05 Outreach and Initiatives Access to Energy

In 2017, we expanded our range of products, solutions, and services for communities that lack access to energy — from individual lighting to community services and collective electrification. We’re committed to providing innovative solutions that ensure Life Is On for everyone, everywhere, at every moment. This is our promise and our mission.

The Access to Energy program actively involves local stakeholders, including residents and customers, to bring safe, clean, sustainable electricity to communities all over the world. The Access to Energy program operates in three ways:

Offers and business models

To address local electricity access shortages, we design electrical distribution offers via renewable off-grid products and solutions. We deploy these commercially as widely as possible through adapted business models.

This includes our Mobiya^™, Homaya^™, and Villaya^™ products.

Impact investing

To address local funding shortages, we invest in innovative, local access-to-energy ventures and subject matter experts through impact investing funds.

This includes the Energy Access Fund and Schneider Electric Energy Access Fund.

Training and entrepreneurship

To address local skill shortages, we support the development of training programs in the energy field.

With the support of the Schneider Electric Foundation, we partner with local and global not-for-profit education organizations to train disadvantaged people and support informal entrepreneurs in the energy field. We have more than 50 years of experience developing tailored training solutions for professionals and the education sector.

2017 Access to Energy highlights: offers and business models

Bangladesh

We brought solar-powered portable lamps to a remote island village, where 100 households now have electricity for basic needs.

Cambodia

Installed in Bavet city of the Svay Rieng province, a 10 kW solar power plant from Schneider Electric now provides safe, reliable, and modern energy for the surrounding villages.

Cameroon

The microfinancing group Pamiga partnered with us to bring more than 3,200 households access to energy with our Mobiya and Homaya solar solutions.

Congo

Proton and Schneider Electric provided solar solutions to remote villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Access to Energy in Congo

Schneider and Proton provide solar solutions

India

Schneider Electric and the Schneider Electric India Foundation led two rural electrification projects in Arunachal Pradesh, providing energy access to 375 households with our Mobiya solar lanterns.

Kenya

Our new Villaya Microgrid solution is designed, manufactured, and tested in Nairobi. It provides access to energy and socio-economic development to homes, health clinics, schools, and businesses.

Villaya Microgrids

Energizing communities with sustainable solutions

Myanmar

We worked with our local partners, Mandalay Yoma, Talent and Technology, and Techno-Hill Engineering, to build microgrids that bring energy to more than 1,000 households across five villages.

Nepal

Saral Urja partnered with us to provide electricity to a remote, off-grid village using a solar powered microgrid.

2015 – 2017 Planet & Society barometer achievement

See the full results

Climate & Development (Sustainability offers)

x2.21

increase in turnover of Access to Energy program

Sustainable, multi-energy solutions in Africa

Along with the West African Economic and Monetary Union and the African Biofuel and Renewable Energy Company, Schneider Electric is developing a “multi-energy” plant for irrigation, fish farming, and farming transformation.

This solution is called Villaya Agri-Business.

Villaya Agri-Business is an innovative solution enabling energy to be captured through a solar thermal and photovoltaic power plant, and to be reused to produce electricity and heat simultaneously. It can supply micro-industries in rural areas, especially food production, processing and storage plants. This multi-energy plant can also store energy in batteries with a 10-year lifespan.

We're helping to supply electricity for 100,000 people to power irrigation, lighting, fish farming, and more.

The project will be implemented over a two-year period, involving feasibility studies, equipment installation, and user training. It will progressively offer up to 100,000 people access to electricity for irrigation, lighting, fish farming, farming transformation, and the provision of drinking water without CO₂ emissions.

Further, in Kigbe, Nigeria, Schneider Electric and Havenhill Synergy collaborated to build a mini-grid that provides continuous electricity to rural homes and businesses.

In Adamawa, we partnered with Blue Camel Energy to install six units of Conext^™ XW+ 8548 inverters and 144 units of solar panels to bring power and productivity to a local farm that had previously suffered from frequent outages. Now, more products are available to feed a population of about 450,000 people.

Finally, Schneider Electric and GVE partnered to provide solar solutions to communities in remote areas, supporting schools helping to reduce cases of malaria.

Access to Energy in West Africa

Bringing safe and reliable electricity to local communities

2017 Access to Energy highlights: impact investing

EAV Fund 1 increased to $90 million

In 2017, Energy Access Ventures (EAV) increased its Fund 1 size to $90 million and boosted economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. This was made possible through three investments: The Netherlands company Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden joined the fund whilst existing limited partners Schneider Electric and CDC both increased their commitments.

EAV invests in companies worldwide to support innovative electricity technologies and business models.

