# Team

# About the Library

<header class="article-meta" id="bkmrk--1"></header>## History of the Library

The Library started when NFE was a company of just 3 people to make sharing information efficient and easy. We knew that future NFE team-members wouldn’t be able to see emails about process changes that were being sent before they joined and that most of the people who would eventually join NFE likely hadn’t even heard of us yet. This Library was our way of ensuring that all of our company information was accessible to everyone regardless of when they became part of the team.

## Advantages

At NFE our Library is extensive and keeping it relevant is an important part of everyone’s job. It is a vital part of who we are and how we communicate. We established these processes because we saw these benefits:

1. Reading is much faster than listening.
2. Reading is async, you don’t have to interrupt someone or wait for them to become available.
3. Talent Acquisition is easier if people can see what we stand for and how we operate.
4. Retention is better if people know what they are getting into before they join.
5. On-boarding is easier if you can find all relevant information spelled out.
6. Teamwork is easier if you can read how other parts of the company work.
7. Discussing changes is easier if you can read what the current process is.
8. Communicating change is easier if you can just point to the page history.
9. Everyone can contribute to it by directly editing a page.

One common concern newcomers to the Library express is that the strict documentation makes the company more rigid. In fact, writing down our current process in the handbook has the effect of empowering contributors to propose change. As a result, this Library is far from rigid. You only need to look at the Library [home page](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/) to see the evidence. Every attempt is made to document guidelines and processes in the Library. However, it is not possible to document every possible situation or scenario that could potentially occur. Just because something is not yet in the Library does not mean that it is allowed. Aaron Tushabe is the primary custodian of the Library, please talk to him in the #general channel on Matrix if you're unsure about something concerning this Library.

## Library Interpretation

The Library is subject to interpretation. We do our best to be as clear as possible to minimize confusion and/or misinterpretation. We also recognize that we have a global audience and that may bring different interpretations. If you have any questions or need further clarification please check with the content owner of any given page. When in doubt please reach out and ask.

**Remember that everything is in draft at NFE and subject to change, this includes our Library.**

We rarely mark any content or proposals as drafts. Everything is always in draft and subject to change. When everything is in draft, contributions from team members as well as the wider community are welcomed. By having everything in draft and assuming others have low context, confusion can be reduced as people have shared access to information.

# Community Checkins

Agendas, Meeting notes and recordings for all our meetings

# Previous Meetings Recorded

- [NFE Checkin 10/04/2025](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d8vu171CAKnuAbZ_33t_wV24mBxAruRx/view?usp=sharing)
- [NFE Checkin 17/04/2025](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uRevLn_NPv4v9Br1RK8WmnmXMvsznAsR/view?usp=sharing)
- [NFE Checkin 25/04/2025](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JBFqCfRX9aN--2r4xByb6TEg9zALSkUh/view?usp=sharing)
- [NFE Checkin 02/05/2025](https://drive.google.com/file/d/12o-2AAnjYZnZvXNKZL4Fp8grAIT17FWp/view?usp=sharing)
- [Meeting with Uzuzi Meter Supplier 07/05/2025](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O_BVQiTiLPGmRacuugNwqOkYnc2knx5U/view?usp=sharing)

# NFE Checkin - 16/05/2025

Agenda

- Metering Evaluation review
- Pearl Marina Proposal Review
- Company tools Demos   
    
    - Element (Matrix)
    - Kimai (Time tracking)
    - NextCloud (Calendar and Email)
    - Bookstack (Team Documentation)

Action items

- Prepare Fundraising update for next meeting - Aaron
- Ordering meters from Top 3 providers - Aaron
- Need to locate manual for China Brandless meter - Dansturn
- Nansana Site inspection Open questions for next meeting - Dansturn   
    
    - Find out process for requesting/applying for bulk/sub meter from Umeme
- 

# NFE Checkin - 23/05/2025

- [Payment System Evaluation](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/product/page/billing-and-payment-system-evalutation)
- [Design of Sezibwa Rentals Microgrid ](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/microgrid-design)
    - Need to a separate switch to turn Umeme on/off
    - May need bypass on the inverter too for maintainance
    - How much last gasp mechanism does the Lora Gateway come with
    - How about meters? What happens before and after power goes off
    - Materials 
        - Meters + Lora Gateway
        - Wiring
        - Cabinet
        - Umeme switch on/off - circuit breaker
        - Civil works - cement
- No demos of company tools, keeping it short because Hillary has a hard stop (1.5 hours)

Action items

- Set up payment page - Aaron
- Follow up on shopping for materials - Dansturn
- Update micro design from notes above - Aaron
- Inventory management - How do we keep track of hardware we have - Aaron to propose something

# NFE Checkin - 30/05/2025

### Agenda 

- <s>Payment Processor demo</s>
- AMI demo 
    - CalinAMI
    - MicroPowerManager
- Other collaboration tools 
    - dashboard
    - calcom
    - Kimia
- <s>[BOQ](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/budget-phase-1-sezibwa-homes) for locally sourced items </s>
- <s>Physical layout for Sezibwa Rentals Microgrid </s>

### Action items 

- Pesapal - How to process refunds - Aaron
- Check on when money is received on the bank account - Aaron
- What is the process of becoming a 3 phase (bulk metering) customer - Dansturn 
    - Include how payments are made
    - What does UMEME reclaim/own? 
        - Meters?
        - Circuit breakers?
        - Wiring?
- [BOQ](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/budget-phase-1-sezibwa-homes) feedback - Dansturn 
    - Confirm that meter is for Code 10.2 not Code 20
    - Resize PDU (we need one for 10 meters)
    - Compare both suppliers instead combining and present both

# NFE Checkin - 06/06/2025

### Agenda 

- AMI demo 
    - [CalinAMI](http://calinami.nearlyfreeenergy.com:5301/)
    - [MicroPowerManager](https://cloud.micropowermanager.io/#/welcome)
- Other collaboration tools 
    - dashboard
    - calcom
    - Kimai
- Company Board and Structure updates
- Fundraising Updates

### Action items 

- - Ownership model - Aaron to present this next week
- Upload documents to Element/Bookstack - Dansturn 
    - Layout of Sezibwa rentals
    - BOQ excel

<div drawio-diagram="21"><img src="https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/uploads/images/drawio/2025-06/drawing-5-1749871334.png" alt=""/></div>

**6/13/2025**

**Updates and Action items**

**- Dansturn**

- Purchase the PDU in which to put the meters in the course of next week
- complete the BOQ Excel with new revisions
- Receive the meters that arrived from China
- Application for 3 phase commercial from uedcl
- **Aaron**
    - fundraising update to be discussed next week.
    - Collaboration tools to be discussed next week.

- Expectations for next week 
    - [MicroPowerManager](https://cloud.micropowermanager.io/#/welcome)

# NFE Checkin - 20/06/2025

#### Agenda 

Operation Updates

- How to apply for Three Phase connection
- BOQ updates for Sezibwa Rentals

Fundraising updates

- We are tracking [our finances](https://opencollective.com/nfe) on open collective.
- Phase 1: Sezibwa Rentals - [funding status ](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/budget-phase-1-sezibwa-homes)
- Fundraising efforts - [Tracker](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/fundraising-tracker)

Other collaboration tools

- dashboard
- calcom

MicroPower Manager -

- Toggling Calinmeter on/off [in progress](https://github.com/EnAccess/micropowermanager/issues/743)
- Adding Calinmeters via LoraWAN gateway - [In analysis](https://github.com/EnAccess/micropowermanager/issues/742)

#### Action Items 

- Documentation that shows the relationship between the client (Sezibwa Rentals) and NFE. - Aaron can provide MOU
- Examples of Postpaid Bills - Hillary + Dansturn 
    - Code 10.2 to Code 50
- Load Schedule for Sezibwa Rentals - Aaron + Hillary
- Confirm that the 10.2 meter come with in built phase selector or if we need a phase selector - Dansturn
- Meeting early next week

<div drawio-diagram="25"><img src="https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/uploads/images/drawio/2025-06/drawing-4-1750480521.png" alt=""/></div>

# NFE Checkin - June 24th 2025

Action items

- Power bank for Gateway - Aaron
- Padlocks for gateway - Aaron
- Set up Calinmeters and Gateway - Dansturn
- Conference list needs compiling - Aaron

