Operations and Project Management Case Study

Powering Livelihoods` Collective Deployment of DRE Livelihood Technologies

OR

Abstract:
In 2001, the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) and Villgro Innovations Foundation (Villgro) collaborated in a joint venture and established Powering Livelihoods (PL). This case examines the financial and strategic dilemmas faced by PL in 2025, as it considered moving from isolated pilots of decentralized renewable energy (DRE) livelihood technologies to a collective deployment model. PL had previously supported technologies such as solar silk reeling machines, horticulture processors, solar refrigerators, micro solar pumps, vertical fodder units, dryers, and dehydrators across rural India, showing measurable livelihood impact. The proposed collective deployment program promised wider adoption and deeper impact through clustered installations for self-help groups (SHGs), farmer producer organizations (FPOs), and rural microenterprises. However, the program required US$520,555 in investment, raised from reserves, CSR-linked grants, and concessional loans. The board debated whether the funding structure and intermediate cash flows were sustainable, and whether traditional appraisal methods adequately captured financial viability and social impact. The case challenges students to assess financial structures, revenue projections, and impact trade-offs in scaling renewable energy technologies for rural livelihoods.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• Discuss project appraisal criteria used in capital budgeting decisions, distinguishing between sophisticated (time-adjusted) and unsophisticated (non-discounted) methods.
• Determine cash flows in a project setting, identify the difference between operating inflows, financing inflows, and reinvestment assumptions.
• Analyze sources of project financing in a hybrid social-enterprise model involving grants, concessional loans, reserves, and revenues.
• Assess the limitations of conventional appraisal tools (NPV, IRR) when intermediate cash flows cannot be reinvested at assumed rates.
• Apply Modified NPV and Modified IRR to projects with irregular inflows and reinvestment constraints.

Keywords : Net Present Value; Internal Rate of Return; Benefit-Cost Ratio; Powering Livelihoods; Decentralized Renewable Energy;