Portable battery kits, or "Ti Soley" kits bring affordable electricity into the homes of Sirona's customers to replace kerosene. The program has been very successful and resulted in long waiting lists in rural Haiti. Unfortunately the first people to use equipment are also the first to find its flaws. The kits are designed with a low voltage disconnect (LVD) that protects the battery from being fully depleted to extend the life of batteries. Unfortunately there was a flaw in the original LVD so we brought hundreds of kits back to Port au Prince for a retrofit run by the IEEE. A newly designed LVD was put into the kits, all kits were repaired to perfect working order, and now they are being redeployed to our solar charging stations.
The retrofit was a massive endeavor. Collecting kits, storing them, transporting them to the retrofit facility, and man hours required to test and retrofit every kit. Sirona owes a great deal of thanks to many people who helped with this project. We are especially grateful to the IEEE for seeing the retrofit through. Sirona's Operators have patiently waited for repairs and are excited to see their inventories rising again. This was a setback, but Sirona is ramping back up and preparing to quadruple the number of homes we serve within 18 months.
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