# NFE <> EnAccess Checkin

### Attendees 

- Aaron Tushabe - NFE
- Vivien - EnAccess
- Daniel - EnAccess

Meeting link: <span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Cantarell, Ubuntu, 'Helvetica Neue', 'Noto Sans', 'Liberation Sans', Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: pre-line; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;"> </span>[https://meet.google.com/rpg-vpmw-zzh](https://meet.google.com/rpg-vpmw-zzh)

### Agenda 

- **Introductions**
- **Expectations** for NFE using EnAccess provided [MPM instance](https://cloud.micropowermanager.io/#/welcome) for [Sezibwa Rentals Pilot ](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/chapter/sezibwa-homes)
    - Daniel: For transparency: We haven't yet had the time to fully clarify and conceptionalise our ToS for MPM, w.r.t SLA/SLO/Uptime promises/Data security, but also pricing to cover the infrastructure costs etc... As a result we currently provide the MPM cloud service this "as-is".
    - Aaron: This is understood and when we are successful with the pilot, we'd like to collaborate on the posibility of agreeing on some Terms of Service or setting up NFE's self hosted instance. I think the community needs an instance to quickly evaluate MPM cheaply and quickly so I'd prefer we collaborate on improving the cloud.mpm.io experience more production ready for new joiners.
- **Support with Regular Community Calls** on MPM/EnAccess projects/materials 
    - Let's talk about how I can help, I have ideas but I some questions first 
        - Who do you recommend I pair with on this one. I am of the view that initiatives are more resilient if we have more than one human co-owning it so I'd like to have someone I pair with to get this going. I can reach out to Thulie add see if she's up for it
        - Anything that has been tried in the past that I should consider before proposing something?
- **NFE overview**
    - I have [a pitch deck](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mNKqGWw_H6QyRjha-BIiT1UvxncdEzU3emUuIpv9T1g/edit?usp=sharing) I keep refining and [our bylaws](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/team/chapter/bylaws) share more about our ownership model

### Notes 

### Quick summary

During this meeting, Aaron, Vivien, and Daniel discussed the Nearly Free Energy mini-grid project, the history and current status of the Microgrid Power Manager (MPM) software, challenges related to community adoption and technical implementation, and potential collaboration on pilot deployment and funding sustainability.

### Action items for Aaron

- [ ]  Test and finalize the connection of the newly arrived smart meters with the existing LoRa gateway and the MPM system by the end of the week.
- [ ]  Reach out to Truly (community manager at EnAccess) to plan the first collaborative call focusing on MPM pilot.
- [ ]  Share detailed documentation of Nearly Free Energy’s funding model and business plans with Vivien and Daniel.
- [ ]  Investigate and propose any feature improvements or integration needed for MPM to support Nearly Free Energy’s pilot.
- [ ]  Continue applying for grants to sustain Nearly Free Energy operations and explore co-application opportunities with EnAccess.

### Action items for Vivien

- [ ]  Provide continued onboarding and support for Aaron on the MPM platform and relevant documentation.
- [ ]  Facilitate coordination between Aaron and Truly for community engagement and calls.
- [ ]  Share more detailed information about EnAccess’s current funding, support structure, and pricing policy as it develops.
- [ ]  Invite relevant stakeholders from REA Nigeria and Cameroon to join the community discussions and pilot support.
- [ ]  Assist in documenting prospective features and integrations for MPM in the public GitHub repository.

### Action items for Daniel

- [ ]  Support Aaron with technical guidance on MPM setup, infrastructure reliability, and data backup processes.
- [ ]  Monitor and assist with troubleshooting any compatibility issues between smart meters and MPM, especially regarding Colleen meters.
- [ ]  Ensure automated database backups are working effectively on the cloud infrastructure used for the pilot.
- [ ]  Help Aaron with understanding MPM functionalities, feature limitations, and contribute to the software documentation.
- [ ]  Participate in community management activities and support onboarding efforts for new users like Aaron.

# NFE Checkin - July 4th 2025

### Agenda 

- Sezibwa rentals BOQ review 
    - Open Questions
    - How we are funding it 
        - NFE will fund it
        - Kimbowas will contribute 1k to NFE
        - Arinda will contribute 1k to NFE
        - [Open Collective NFE account](https://opencollective.com/nfe)
- Calinmeter AMI Testing results review 
    - Outstanding issues
- Code 10 application 
    - Code 10 bills
- Github issues on Micropower Manager
- Meeting with Vivien

### Action items 

- Submit Contributions by tomorrow: Dansturn + Arinda
- Find remaining balance for Sezibwa rentals: Aaron
- Submit expenses for Sezibwa Rentals to Open Collective: Dansturn + Aaron
- Follow up with Scott on 
    - Last month meter reading feature: Arinda
    - Needed to retry commands a couple of times, why?: Arinda
- Build PDU and deploy next week: Dansturn
- Code 10 Application: Aaron

# NFE Checkin - July 9th 2025

Agenda

\-

# NFE Checkin 11/7/2025

<div id="bkmrk-"></div>### Agenda 

- Review of Last week's Action items
- Review of progress on PDU setup
- Discuss next steps concerning the power application.

### Review of Last week's Action items 

- Submit Contributions by tomorrow: Dansturn + Arinda == <span style="background-color: rgb(45, 194, 107);">Done</span>
- Find remaining balance for Sezibwa rentals: Aaron === <span style="background-color: rgb(224, 62, 45);">Aaron to update</span>
- Submit expenses for Sezibwa Rentals to Open Collective: Dansturn + Aaron == <span style="background-color: rgb(224, 62, 45);">Pending, Dansturn will submit receipts by Monday </span>
- Follow up with Scott on 
    - Last month meter reading feature: Arinda == <span style="background-color: rgb(224, 62, 45);">Scott hasnt been responsive. Follow up more</span>
    - Needed to retry commands a couple of times, why?: Arinda == <span style="background-color: rgb(224, 62, 45);">Has dependency on Scott, pending</span>
- Build PDU and deploy next week: Dansturn == <span style="background-color: rgb(230, 126, 35);">work in progress. to be done by Monday</span>
- Code 10 Application: Aaron ==. <span style="background-color: rgb(224, 62, 45);">Aaron to update when he wakes up</span>

### Action items for this week

- Complete meter assembly in the PDU by Monday 14th July == Dansturn
- Add stands and secure lock on the PDU and deliver to site by Monday 14th July == Dansturn
- Pull ABC (1 span) to the proposed service point. By Next meeting == Dansturn
- Push connection application in tandem with the pending PDU works == Dansturn
- Follow up Scott again === Hillary

# NFE Checkin 18/7/2025

### Agenda 

- Sezibwa Homes Phase 1 - Deployment Blockers 
    - New CODE 10 application - I tried applying [here](https://selfservicepro.uedcl.co.ug/pouc-ss-client-classic/) but I need a Cert Number
    - PDU Deployment Pictures
- Communication with Scott: Still unresponsive?
- Funding Updates 
    - Sezibwa Homes Phase 2 - 5k grant pledged by Energy IoT open source
    - Expense submissions

### Action items 

- Submit all outstanding expenses for Phase 1 - Dansturn
- Provide Cert Number for Code 10 application (6890377606518) - Dansturn
- Share deployment photography on [Bookstack](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/phase-1-pictorial)
- Customer contact information collected - Aaron
- Complete service cable installations - Dansturn
- Share Recoverable grant funding agreement with Team on - Aaron
- Checkin with Scott - Hillary

# NFE checkin 26/07/2025

### Agenda 

#### Previous action items 

- <s>Provide Cert Number for Code 10 application (6890377606518) - Dansturn </s>
- <s>Share deployment photography on [Bookstack](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/phase-1-pictorial)</s>
- Customer contact information collected - Aaron
- Complete service cable installations - Dansturn
- <s>Share Recoverable grant funding agreement with Team on - Aaron </s>
- <s>Checkin with Scott - Hillary</s>

#### New items to discuss

- Demo 
    - Self serve portal for UEDCL
    - Application approved notice
    - Recoverable grant agreement Template
    - Pictorial Phase 1
    - Dansturn meeting with Vivien follow ups
- Issues for Sezibwa Homes 
    - Umeme Meter box installed outside fence - is this an issue
    - Calin AMI bugs - can we launch with them
- Next steps 
    - Capture customer names and contacts - assign meters
    - Umeme billing portal - How will be get our monthly bill and how are we expected to pay

### Action items 

- Submit all outstanding expenses for Phase 1 - Dansturn
- Customer contact information collected - Aaron
- Complete service cable installations - Dansturn
- Schedule follow-up call with Vivien - Aaron
- Autarky (Titiana) Follow-up call - Aaron
- How to collect data from Chint three phase meter - Aaron/Dansturn

# NFE <> Power for All - July 31st 2025

Had a meet and great with [Joel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-mugyenyi-46417b142/), [Alba](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alba-topulli-9a233a61/) and [Sumaya](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumaya-mahomed-sustainability/) from power for all.

They shared plenty of questions and feedback on our model. Here's some resources they shared that I am following up on.

- [https://www.ze-gen.org/about-ze-gen/](https://www.ze-gen.org/about-ze-gen/) - TBD
- [https://a2ei.org/](https://a2ei.org/) Working on an open smart meter we could use. Downloaded their data [here](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/product/page/a2ei-data) and will reach out to [Thomas](https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-duveau-1b2514250/) about an open smart meter
- Oddessy - Battery vendor who may be able to help us with phase 2
- Band

I invited them to join [our advisory team](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/team/page/membership).

# NFE checkin 02/08/2025

### Agenda 

#### Action items from last week

- Submit all outstanding expenses for Phase 1 - Dansturn
- Customer contact information collected - Aaron 
    - Done. Entered [here](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/team/page/membership) and in [Calin AMI](http://calinami.nearlyfreeenergy.com:5301/)
- Complete service cable installations - Dansturn 
    - We have an extra home instead of the boys quoter
- Schedule follow-up call with Vivien - Aaron
- Autarky (Titiana) Follow-up call - Aaron
- How to collect data from Chint three phase meter - Aaron/Dansturn 
    - Made some progress, it's seeming too costly to get a calin meter that will measure this load, they want to sell us more than just the meter

#### New items 

- Fundraising updates, check the [tracker](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/fundraising-tracker)
    - Energy IoT and battery + inverter donations 
        - They have a battery (20kwh) for us but we need to ship it in from USA
        - She has an inverter for us, it's an 8kw inverter though
        - She will be drafting an MOU to communicate what EIoT needs out of this engagement
    - Applying for an EU grant (100k to 250k Euros) with EnAccess + Another company
- Business development 
    - Published a tracker for [potential customers](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/potential-customers), I will be following up on those next week.
- Setting up MicroPower Manager 
    - Still running into some issues that I am sharing with EnAccess on [Discord](https://discord.com/channels/1228240959473451060/1387523894948401192). We will launch without it and enable it later
- Updates from Location in Nansana 
    - Meter should have been installed
    - We are using UEDCL downstream breakers
    - We will not use the customer's solido
    - Safety risk if the solido is live - we need to terminate it - how?
- Calin AMI open issues

#### New Action items 

- Submit all outstanding expenses for Phase 1 - Dansturn
- Collect National IDs for all customers
- Complete service cable installations - Dansturn
- Follow up on shipping battery and inverter to Uganda by October - Aaron

# NFE Mid week 08/06/2025

### Agenda 

- Site layout review

### Action items 

- Review cost pf phase selectors and see if we can add them to phase 1.1- Dansturn
- Provide meter reference - Dansturn
- Reach out to our UEDCL connections - Hillary | Dansturn | Aaron

# NFE Checkin 8/8/2025

### Agenda 

### Action items from Last Week

- **Review cost of phase selectors and see if we can add them to phase 1.1- Dansturn**
    - to be shared.
- **Provide meter reference - Dansturn**
    - This was provided
- **Reach out to our UEDCL connections - Hillary | Dansturn | Aaron**
    - Meter paid for by Aaron. No meters currently. check meter proposed. Action item still active

### New updates

- Hopetelle meters arrived yesterday 7/8/2025 - 10 meters plus their DCU

### New Actions items

- Reach out to our UEDCL connections - **Hillary | Dansturn | Aaron**
- Review cost of phase selectors and see if we can add them to phase 1.1- **Dansturn**
- Suggestion to power the PDU with one of the existing power sources.- **Aaron**
- Get in touch with Hopetelle team about connecting meters to AMI, etc - **Aaron**
- Set up around 5 meters with a DCU as we await AMI communication - **Dansturn**
- Accountability for the money used for 3 phase extension and installation Umeme meter box, meter - **Dansturn | Aaron**

# NFE / SLS Energy / Energy IoT -intro meeting

### Quick summary

During this meeting, Arila, Merci, Léandre, and Aaron discussed a collaboration on an open-source microgrid project in Uganda, focusing on battery storage solutions, battery-as-a-service models, and integration with open-source energy management systems. They explored technical specifications, cost models, and operational challenges related to battery backup, grid outages, and energy trading platforms. The participants also considered opportunities for mentorship programs and local community involvement to support sustainable energy solutions.

### Action items for Arila

- [ ]  Facilitate the sharing of open-source hardware and software specifications (e.g., open BMS, hi-fi APIS) with Aaron and Léandre for integration and testing.
- [ ]  Share a diagram of the submetring panel and energy management setup with Léandre and Aaron.
- [ ]  Coordinate engagement with local universities and mentorship programs to involve students in the energy projects.
- [ ]  Support defining the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will outline the pilot project's scope and transition to commercial stages.
- [ ]  Monitor progress and provide sponsorship funding for battery storage for the pilot project starting by October.

### Action items for Léandre

- [ ]  Provide detailed battery data sheets and specifications for the 48V 2.5 kWh and 5 kWh systems to Aaron and Arila via email.
- [ ]  Clarify and confirm the service pricing structure and cost model with Aaron for the pilot microgrid project in Uganda.
- [ ]  Share information about current battery monitoring systems and explore integration with open-source BMS and EMS solutions.
- [ ]  Assist in logistics and regulatory requirements for shipping batteries within East Africa, especially Uganda and Rwanda.
- [ ]  Engage in discussions to define the terms of collaboration and commercial agreements related to battery-as-a-service.
- [ ]  Consider sharing technology and expertise for the semi-mobile irrigation battery systems as a potential learning case.

### Action items for Aaron

- [ ]  Share detailed data on current microgrid capacity, battery needs, and outage patterns for community planning.
- [ ]  Provide feedback on battery service pricing and integration from Nearly Free Energy's perspective.
- [ ]  Collaborate with Léandre and Arila to develop a pilot project plan aiming to start battery deployment by October.
- [ ]  Facilitate contact with local community partners and potentially local universities for mentorship and project support.
- [ ]  Share research and documentation on grid outage causes and tariff structures with Léandre and Arila.
- [ ]  Maintain communications with Léandre and Arila to define the Memorandum of Understanding and commercial framework.

# NFE Checkin 03/08/2025

### Agenda

- Reach out to our UEDCL connections - **Hillary | Dansturn | Aaron**
- Review cost of phase selectors and see if we can add them to phase 1.1- **Dansturn**
- Suggestion to power the PDU with one of the existing power sources.- **Aaron**
- Get in touch with Hopetelle team about connecting meters to AMI, etc - **Aaron**
- Set up around 5 meters with a DCU as we await AMI communication - **Dansturn**
- <s>Accountability for the money used for 3 phase extension and installation Umeme meter box, meter - **Dansturn | Aaron**</s>
- Fundraising updates
- Battery research updates
- Lisencing updates, working with Sam Kizito

### Notes 

**Action items**

- Have a mid week checkin on Wednesday to confirm whether we can connect direcrtly - Aaron
- Review Hopetele documents to prepare for test connection next Saturday - Hillary
- Update Potential customer tracker with new leads - Hillary
- Apply Certificate of Registration - Aaron

# NFE checkin August 30th 2025

### Attendees 

- Dansturn
- Dismas - Green Volta Engineer
- Aaron

### Agenda 

- Going live in Sezibwa Microgrid
- CIUs - do we need them

### Notes 

- Dismas: Cables were laid to the Main house, R2 and R3. Connection to R3 was attempted and Meter input voltage was ~220V but output voltage was ~ zero.
- Dansturn: Aaron are the relays on
- Aaron: No, looks like they are off, I did not realize that their default state was off
- Dansturn: Dismas can you share photos of how you connected R3 for review
- Dismas: I did not take photos, I can go back and take photos today
- Dansturn: We need to always take photos, Dismas please make a check list so that you don't forget again
- Aaron: I can be available all morning to turn on meters
- Dansturn: CIUs, do we need to connect them
- Aaron: I don't think so, the CUIs seem to have no use in a postpaid billing world but Hillary thinks customers can use them to check monthly usage but not sure how yet. We may need them later for regulatory purposes but for now, we don't need to install them.
- Communication with Customers is in Progress: We shared this overview with them 2 days ago and NFE whatsapp account joined the whatsapp group of the neighborhood to help answer any questions. [https://app.simplenote.com/p/tdKJBq](https://app.simplenote.com/p/tdKJBq)
- VAT registration (and PAYE) was completed this week.

### Action Items 

- Dismas to return on site today and turn on at least 3 houses, Aaron will be available for remote access. Dansturn will be available to confirm physical connection design
- Hillary to investigate how we can use CUIs

# NFE Checkin - Sept 6th 2025

Going live - any blockers and questions

- How can we tell if UEDCL power is off? 
    - Check the gateway?
    - Let's ask Calimeter

Action items

- Get in touch with Dismas on going live today -Aaron
- Find out from Scott about how to change the low voltage cut off - Hillary

# NFE Weekly Checkin September 13th 2025

### Agenda 

- Fundraising Updates and requests for review
- <s>We are live: What next?</s>
    - <s>Operation strategy </s>
    - <s>Data analytics and reports: how do we take advantage of this </s>
    - <s>How can we tell if UEDCL power is off?</s>
        - <s>Gateway status will tell us</s>
    - <s>Yaka units</s>
- Retrospective on deployment 
    - What went well
    - What did not go so well
    - Things we can approve
- <s>Phase 1.1: </s>
    - <s>Do we need a new AMI</s>
    - <s>Low voltage on some phases </s>
    - <s>3 phase meter smart meter for UEDCL connection</s>
- Game plan for Phase 2
- New team members: Nickson
- Updates from LF Energy in Conference
- How do optimize our costs of materials eg cabling, meters, etc

### Actions 

- Schedule retro during next week's mid week checkin - Aaron
- Communicating with the Chint Meter - Hillary + Dansturn
- Recruiting an Resident Microgrid Manager (5k per hour) - Aaron
- Analytics and reports from Calinmeter - What else can we get from Calin AMI - Hillary
- URA monthly filling - We need to engage a person - Aaron
- Do we need a power backup for the Lora Gateway - Hillary
- Compliance and Safety inspection letter from Certified Engineer - Dansturn
- Submit expenses from Greenvolta - Aaron

# NFE Weekly Checkin September 19th 2025

### Agenda 

- Fundraising Updates and requests for review
- Game plan for Phase 2
- New team members: Nickson
- Phase 1.1: How do we resolve phase 1 current issues 
    - Phase selector
    - Reviewing Data from the meters/gateway

### Actions from previous meeting

- Schedule retro during next week's mid week checkin - Aaron
- Communicating with the Chint Meter - Hillary + Dansturn
- Recruiting an Resident Microgrid Manager (5k per hour) - Aaron
- Analytics and reports from Calinmeter - What else can we get from Calin AMI - Hillary
- URA monthly filling - We need to engage a person - Aaron
- Do we need a power backup for the Lora Gateway - Hillary
- Compliance and Safety inspection letter from Certified Engineer - Dansturn
- Submit expenses from Greenvolta - Aaron

Retro was conducted: https://ideaboardz.com/for/Sezibwa%20Phase%201%20Retro/5640560

# NFE Mid week Checkin September 25th 2025

- Sezibwa Phase 1.1 Progress updates
- Calinmeter Gateway issues
- Billing readiness
- Battery / Inverter evaluations updates

Notes

Actions

- Collect data for phase issues in Sezibwa - Aaron + Hillary
- Manage Calinmeter issues and refocus on new solutions -
- Follow up on FenCon battery/inverter pricing - Aaron
- Follow up on Gonahasa's Solar/Battery and inverter system - Aaron

# NFE weekly checkin October 11th 2025

General Updates

- [Usage and billing for September](https://nextcloud.nearlyfreeenergy.com/s/trBgcrG9Gfq2gtj):
- Battery evaluations: we have some local suppliers: See [SRNE](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/Compliance%20and%20Safety%20inspection%20letter%20from%20Certified%20Engineer%20-%20Dansturn)
- We have a URA person to help with monthly filling
- Engaged a lawyer on Certificate of registration from ERA -

Agenda

- Discuss usage and billing issues 
    - Postpaid - how is that going
    - Meter accuracy? UEDCL meter seemed to come up with less than our meters
    - Lora gateway issues relapsed
    - Waiting to configure daily report issues when China team is back from national holiday next week
    - Work involved in invoicing
- Phase 2 
    - Budget: We are at about 20m right now - should we begin the fundraising? 
        - Tushabe family contributed another ~1800 USD
        - Tondo and Greenvolta wanted to contribute
    - <s>Data on usage: still pending Calin AMI issues but we should be able to get it from Daily usage report </s>
    - Suppliers: SRNE currently looking like the best option

Pending Action items

- Compliance and Safety inspection letter from Certified Engineer - Dansturn
- Visit Nakulabye to complain about bill rates - Aaron
- Run last month reports for calinmeter - Aaron
- Collect data on phase variance - Hillary
- Phase 2 next steps - 
    - Meter 2.0 testing
    - Battery + Inverter testing
    - Budget and fundraising

# NFE Weekly - October 18th 2025

Previous actions

- Compliance and Safety inspection letter from Certified Engineer - Dansturn
- Visit Nakulabye to complain about bill rates - Aaron
- Run last month reports for calinmeter - Aaron
- Collect data on phase variance - Hillary
- Phase 2 next steps - 
    - Meter 2.0 testing
    - Battery + Inverter testing
    - Budget and fundraising

Agenda

- Fundraising updates and next steps
- Metering bottle necks
- Scope for Meter 2.0 testing 
    - Communication with AMI
    - Test with at least 5 meters
    - Need a rig with multiple sockets

Action

- Check with Calinmeter on status of pattern approval with UNBS - Aaron
- Check chint meter + calinmeter readings again for variance in October reading - Hillary
- Move gateway outside for a day or two, move it to main house - Aaron
- Collect data on phase variance for half week to inform phase selection - Hillary
- Mount Meters on a rig and deliver test rid to buwate, Hillary's garage - Dansturn / Hillary
- Running OpenEMS in a test environment - Hillary + Aaron

# NFE Weekly Checkin - October 25th 2025

Agenda

- Battery evaluation updates
- Fundraising Updates
- 100% paid up for September
- We have a mailing list manager (new app)

Action items

- Relocate new meters to Buwate Lab @ Arindas - Dansturn
- Onboard Sevo to help with Data modeling and analysis for battery sizing - Aaron
- Evaluate Zembo and other local suppliers for batteries - Dansturn

# NFE Weekly Checkin - Nov 1st 2025

### Agenda 

- Fundraising Continues 
    - Praxis not successful
    - Submitted [D-Prize (20K) ](https://d-prize.org/#application-process)
    - Up Next 
        - Tondo
        - Akampa
        - Tom
        - Sevo
        - Energy IoT (fiscal sponsorship at 10% fees)
        - Kickstarter
- Metering 2.0 
    - Working with Energy IoT to set up OpenEMS
- Initial [ROI Projections](https://matrix.to/#/!QltThtXhbdLCWFnsAx:matrix.nearlyfreeenergy.com/$dMwmG3L98uTENg2tMD4L9hlxrFnJFfbPFOCLkKmVohY?via=matrix.nearlyfreeenergy.com) for Phase 2
- Registering US entity to aid fundraising

### Action items 

- Export Daily usage data from CalinAMI to determine maximum demand - Aaron
- Possible Pilot for NFE USA - Aaron

# NFE Weekly Checkin - Nov 15th 2025

##### Previous meeting action items

- Export Daily usage data from CalinAMI to determine maximum demand - Aaron 
    - See initial results [here,](https://chatgpt.com/share/691815a5-d418-800c-beff-0c7f7f1c0526) Sevo also committed to doing similar analysis, waiting for his feedback
- Possible Pilot for NFE USA - Aaron

##### Actions Items

- 10 Hopetele meters with a board today 15th Nov 2025 to be delivered to Arinda's Buwate residence - Dansturn
- OpenEMS edge on raspberry pi running - Hillary
- Confirm installation guidelines from SRNE - Aaron
- Detailed breakdown of the Kyanja installation by midweek- Dansturn
- November invoices breakdown
- Midweek weekly check-in Thursday 6-7 am Ugandan time

# NFE Checkin - Jan 7th 2026

### Agenda 

- Roadmap review

### Action Items 

- What will postpaid using Metering 2.0 look like? Will the regulator approve? - Aaron
- Can we sell the product we currently have running at Sezibwa? - Dansturn and Aaron

# NFE weekly checkin - Jan 22nd 2026

### Agenda 

- Product at Sezibwa readiness
- Update on Metering 2.0
- Funding Updates

<div drawio-diagram="74"><img src="https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/uploads/images/drawio/2026-01/drawing-4-1769060135.png" alt=""/></div>

### Action Items 

- What will postpaid using Metering 2.0 look like? Will the regulator approve? - Aaron
- Can we sell the product we currently have running at Sezibwa? - Dansturn and Aaron
- Ask Chint what UNBS approval this smart meter have? - Aaron
- Engage Hillary and Abdul for a session to guide on current blockers - Arinda
- Modbus security risks report - Arinda

# NFE weekly checkin - Jan 29th 2026

Notes

- Metering 2.0 Updates: We are ready to test openEMS edge during this Friday's working session
- Grant applications: we need an Estonian partner for ESTDEV and we need to continue pace of 1 funding application per week
- Whole House backup 
    - Pricing seems higher but maybe worth the value prop of 24 7 power
    - Demo Open Solar CRM

Action items

- Prepare open solar demo for next week - Aaron
- Pitch for Submetering to Lofty Skies customer - Aaron + Dansturn
- Review investor readiness checklist - Dansturn
- Time tracking reminders - Aaron

# NFE Checkin - Feb 6th 2026

Agenda

- OpenEMS
- Fundrasing Update

# NFE checkin - Feb 12 2026

### Deployment Checklist 

- Internet connectivity - orange
- Meter Modbus conversion - orange
- BOQ - green
- deployment pipeline - orange

### Action Items 

- Prepare hardware for gateway deployment to Nansana - Aaron 
    - Sourcing the right internet connectivity device
- AI workflow integration in Design/Quotation/BOQs - Dansturn
- Deploy gateway and 3 phase meter to Nansana - Dansturn
- Get meter unlock script from Hillary Zembo - Hillary

# NFE Weekly Checkin - March 21 2026

### Agenda 

- Demo for Metering 2.0 Changes
- Review of NFE business models: [https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/draft-business-models-for-the-nfe-microgrid-os](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/draft-business-models-for-the-nfe-microgrid-os)

### Action items 

- Data analysis from most recent dump from about 2 days of Grid meter data - Aaron
- Set up local environment (meter + pi ) for testing changes before deploying to production - Hillary
- Procedure for commissioning a new meter and setting up to log data - Hillary / Aaron
- Serial numbers from Nansana - Dansturn / Dismas

# NFE Tech Huddle - April 3rd 2026

### Quick summary

During this meeting, Aaron, Hillary discussed, the current meter-logging system, data buffering and aggregation approach, deployment pipeline, backup and metadata storage, and commissioning/precommissioning of meters.

### Action items for Aaron

- [ ]  Wrap up gateway deployment repo and onboard Hillary so he can use it going forward
- [ ]  NFE Web app integration with real (CSV) data via nextcloud once Hillary has populated sample meter data; coordinate timing for verification.

### Action items for Hillary

- [ ]  Implement and enable the 15-minute buffering and averaging approach (already in place) and ensure exported log entries represent averages for each 15-minute window; document the buffering logic.
- [ ]  Adjust the backup/upload timer to start with hourly uploads and monitor cost/performance; report recommended cadence after initial test period.
- [ ]  Deploy the meter services to the other production Pi and validate that the metadata folder is populated with meter folders (start tonight where possible).
- [ ]  Add a commissioning/precommissioning script that converts meters from the Chinese protocol to Modbus, assigns temporary address 1 for precommissioning, then writes the production address and serial number; document the commissioning procedure and constraints (e.g., stopping services may lock serial port). Onboard Dansturn to execute on this
- [ ]  Share the correct metadata/metadata folder link and confirm access is granted to Aaron; reorganize folder structure as discussed (metadata -&gt; customer -&gt; meter folders).
- [ ]  Test image building and deployment flow (VM build -&gt; push to main -&gt; CI build image -&gt; manual deploy) and document the exact deployment commands.
- [ ]  Test upgrading the client version in a staging environment and report any compatibility/security concerns before upgrading production.

Notes: Hillary already demonstrated the buffering (10s sampling, 15-min average) and the backup/upload service; team agreed to start with hourly uploads and scale as needed. Commissioning constraints and Modbus address conflicts were discussed; precommissioning workflow will be created to avoid on-site conflicts.

# Nfe Weekly checkin - 4th April 2026

### Agenda 

- Review of last week's action items
- Way forward based on feedback
- Discuss a little bit about the pre-commissioning process
- Backup battery updates
- Chint meter deployment plan

### Action items feedback

- Data analysis from the most recent dump from about 2 days of Grid meter data - Aaron - This was done. Preliminary 2-day feedback returned, with concern about the 45kw spikes. needs to be reviewed.
- Set up local environment (meter + pi ) for testing changes before deploying to production - Hillary- Done, testing would be better with a three-phase meter. Aaron also has a dev PI set up.
- Procedure for commissioning a new meter and setting up to log data - Hillary / Aaron - draft presented, to be optimized for Nansana
- Serial numbers from Nansana - Dansturn / Dismas - provided

### Action items 

- Procurement of meters - Dansturn
- Installation and commissioning - All
- Battery backup updates - Aaron

# Tech Huddle - Behind the Meter Connection for each customer

<div drawio-diagram="80"><img src="https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/uploads/images/drawio/2026-04/drawing-4-1775500845.png" alt=""/></div>

# NFE Checkin - 11th April 2026

### Agenda 

- Financial Model game plan: https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/team/page/financial-model-game-plan-q2
- Sezibwa Site plan changes for phase 2: [https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/sezibwa-site-plan-for-phase-2](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/business/page/sezibwa-site-plan-for-phase-2)
- Demos 
    - Pi deployment
    - Customer App v1

### Action items 

- Complete Kyanja energy/power audit inspection - recommendations - @Dansturn
- Get specsheets and dimensions for batteries and inverter - Aaron
- Decision on physical location of batteries and inverter - Hillary and Dansturn
- Data from NFE microgrids - How can we productize this (target for Q2) - Aaron

# NFE Checkin - May 16th 2026

### Agenda 

- Metering 2.0 Updates 
    - Customer App
    - OpenEMS 
        - Support for DDSU and DTSU
        - Deployment Automation for the gateway
    - MBE - Metering and Billing Engine 
        - New invoices
- New customers 
    - Pearl Marina
    - Kyanja
    - Kyaliwajala
- Phase 2 in Nansana 
    - Civil work
- Managing Customer Data
- Funding / 
    - Women Owned Green Business
    - LF Energy Summit 2026
- Metering 3.0 
    - Working with Glenn

Action items

- Update Customer App to show usage using billing markers - Aaron
- 

# NFE Checkin - May 23rd 2026

### Last week's Agenda 

- Metering 2.0 Updates 
    - Customer App -**successfully demoed**
    - OpenEMS 
        - Support for DDSU and DTSU - **both changes merged. release expected first june 2026.**
        - Deployment Automation for the gateway - **Not discussed**
    - MBE - Metering and Billing Engine 
        - New invoices - **Demoed**
- New customers 
    - Pearl Marina
    - Kyanja
    - Kyaliwajala
- Phase 2 in Nansana 
    - Civil work
- Managing Customer Data - **I want the link**
- Funding / 
    - Women Owned Green Business - **Green volta totally in (week 2 of 10)**
    - LF Energy Summit 2026 - **submission underway**
- Metering 3.0 
    - Working with Glenn - prepare for Nairobi workshop

Action items

- Update Customer App to show usage using billing markers - Aaron

### Agenda

- Metering 2.0 Updates 
    - OpenEMS  
        
        - Deployment Automation for the gateway
    - MBE - Metering and Billing Engine
- New customers 
    - Pearl Marina
    - Kyanja
    - Kyaliwajala
- Phase 2 in Nansana 
    - Discussion happening today - happening now
    - Architectural design of the connection

Action items

- Submit the LF energy paper - Aaron
- remove dependency of local pc for uploading customer data to superbase for free - Hillary
- Put demo together and do some testing on test pi for single phase next week - Aaron
- Set Dansturn's account up - Aaron
- BOQ with 1 variable line for the cheaper and more expensive location - Dansturn

# Culture, Vision and Values

What you can expect from our culture and distributed work environment.

# Vision, Strategy, Key Results

<div drawio-diagram="7"><img src="https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/uploads/images/drawio/2025-05/drawing-4-1747776674.png" alt=""/></div>

### Vision

##### Thriving Communities 

[![ChatGPT Image May 20, 2025, 04_49_44 PM.png](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/uploads/images/gallery/2025-05/scaled-1680-/chatgpt-image-may-20-2025-04-49-44-pm.png)](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/uploads/images/gallery/2025-05/chatgpt-image-may-20-2025-04-49-44-pm.png)

### Strategy   


Advancing Sustainable, Reliable, Affordable Energy through resilient Community Owned Microgrids. We build and operate these microgrids and teach others how to do the same.

[![Future.jpeg](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/uploads/images/gallery/2025-05/scaled-1680-/future.jpeg)](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/uploads/images/gallery/2025-05/future.jpeg)

### Key Results   


#### Completed

- Find Partners and advisors and cofounders 
    - Dansturn - Grid Operations
    - Hillary - Metering Technology
    - Michael Goldbach - Advisor
- Attend Microgrid Conference in Dallas, April 2025 and connect with the community
- Register NFE as a Utility Company in Uganda
- Set up collaboration tools for NFE team 
    - [Email and Calendar ](https://nextcloud.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)
    - [Wiki / Documentation](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)
    - [Time tracking ](https://kimai.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)
    - [Website ](https://nearlyfreeenergy.com/)
    - [Group chat ](https://matrix.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)
    - [Video calling](https://jitsi.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)
    - [Meeting Scheduling](https://calcom.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)
    - [Version Source Control](https://gitea.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)
    - [Customer Help desk ](https://freescout.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)
    - [Customer Relationship Management (CRM)](https://espocrm.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)
    - [Project Management ](https://plane.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)
- Evaluations and sourcing for 
    - [Metering Partner ](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/product/page/metering-evalutation)
    - [Payment Processing Provider ](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/product/page/billing-and-payment-system-evalutation)

#### Now

- Pilot microgrid in a small community of 8 to 10 homes  
    
    - Bulk (discounted billing) through UEDCL
    - Test smart metering hardware
    - Test monitoring and steering software for meters
    - Test customer post paid billing
- Connect with Linux Foundation energy community for collaboration on Microgrid software
- Find hardware partners in China
- Connect with 2 potential customers   
    
    - Bugolobi flats
    - ?
- Publish one or two knowledge base articles   
    
    - Share about Smart metering (finding a vendor and deciding on communication protocols)
    - Payment/Vending systems: Evaluating uganda's online payment ecosystem
- Financial Transparency - Publish our finances on open collective

#### Next

- Bellavista microgrid   
    
    - 1st customer onboarding (sign MOU)
    - Enable smart metering
    - Enable customer post paid billing
- Introduce BESS for Pilot customer   
    
    - Test power backup offering

#### Later  


- Enable BESS for Bellavista
- Enable Solar PVs for Pilot
- Start using open source software for running the microgrid

# Collaboration Tools

### Overview

This page contains useful tips for working at NFE and for various tools we use. These tools can be found at dashboard.NearlyFreeEnergy.com

#### Email and Celandar with NextCloud 

[Email and Calendar ](https://nextcloud.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)

#### Documentation with Bookstack 

[Wiki / Documentation](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)

#### Kimai for Time tracking 

[Time tracking ](https://kimai.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)

#### Company Website with Wordpress 

[Website ](https://nearlyfreeenergy.com/)

#### Group Chat with Matrix and Element 

[Group chat ](https://matrix.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)

#### Code Repository with Gitea 

[Version Source Control](https://gitea.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)

#### Customer Help desk with Freescout 

[Customer Help desk ](https://freescout.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)

#### CRM with Espo 

[Customer Relationship Management (CRM)](https://espocrm.nearlyfreeenergy.com/)

#### Project Management with Plane

You can access plane [here](https://plane.nearlyfreeenergy.com/) and their [documentation](https://docs.plane.so/).

#### Video Calls with Jitsi

Jitsi is an important part of GitLab’s strategy for communication between team members. As such, extra care needs to be given to ensure the safety and integrity of data. For how to use Jitsi, refer to their [official documentation](https://jitsi.github.io/handbook/docs/category/user-guide)

#### Scheduling Meetings with Calcom

Most of our work is asynchronous but we'll occassionally need to meet with each other and with external stakeholders. This is what Calcom is for. It's [Free Software](https://tushabe.org/2021/12/31/why-im-closing-my-whatsapp-account/) like most of our tools so you can search online for more information on how to use it. Here's how you can set up your NFE account.

<div id="bkmrk-in-nextcloud-calenda">In Nextcloud Calendar, hover over the link icon to the right of the calendar in question, e.g. Personal, and you see an edit icon. Click the edit icon:  
  
</div><div id="bkmrk-">![image.png](https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NZ-KfVYu4pVafEtimG6dV7yxkH9N-nEdPWcimC22CMkbRqgJ0_vpNJhNHV6IXUrgt7HYw1ENP5_N9im0HtiqBjiifKe--Bk3Qdu2zcdvpMUZ0U6Vcq-7tJwA7Dg2ra0O4fCYoP4GIA6v2jaFlO11bQy5DM4XNKk1EgxHdmgvKqT4IO_6SC9jv47opk=s0-d-e1-ft#https://support.federated.computer/storage/attachment/2/6/11/image.png?id=7594&token=c410788a57085fbf0a4e9756eb349597)</div><div id="bkmrk--1">  
</div><div id="bkmrk--2">  
</div><div id="bkmrk-you%27ll-see-a-pop-up-">You'll see a pop-up like the following. You will want to click the + for "Share link" and then clck the resulting clipboard icon that copies the link to the clipboard:</div><div id="bkmrk--3">  
</div><div id="bkmrk--4">![image.png](https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NbVWO_HCrVTbb5u6oA6mdJ_RIXlLIlReaT58NPKGuUcEQLC46mDklWuhhWYf11TVCxQFVA_hcWHksT8a1iehw0RSL0j6adXVrkno7OM9633psyJbLAo8tSfDOHWeExupTJARUY_ziNkEm89NaHJLa1e-7QwpdYyi3qtsQwTmSQqyVRiknh8AdE0bqw=s0-d-e1-ft#https://support.federated.computer/storage/attachment/4/2/11/image.png?id=7595&token=7a5b37d89e78d42951085c6dc811bead)</div><div id="bkmrk--5">  
</div><div id="bkmrk--6">  
</div><div id="bkmrk-then%2C-you%27ll-want-to">Then, you'll want to go to your Cal.com pop-up for configuring CalDav and paste the link:</div><div id="bkmrk--7">  
</div><div id="bkmrk--8">![image.png](https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NZFKOxGm16mb_H2eQKkos7QmxiXsLwFd4bThd96TiQxrthUKERBQc-55KKyblbil2oRlj2oZPBz3mSjZ6WMUy6w9wuSONw0JWY1Srfcble3GvJn2ltN-QTcgndB_d41RtUwml5XURBuaSkfUiU2-gp4IG_Cs4p9R8XOHGfXRTbcFVj-NzMelOiXWxs=s0-d-e1-ft#https://support.federated.computer/storage/attachment/1/7/13/image.png?id=7596&token=d44d40319c55c7a3c9f190620d25418e)</div><div id="bkmrk--9">  
</div><div id="bkmrk--10">  
</div><div id="bkmrk-then-continue-the-pr">Then continue the process of connecting to your Nextcloud calendar via CalDav, confirming event creation:</div><div id="bkmrk--11">  
</div><div id="bkmrk--12">![image.png](https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_Naqe__1DQzfuDzqlghrXGYaDnB0y9nTiP_vtZn6HYTnenMj228jjCiXgx1ofm-q6OWTftCYF89D-uck6RG44K7x9Cr15giNpAYzV78-4Gxs88vKbtMANZj3YQ3UxsHdi6wvcy94F_4s4AomNFpbBINBORi6W2tHeYzZOdBHP5rIw2hRu46XF4RK7A=s0-d-e1-ft#https://support.federated.computer/storage/attachment/7/9/8/image.png?id=7597&token=56d9c77675a219633573537cf39b2b56)</div><div id="bkmrk--13">  
</div><div id="bkmrk--14">  
</div><div id="bkmrk-complete-the-remaini">Complete the remaining steps. You can leave video settings for later. Confirm your availability times. Add a profile photo / avatar.</div>

# Values

### Collaboration

We are better Together: If you want to go quickly, go alone but if you want to go far, go together

### Curiosity

Always learning, frequently questioning and listening.

### Community   


Default to Openness. We want to learn and build in public so that others who care about what we are working on can also learn and consider contributing to our mission. They'll be a few things that need to be private like our customers contact information but we aim to be open about how and what we are working on. So when in doubt, just share it.

### People first

Relationships count most, invest in them. We want to give reach other room to center our lives around family and friends, not our jobs.

### Managers of One

People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed. What it means to be [a manager of one](https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1430-hire-managers-of-one).

# Culture - how we work

Most of our work is asynchronous, this is the best way for people in different timezones, schedules and places to effectively collaborate. The people at Gitlab wrote [a good guide on asynchronous work](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/asynchronous/), please go read it.

Here's some tips from Aaron

- Lean on element/matrix to start conversations about something you are inclined to "have a meeting or call" about. You'll be surprised by how much progress you can make on something without scheduling a meeting.
- Expect that progress might feel slower than having everyone in the same room at the same time.
- You need to get better at writing your thoughts and ideas out. We really very heavily on written communication to collaborate
- If you have an idea or suggestion, make use of our bookstack library and create a page for it as we discuss it.

# NFE is a Social Venture!

### Our Identity

We, <span class="s1">**Nearly Free Energy (NFE)**</span>, operate as a <span class="s1">**social enterprise**</span> — a mission-driven business committed to providing affordable, sustainable energy solutions while generating profit in a responsible and inclusive manner.

### Our Purpose

Nearly Free Energy exists to:

- Advance access to <span class="s1">**sustainable, reliable, affordable electricity**</span> for every community;
- Support <span class="s1">**energy independence and resilience**</span> through microgrid innovation;
- Create <span class="s1">**local economic opportunities**</span> by empowering households, cooperatives, and small businesses to manage their energy needs

### Our Core Principles

We are guided by the following values:

#### People-Centered Impact

We prioritize the needs, dignity, and aspirations of the communities we serve. Our solutions are co-designed with our users, and we strive to create long-term value and inclusion.

#### Environmental Stewardship

We commit to environmental sustainability in our products, services, and operations — advancing renewable energy efficiency solutions to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

#### Financial Sustainability

We operate for profit to ensure our longer-term viability. We reinvest earnings in innovation, infrastructure, and impact — balancing financial returns with social outcomes.

#### Transparency and Accountability

We share our goals, progress, and challenges openly with our stakeholders. We maintain integrity in our dealings with customers, employees, partners, and investors.

#### Community Partnership

We build local capacity and respect local knowledge. We collaborate with community organizations, public agencies, and other enterprises to maximize shared value.

### Governance and Decision-Making

- Our leadership team is accountable for balancing financial, environmental, and social performance in all major decisions.
- Impact and profit are both KPIs in our internal planning and reviews.
- We welcome regular feedback from our customers, partners, and employees to help shape our direction.

### Reporting and Learning

- We will publish a <span class="s1">**Social Impact Report**</span> at least once a year to document progress toward our mission.
- We will share lessons learned, challenges faced, and areas for improvement in line with our commitment to transparency.

### Our Long-Term Vision

We envision a world where energy is:

- <span class="s1">**Sustainable**</span> — powered by renewable resources
- <span class="s1">**Affordable**</span> — enabling families and businesses to thrive;
- <span class="s1">**Community-owned**</span> — unlocking local prosperity and autonomy.

---

Till every community can sustain their energy needs.

# Co-op Resources from Startup.coop

We also encourage you to check out our [free Lean Co-op course](https://startcoop.teachable.com/p/lean-co-op) if you haven’t already and see if there are local resources within the [Cooperation Works ](https://cooperationworks.coop/)network who can continue to help you refine your vision!

We have also listed advocacy, technical assistance, financing and general startup resources on the [build](http://start.coop/build) and [resource](https://www.start.coop/resources) pages of our website. And have provided a list of additional resources below:

- [Network for Developing Conscious Communities DC and Baltimore CoopNomics Academy](https://ndccnetwork.org/baltimore-and-district-of-columbia-coorporative-academy/)
- [Solidarity as a Business Model: a Multi-Stakeholder Cooperative Manual](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5cdc97dbfcbd7455a5788315/5db1f81846afb96ac03c3c1d_a-multi-stakeholder-cooperatives-manual-1.pdf)
- [Webinar on Worker Self Directed Nonprofits: Workplace Democracy in Nonprofit Organizations](https://youtu.be/uU1w9uXGGLY?feature=shared)
- [Co-op Law: Resources for Worker Cooperatives](https://co-oplaw.org/)
- [Establishing a Worker Cooperative for Business Succession Planning](https://smlr.rutgers.edu/worker-cooperative-education-program)
- [Becoming Employee Owned: a Small Business Toolkit](https://becomingemployeeowned.org/)
- [Think Outside the Boss: How to Create a Worker-Owned Business](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_rgt0QdXUbycnprd3hhYzdWNnc/view?resourcekey=0-udk68fxCiFJc4_TjlJokHA)
- [The FCI Guide to Starting a Food Co-op](https://fci.coop/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Startup_Guide2017.pdf)
- [A Technology Freelancer's Guide to Starting a Worker Cooperative](https://electricembers.coop//pubs/TechCoopHOWTO.pdf)

# Glossary

PDU - Power Distribution Unit

DCU - Data Concentrator Unit

LV - Low Voltage

IPC - Insulation Piercing Connector

CT - Current Transformer

# ByLaws

# Welcome

<p class="callout info">This work, "NFE Bylaws", works as the operating agreement for Watt Works Foundation Limited and is a derivative of "Ampled ByLaws and East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative Bylaws" by theselc.org, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.</p>

<span class="notion-heading__anchor" id="bkmrk--1"></span>

# Our Bylaws

This is the guidebook for NFE. This document explains how shared ownership model works, how decisions are made, and how profit is shared.

These Bylaws provide guidance for Watt Works Foundation Limited (dba NFE), our desire is to empower each other to steward NFE's vision well and go beyond simply following the letter of the bylaws.

We think having the ByLaws in place can be a helpful safety net when conflict inevitably arises but we expect and encourage 1:1 conversational deliberations rooted in our values to be the first tool we reach for to resolve conflicts peacefully.

# Mission and Values

### Mission

We are here to advance energy resilience using community owned sustainable energy microgrids.

### Values 

#### Collaboration

We are better Together: If you want to go quickly, go alone but if you want to go far, go together

#### Curiosity

Always learning, frequently questioning and listening.

#### Community   


Default to Openness. We want to learn and build in public so that others who care about what we are working on can also learn and consider contributing to our mission. They'll be a few things that need to be private like our customers contact information but we aim to be open about how and what we are working on. So when in doubt, just share it.

#### People first

Relationships count most, invest in them. We want to give each other room to center our lives around family and friends, not our jobs.

#### Managers of One

People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed. What it means to be [a manager of one](https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1430-hire-managers-of-one).

### Five dysfunctions

Our values also help us to prevent the [five dysfunctions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_Dysfunctions_of_a_Team#Summary):

1. **Fear of conflict** Seeking artificial harmony over constructive passionate debate =&gt; *prevented by transparency, specifically Managers of One* *and Collaboration.*
2. **Absence of trust** Unwilling to be vulnerable within the group =&gt; *prevented by Collaboration, specifically* People first.
3. **Avoidance of accountability** Ducking the responsibility to call peers on counterproductive behavior which sets low standards =&gt; *prevented by Community.*
4. **Inattention to results** Focusing on personal success, status, and ego before team success =&gt; *prevented by Managers of One*
5. **Lack of commitment** Feigning buy-in for group decisions creates ambiguity throughout the organization =&gt; *prevented by Community and Managers of One*

Some dysfunctions are not addressed directly by our values; for example, trust is not one of our values. Similar to happiness, trust is something that is an outcome, not something you can strive for directly. We hope that the way we work and our values will instill trust, instead of mandating it from people; trust is earned, not given

# Ownership

<p class="callout success">NFE is owned by the community of people contributing to NFE's mission. </p>

### Owners or Members

*Owner-member* is the term we use to refer to people NFE recognizes as owners or members of the NFE co-operative.

- Each ownership category elects at least 1 and a maximum of 2 representatives on the NFE board. Each board member serves a 2 year term, they serve for a maximum of 2 terms.
- Owner-members take on 3 main categories. Some members can be recognized within more than one category.

#### Workers

- Workers contribute by investing time and skills to NFE activities they are hired to complete.
- They make most decisions about the day to day operations of NFE but their board representatives vote on the major decisions
- Becoming a Worker-Owner requires 3 things   
    
    - Work and report at least 240 hours or 6 months, whichever comes first. This work needs to be regular ie at least 5 hours per month.
    - Agreement to the NFE ByLaws
    - Approval of at least 2/3 our current worker-owners

#### Funders 

- Funders contribute money to an NFE microgrid project.
- Their board representatives vote on major decisions
- Becoming a Funder-Owner requires 3 things 
    - Fund at least 10% of the cost Phase 1 of a given microgrid
    - Agreement to the NFE ByLaws
    - Approval of at least 2/3 our current funder-owners

#### Customers

- Customers contribute by using and paying for energy via NFE's microgrids
- Their board representatives vote on major decisions
- Becoming a Customer-Owner requires 3 things 
    - Contributing for at least 12 consecutive months
    - Agreement to the NFE ByLaws
    - Approval of at least 2/3 our current customer-owners

<p class="callout info">Please note that NFE membership voluntary. Individuals or organizations can be funders, workers or customers and chose not to apply for member/ownership. </p>

### Responsibilities of Owner-Members

- Active participation in NFE activities as prescribed by their membership category
- Voting on admission of new members

### Benefits of Owner-Members 

- Influencing Major NFE and NFE microgrid decision
- Annual Surplus sharing 
    - Workers - equal share of NFE's surplus (NFE is a worker-member of every microgrid we operate)
    - Customers - proportional share of respective microgrid's surplus, proportional to their contribution
    - Funders - proportional share of funded entity's surplus, proportional to their contribution.
- Existing owners get right of refusal to opportunities for new membership as workers, customers or funders.

### Suspending Membership 

- Ownership is suspended if an owner-member stops contributing and is given at least one warning.
- Ownership is suspended if an owner-member dies or is dissolved or closed in the case of an organization owner.
- The Board otherwise expels an Owner on grounds of actions contrary to the mission and values, as long as the Board uses a consistent, fair, and reasonable procedure for expulsion (provided in writing to the Owners) that gives an Owner a reasonable period of time in which to explain or correct a problem.

### Non Owner Community Members 

Not all our stakeholders are currently eligible for becoming members but are still part of the community so theoretically could be owners in the future.

- Suppliers - NFE partners with organizations like UEDCL (Macrogrid operator in Uganda), Calinmeter Co a metering supplier and Linux and EnAccess foundations are key software partners. We would like to include them as members but are get to craft a model to that effect.
- Regulators - Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) and Uganda National Beurou of Standards (UNBS) are also key stakeholders and part of our community but are currently not eligible for membership.
- Advisors - We have a board of advisors who provide guidance on our business, technology and people model. We may compensate these advisors for their time but they are currently not eligible for membership.
- Donors - These have gifted the co-op resources in cash for in-kind. eg Energy IoT

# Board of Directors

<p class="callout info">This group are the guardians of the NFE mission. They help steer and make all major decisions. </p>

### Board Members 

- All board members except the CEO are elected by the owner-members
- The Board generally stewards the process by which work is carried out, as opposed to directing the substance of the work.
- CEO is hired by NFE workers and approved by the board

### Responsibilities 

- Regularly reviewing financials and financial decisions, changes to employee compensation, and periodic budget review.
- Monitoring compliance with the law.
- Reviewing internal policies adopted by Workers.
- Providing feedback and guidance to workers and Making reasonable inquiry into any concerning activities or decisions by workers.
- Intervening when the NFE's members engage in overly risky or illegal activity

### Board Elections

- Happen every time a board position is open.
- Board terms are a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 2 years.
- Members will serve for at most 2 consecutive terms.

### Board member removal 

- A board member may be removed by the members that elected that particular board member
- A board member may be removed if they die or the organization is closed or dissolved.
- CEO may be removed by a simple majority of the board members.

### Binding NFE

The Secretary or Chairperson or CEO may sign a document or make a binding commitment on behalf of NFE. The Board may designate other people through a board resolution, to do the same.

# Directly Responsible Individuals

<p class="callout success">NFE is a community owned organization but we rely very little on consensus to make most decisions. Directly Responsible Individuals (DRIs) at NFE own particular projects, initiatives, or activity and make most decisions concerning those areas. </p>

### What is a directly responsible individual?

[Apple coined the term](https://fortune.com/article/how-apple-works-inside-the-worlds-biggest-startup/) “directly responsible individual” (DRI). The idea is that every project is assigned a DRI who is ultimately held accountable for the success (or failure) of that project.

They likely won’t be the only person working on their assigned project, but it’s [“up to that person to get it done or find the resources needed.”](https://originalfuzz.com/blogs/magazine/83782148-the-directly-responsible-individual)

DRIs may be a lead or senior or associate worker. The selection of a DRI and their specific role will vary based on their own skillset and the requirements of their assigned task. What’s most important is that they’re empowered.

While the DRI is the individual who is ultimately held accountable for the success or failure of any given project, they are not necessarily the individual that does the tactical project work. The DRI should **consult and collaborate** with all teams and stakeholders involved to ensure they have all relevant context, to gather input/feedback from others, and to divide action items and tasks amongst those involved.

### Empowering DRIs

It is important to understand that DRIs do not owe anyone an explanation for their decisions. If you force a DRI to explain too much, you’ll create incentives to ship projects under the radar. The fear of falling into a perpetual loop of explaining can [derail a DRI](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/team/page/mission-and-values), and cause people to defer rather than working with a bias for action.

We would much rather foster a culture where DRIs are willing to put their ideas in the open. This enables feedback from a broad range of diverse perspectives, which the DRI can take into account and choose how (if at all) it shapes their thinking.

### Communication and feedback

A DRI should be able to articulate the objectives, check progress and give and receive feedback. This will ensure the DRI can change direction or plan ahead to avoid any setbacks.

At NFE we communicate and work [asynchronously](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/management/#asynchronous), you can read more about it on [this page](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/).

One thing to consider when a DRI needs to give or receive feedback is that they may not be the actual manager of the other members of the team.

### DRI, Consulted, Informed (DCI)

Different organizations use different methods of assigning responsibility; one of the most popular is the [RACI Matrix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsibility_assignment_matrix), which outlines who the Responsible-Accountable-Consulted-Informed people should be on a decision or project.

GitLab’s implementation of a DRI for decision-making means that we have evolved the RACI matrix to DCI (DRI, Consulted, Informed).

The **Responsible** and **Accountable** person is the **DRI**, the **Consulted** people are those whose opinions are sought, typically subject-matter experts; and with whom there is two-way communication. and **Informed** people are those who are kept up-to-date on progress, often only on completion of the task or deliverable; and with whom there is just one-way communication.

### Circumstances Requiring the Rare Need for Approvals

- Decisions that impact more than a single project
- Could have large financial impact
- Could present significant risk to the business
- