The first Centro Luz en Casa attending to the users of third generation solar home systems (3GSHS) in the Peruvian Amazonia has been implemented within the Luz en Casa Napo 2017 project; the Centro Luz en Casa-Santa Clotilde is located in the capital of Napo, the district in the Loreto department where acciona.org provides basic electricity service to the 61 families of the Luz en Casa Amazonia pilot project.

This Centro Luz en Casa replaces the Customer Service Centre supported by the district municipality with personnel and facilities; nowadays the service is given by the local entrepreneur Eber Pinedo from his house, where he owns a small internet café that is being complemented now with this new activity for acciona.org. During the implementation of the centre, the entrepreneur was trained in the three main responsibilities assumed: fee collection management, 3GSHS operation and maintenance management, and devices sale management. Eber is really motivated “to balance my current business and the attention to the beneficiaries of 3GSHS, which is also a new source of income”.

Ramiro, who is in charge of the Centro Luz en Casa-El Ingenio –the last one opened in Cajamarca–, talks in the same way: “with my Centro Luz en Casa I can sell my products and generate higher income for my family”. Previously, Ramiro only worked in farming, so his income was very low, and he couldn’t cover his expenses; his wife supported the family economy by washing some neighbours’ clothes to earn more money.

Today, Ramiro and Juana, who took training in entrepreneurship –as well as in regularizing their activity–, management and technical aspects to start the new business, are excited about going out to the district markets to offer their products and services to the users of Luz en Casa in the Cajamarca district of San Pablo. “As starting the Centro Luz en Casa, we sold few bulbs. After some time, our neighbours buy radios, mobile chargers, bulbs and TV’s” Juana explains and adds that their success over their competitors is based on the guarantee they give: “my neighbours don’t want to buy in other shops because they don’t offer a guarantee”.

The Centros Luz en Casa, which were recognized as an innovative social initiative by the Andes Confederation of Development (so called CAF) in 2017, were started to give the users of the Luz en Casa programmes the opportunity of obtaining the maximum performance from the provided electricity, by offering them lamps, chargers, radios, tablets, etc., as well as repair services.

Acciona.org and the Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are included in the 2030 Agenda, a 15-year plan of action that favours the people, the planet and the prosperity. There are 17 SDG which are integrated and indivisible and that comprise the three dimensions of the Development: economic, social and environmental.

The rural electrification programmes of acciona.org, The Energy & Water Foundation impact on those three dimensions, and directly on the SDG 7, Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

With the ‘Centros Luz en Casa’, the SDG 8, Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, is impacted too: these centres are owned by local entrepreneurs who have been trained technical, entrepreneurial and managerially so as to sell electric devices and offer other technical services to rural communities as independent professionals, and thus generate income for their families.

Acciona.org in Peru

acciona.org created a Peruvian non-profit association to facilitate access to electricity to isolated rural communities, which are not included in the national grid extension of Peru. It develops the ‘Luz en Casa’ programme in the Northern Mountains of Peru, in the department of Cajamarca, where it is an electricity public utility within the Peruvian regulation, and with a fee-for-service model that applies the official photovoltaic tariff. It is currently executing the Luz en Casa Napo 2017 project, in the Napo basin (Loreto districts of Napo and Mazan) with the aim of scaling up the sustainable technological and managerial model that is already validated in the Peruvian Amazonia.