The IEEE SB NSSCE in association with Power and Energy Society (PES) have provided an opportunity for its members to be a part of the humanitarian project “Lights for the Working Hands”. This project had evoked our commitments and responsibilities towards the society. As the name of the project indicates our objective was to electrify one of the tribal colonies ‘Eashwaramannu’ located at the Palakkad district. The project was successfully completed on the 20^th of November 2018.

Current Chairman of our IEEE PES SB Chapter, Mr. Abhinav R won the IEEE PES Member Driven Initiative (MDI) competition on January 2018. The project aims in the tag line “Helping a mother to cook, a father to sleep and a child to study well” was awarded with $2500. Our next hurdle was to set the site, a number of suggestions came and at last, Dr. Rajan N, Executive Engineer of KSEB the us about ‘Eashwaramannu’ colony. He advised us about the implementation of ‘DC Generation Distribution’ Concept which was a fresh idea and appealing to all the members. DC system doesn’t have any inversion losses accompanied with, it was more reliable. He was a good mentor and his immense support from the very initial days of the project till its inauguration had always boosted our energy. The project was planned to be completed in the month of August, since our state faced the worst flood in nearly a century our mission was forced to be postponed.

Initial Agenda

Our journey began on 10^th October. As a first move of the project, Assistant Professor Nimitha Muraleedharan along with the five members visited the site ‘Eashwaramannu’ colony which was 1.8 km into the forest from the Mannarkkad Town. Required information and measurements were collected. And finally, the team decided to electrify the five houses in the colony.

The very next day, Abhinav arranged the meeting for the rest of the crew members and shared his experiences about the first site visit and contour sketch of the site were also explained. The load included 14 watts DC fan, 11 watts led tube and 9 watts led bulb etc. At most care was taken in making sure that each and every one of the crew members were aware about event he minute things of the project. The Budget was estimated and electrical components and other requirements were listed out and purchased. Finance was handled by Mr.Arjun P Ashok. The volunteer crew was divided and the 26 members were split into four groups for effective participation of every member.

Day 1

Our team reached the site at 9:00 am on 3^rd November. As planned earlier each of the team occupied their respective houses and started the work. We had done surface wiring, as most of the crew members were from Electrical and Electronics Department, they were well versed in that area since they had done it during their first-year electrical workshop classes. The complete installation of the PVC pipes and required wire lengths were installed and all that was left was to install and survey the load and efficiency.

Day 2

On coming to the last day of the project, crew members reached the colony by around 8:30 am. As the final step, we had to install the panel at the roof top of the houses. After the successful installation of the panels and battery, the connections of battery and solar panels to the solar charge controllers were checked. A successful working and testing of the individual system was done within 3 to 4 hours on the same day. Also, efficiency at different time periods were collected for survey details. The inauguration date was informed to the tribal head of the colony who was always with our team as a helping hand. By around 7:00 pm we returned back to our college with gratification.

Inauguration of MDI project “Lights for the Working Hands” was done on 20^th November. Dr. Rajan Sir and MLA of Kongad Constituency, Mr. Vijayadaswere the chief guests for the inauguration. All the crew members reached ‘Eashwaramannu’ colony at 3.30 pm, so as to check all the system were working on its normal condition. Media coverage were also their and was done by Manorama Newsreporters and Rajan Sir explained to them about MDI project. Abhinav Rajeev represented our team and shared his experiences after being a part of a social program. An Awareness session was handled by Rajan Sir on the advantages of the DC grid also its safety, precaution and proper usage of the system to the residents.

Inauguration

The Inauguration function was started with the welcome speech delivered by one of our crew member Mr. Binsin Noor. Presidential address was given by the Panchayat President and he thanked our college and crew members for electrifying the houses in his panchayat. The MLA Mr. Vijayadas, officially inaugurated the function by switching on the main supply and was followed by his inaugural speech in which he suggested us to electrify more houses as an extension of this project. As a token of love and respect, we honored the tribal head for his immense support and cooperation. Our college representative Dr. Vasanthi delivered the vote thanks.

With immense cooperation and enthusiasm of all the crew members and our mentors, the MDI project was a huge success. This project will always be an achievement for the IEEE SB of our college which is at the 13^th year of its journey. This is just a beginning of a new revolution and more stories about our success are yet to be carved.

Abhinav Rajeev
Chair, IEEE PES SBC NSSCE
Vice-chair IEEE SB NSSCE