Bringing Light to Nation

In 2008, Ujang Koswara was asked by villagers in the mountains of southern West Java to help them install lighting in the village.

KOMPAS/DEDI MUHTADI

Ujang Koswara

Electric lamps are usually only used for lighting. However, Ujang Koswara’s self-sustaining electrical lamps called listrik mandiri rakyat (Limar) have multiple functions. Other than being used for lighting, Limar also promotes the values of helping one another, state defense, pride and driving village economies.

In 2008, Ujang Koswara, 49, was asked by villagers in the mountains of southern West Java to help them install lighting in the village. At the time, the villagers on the hillsides of Pakenjeng district, Garut regency, West Java, was still using cempor or kerosene lamps.

“At the time, my nephew was taking the national school exams. He was having a hard time studying because of the lack of lighting. This was despite him having to take similar exams as students living in cities where there were rare blackouts,” said Ujang. Moreover, the price of kerosene for the cempor lamps, at Rp 15,000 (US$1.13) per liter, was considered expensive by locals.

Ujang then tried to install solar panels that he had bought in Bandung for Rp 10 million. However, the panels did not produce enough electricity. Eventually, the equipment broke down after the panels collected too much dust that was hard to clean.

Ujang then tried to use several waterfalls around the village to produce electricity using a microhydro power generator. From the generator, he extended a kilometer-long electricity cable to the village. The small power generator was able to produce 4,000 watts of electricity but the current was too low to be used in the village.

Problems occurred throughout the year. In the dry season, water levels decreased and the generator’s turbines could not move. In the rainy season, floods from damaged conservation work upstream of the river swept the microhydro structure away. Ujang then thought about what his late mother once told him: “Ujang, the people do not need sophisticated technology. They just want to enjoy long-lasting light.”

Once he arrived in Bandung, 160 km from Pakenjeng, he bought a cell phone with a flashlight. He then studied how its flashlight could be used a little longer despite the low energy supply. “The cell phone’s flashlight uses an LED [light-emitting diode] chip to save energy,” Ujang said.

He then thought about producing LEDs produced in Bandung. He sought information from the Industry Ministry about companies that could produce LED lamps.

KOMPAS/DEDI MUHTADI

Ujang Koswara

Traveling to the US

Ujang then found out that domestic companies did not produce LED chips and that there was an LED chip factory in the United States. As he was eager to help his beloved mother, he then visited the LED factory in Philadelphia in the US. However, after his ocean-crossing journey, he found out that he could not purchase the chips.

“If I wanted to purchase a large amount, I needed to go through their agent in Hong Kong,” he said. After he arrived back in Indonesia, Ujang coordinated with the West Java branch of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (Hipmi) to connect him to Hipmi’s branch office in China.

A businessman at China’s Hipmi branch then gave him the address of an LED maker in Shenzhen. “If this is what it takes to produce LED lamps, I can do it in Bandung,” Ujang said, reminiscing about his response upon seeing the home industry where the LED lamps were produced. He then brought the concept to the attention of his academic friends.

“There were interesting talks about home-made LEDs, but we couldn’t produce it,” said Uko, as he is affectionately called. Eventually, he met with an electrical handyman at an electricity equipment center on Jl. Banceuy, Bandung. “If you want the lamps to be long-lasting, you need to use diodes,” the handyman told him.

After several trials, Ujang created an LED lamp powered by one watt of electricity but with luminosity equal to a 10-watt lamp that can last up to 10 years. This one-watt LED lamp was powered by an accumulator battery inspired by how solar panels work. Using small, used car batteries, Ujang can light five lamps for a month. Once the batteries run out of power, they can be recharged, much like recharging a wet cell battery.

“Recharging the battery is like exchanging used mineral water gallons. We used a wet cell battery as it lasts longer, as long as it does not lack battery water,” Ujang said. After a three-hour charge, a battery can be used to light a lamp for a month.

After the discovery of the LED lamps and recharging patterns, the Limar lamps were mass-produced in Ujang’s house in Cilengkrang, East Bandung. Components are purchased from various vendors. The PCBs, the lamps’ plastic wraps and cables are ordered and custom-made at a plastics factory. The chips are purchased from a Chinese company with a minimum order of tens of thousands of components as there is no LED chip producer in Indonesia.

Cheaper

Once the Limar lamps were installed in the mountainous village, the villagers found out that purchasing it was cheaper than buying kerosene. One liter of kerosene, priced at Rp 15,000, runs out in three days. This means that Rp 150,000 is needed to purchase kerosene for a month. “In using Limar, you only need to charge it for three hours and you can use it for a month. The cost is only Rp 2,000,” Ujang said.

Now, hundreds of thousands of Ujang’s Limar lamps are distributed in remote regions that have yet to receive electricity from state electricity company PT PLN. These regions are spread from Aceh to East Nusa Tenggara and Papua. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds from PLN, regional governments or companies located near these remote regions are used to distribute the lamps.

In Margaluyu village, Cipeundeuy district, West Bandung regency, 150 families have obtained Limar lamps thanks to the help of the West Java administration. The PLN has difficulties in erecting electricity poles in the village, which still has no electricity supply from PLN despite its location near the Cirata Dam and hydropower plant (PLTA). The Cirata power plant supplies electricity to Java and Bali.

Ujang and his team have also spread the knowledge of making LEDs to schools and Islamic boarding schools to foster the spirit of helping one another. The goal is that the students can help the people in their neighborhoods should there be any problems with the Limar lamps.

Through the distribution of Limar lamps, there is the spirit of state defense in replacing imported lighting. Village economies and businesses can also be driven by the Limar initiative. “Knowledge transfer necessitates sincerity so that everyone can be involved in mutual assistance,” Ujang said.

He added that, through Limar, he hoped his invention would help bring light to the nation and assist people living in remote regions.