Marieke Roestenberg

Senior Investment Officer, Private Equity,
FMO

At FMO we are excited to participate in EAV Fund I. We believe EAV represents a unique opportunity to invest in an existing operational team with a thorough understanding of the energy market in sub-Saharan Africa combined with solid expertise in early-stage investing. This investment fits with FMO’s strategic agenda in terms of promoting renewable energy, inclusive growth, and innovation.

Schneider Electric Energy Access Fund

The Schneider Electric Energy Access (SEEA) fund brings together Schneider Electric’s employees and business partners around the world to play an active role in bringing access to energy to communities in need. This social welfare investment structure, designed by Schneider Electric to promote responsible development, constitutes a response to new French legislation on employee savings plans.

At the end of 2017, 5,300 employees in France showed their interest in the Access to Energy program by investing €16.8 million.

On December 31, 2017, the following amounts were managed by SEEA:

€3,000,000 in capital invested by Schneider Electric
€2,300,000 invested by Schneider Énergie Sicav Solidaire (including €500,000 in capital), a mutual fund managing the employee savings scheme for Schneider Electric employees in France
€200,000 in capital invested by Phitrust Partenaires

Andi Kleissner

Co-founder and COO,

Amped Innovation

At Amped Innovation, we partner with social enterprises to design radically affordable products that address basic human needs. We focus on reducing product cost to enable rapid adoption of proven technologies.

2017 Access to Energy highlights: training and entrepreneurship

Vietnam

In partnership with Green ID and local Women Unions, Schneider Electric trained and supported women from remote communities to bring energy to low-income people. These women entrepreneurs increased their income by 30% and have gained an important social status within their communities.

The Schneider Electric training lab in Ho Chi Minh City trained 650 underprivileged young people in residential and industrial electricity, and 100% of them got a job right after graduation. In 2018, we hope to train 1,000 – 1,500 students in this center.

India

We opened the seventh Solar Energy Training Center in India at the Sri Sri University in Cuttack. We also set up a new Center of Excellence at the New Horizon College of Engineering and extended our collaboration with Kalinga Institute of Technology and C.V. Raman College of Engineering in Bhubaneswar to address the digital skill gap in fast-evolving sectors.

In October 2017, we inaugurated the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra Center in Delhi. It’s the first center in the country focusing exclusively on the skill requirements which are aligned to the government’s smart cities initiative.

Finally, the Schneider Electric India Foundation and Sri Sri Rural Development program began a new basic electrician training center in Central Jail, Srinagar. The training will help prisoners start their new lives with valuable electrical skills. 26 prisoners are undergoing training in the initial classes.

Pakistan

With the support of Schneider Electric Foundation, two electrical labs were opened in Lahore, two labs in Gujranwala, and one was opened in Wazirabad. Ultimately, 52 labs are planned by the end of 2018.

201 students have started training, and registration is expected to climb to almost 6,000 with the completion of all labs.

The labs are being established in partnership with the Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority, the Punjab Vocational Training Council, and the Muslim Hands organization.

Cambodia

We partnered with the Don Bosco Foundation to open the Don Bosco Training Center, which will train more than 300 underprivileged youths every year.

Chad

In partnership with the Office National pour la Promotion de l’Emploi and the Pan African Institute for Development, 77 out-of-school youths were trained and joined the local job market.

Columbia

In partnership with the Colombian Ministry of Labor and the Colombian Ministry of National Education, Schneider Electric held seminars throughout the year, training 79 students and 71 trainers.

Ivory Coast

In partnership with our local distributor, LCS Technodidac, we held an educational event gathering professionals from the public and private sectors to address the challenges of developing technical training programs and responding to market needs.

Algeria

In partnership with the Algerian Ministry for Vocational Training and Education and the French Ministry for National Education and Research, Schneider Electric took part in the creation of an Algerian-French center, which is dedicated to vocational training in energy and electricity trades. Located in Rouiba, this center specializes in energy efficiency and industrial maintenance.

Senegal

In partnership with our local distributor, LCS Technodidac, we held an educational event to address the challenges of developing technical training programs and responding to market needs.

South Africa

The Legacy Class of the French South African Schneider Electric Education Center welcomed as many girls as boys. For one year, the students will be trained in electrical engineering on domestic and industrial installations.

Tanzania

We installed a 30 kW solar plant and laboratory at the training center and held conferences on the microgrid market model and the IoT's impact in industrial and photovoltaic applications.

Togo

After eight months of training at the Energy Generation Academy in Lomé, Togo — a Schneider-supported program offering courses on entrepreneurship in energy — students presented their projects at the first Africa Energy Generation Prize contest.