Competition Requirements

The following are the Competition Tracks

Track T: Technology Provider

• Energy Supply
• End-Use (including Productive Use, Clean Cooking, Mobility)
• Enabling Technologies
• Control, Automation, and Cyber-Physical Systems

Track L: Local Entrepreneurship 

Track R:  Energy Resilence

Energy Supply:

The proposed solution can be decentralized or centralized.

The decentralized solution will serve single homes at Tier 2 or higher without creating an entire distribution infrastructure in advance of when it is needed. The solution should address the entire power generation, delivery, and management system.

The centralized solution is a centrally planned and implemented power generation and distribution model offering the core service at the community level. The centralized service serves individual families as customers. The solution should address the entire power generation, delivery, and management system.

Control, Automation, and Cyber-Physical Systems:

The proposed solution is enabled by modern control systems and automation techniques with the underlying advantage of autonomous operations demonstrated via increased scale, resilience, robustness, simplicity, or a combination thereof. Challenges related to the cyber-physical design and implementation of the proposed technology, such as those arising from communication, computing, and cyber-security, if any, should be highlighted and addressed. An example is a self-governed interconnection of smaller power systems, interconnected via high-speed communication links and computing platforms, thereby allowing safe, secure, and sophisticated solutions to be adopted by communities with insufficient technical exposure and/or skilled support infrastructure. If applicable, issues related to the unavailability of accurate power system models, and lack of reliable power system data and load data, with possible alternative solutions achievable by AI-driven control systems, should also be discussed. A successful solution must demonstrate technical viability and an underlying business model that addresses scalability. This track prize is sponsored by the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS) and the winner may be invited to a future CSS Conference.

Enabling Technologies invites solutions that do not address the entire energy system but enable solving some of the key challenges of energy access solutions, such as scaling, affordability, sustainability, and interoperability. The competing solution can be a component or sub-system or automation solution, for example.  Similar to other categories, a successful solution will show technical viability, the business model needed to reach scale (including how the solution fits in the value chain), and demonstrate the social and environmental impact of the solution.

End-use Energy:

The proposed solution will address appliances that enable productive use of energy (including clean cooking). The solution can be aimed at a single-user solution (e.g., solar water pumps for irrigation and refrigerators) or the community level (e.g., cold-storage rooms, agri-food processing hubs).

Local Entrepreneurship Track (Track L):

This track will present innovative solutions that stimulate localization of the energy access sector and address persistent challenges in reaching last-mile remote and rural customers, such as affordability, last-mile delivery profitability, last-mile logistics, after-sales customer service and support, etc. Solutions can also be aimed at reaching particularly vulnerable populations: the poorest of the poor, displaced persons and host communities, marginalized and discriminated communities, and individuals including but not limited to women and girls.

Energy Resilience Track (Track R):

This track invites solutions that provide access to energy to communities affected by natural disasters, conflict, climate change, and other potential crises and threats to help them meet basic needs in the short term and increase resilience in the long term. These solutions should be rapidly deployable, reliable, resilient, and able to operate independently from the existing power infrastructure.

Student Teams (Track S):

This category is open only for teams composed of tertiary education institutions. The proposed solution in this category can be covered in the above five categories (Energy Supply, End-Use/Productive Use, Clean Cooking, Enabling Technologies, Last Mile Distribution, Leave No One Behind)). The main difference with the other categories is in the requirements for field testing — student teams are not required to demonstrate their solution in a target community. However, a student team can compete in one of the other categories if they can comply with the field-testing requirements.

If you intend to compete in Empower a Billion Lives 2025, please register your team for direct updates on the guidelines and resources for the competition. EBL 2025 will accept Full-Proposals until February 28, 2025. Please register your team as soon as you have a Team Leader for direct updates on guidelines and important competition updates.