This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.
Agenda 21 recommends establishing national institutional mechanisms for rural energy planning and management that would improve efficiency in agricultural productivity and reach the village and household level.
DESI Power (short for Decentralised Energy Systems India Private Ltd.) is pioneering the concept of Independent Rural Power Producers (IRPPs). The new company will enter into joint venture agreements with village communities or local entrepreneurs to set up small power plants of 100 to 500 kW capacity utilising local renewable energy sources. It will also be open to financing inputs from socially responsible funding sources and ethical/commercial investors elsewhere.
The initial IRPPs of DESI Power shall generate electricity by gasification of non-forestry biomass using a highly efficient and reliable technology developed by the Indian Institute of Science. Agro-residues and other plant material are converted into combustible "producer gas" which can be fed into ordinary diesel generators, substituting about 80 to 90% of the fossil fuel normally used. In due course, DESI Power will also introduce solar, wind, minihydro, steam and other technologies amenable to small scale, decentralised power production.
The promoters have already established one power plant of 100 kW rating which is in regular operation since 31st March 1996. Located in the historical pilgrimage town of Orchha, Madhya Pradesh, the plant supplies power to a hand-made paper factory and other consumers in the neighbourhood.