  10. [10]
    Rampura - archived legacy record

    Microgrid Projects via Internet Archive · Archived source

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