| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/L002566/1 |
| Title: |
ESCO Box: Smart monitoring, billing and control for pro-poor access to energy services |
| Principal Investigator: |
Gammon, Dr R |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Dev |
| Organisation: |
De Montfort University |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research - NR1 |
| Starts: |
01 September 2013 |
Ends: |
31 January 2017 |
Value (£): |
843,943
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Sustainable Energy Networks |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
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| Related Grants: |
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| Panel History: |
| Panel Date | Panel Name | Outcome |
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08 Mar 2013
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Energy & International Development: USES
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Announced
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
This lack of access to electricity is particularly acute in rural Africa. Despite major advances, connection over large distances from small communities to existing grids is costly due to the cables, substations and additional equipment required. By 2008, 40% of Africans had access to electricity, but in sparsely populated rural areas the average drops to a mere 22.7%, in stark contrast to the 80% global average. Although many individual sites in rural areas, particularly mobile phone masts, have their own generators, there has been a reluctance to extend these to create local electricity networks. The use of small, independent electricity grids, powered by renewable or fossil fuel generators, presents operational and financial challenges.
The proposed ESCoBox is thus indented to address financial and practical barriers to electricity access by enabling local agents to act as small (but expandable) Energy Service Companies (ESCos), by buying power wholesale from larger off-grid generators (e.g. mobile phone mast operators) and selling it to local customers. The ESCoBox is an enabling technology that will allow cross-sector innovation, from novel financing, to social interventions, entrepreneurial ventures and better designed technologies and services
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.dmu.ac.uk |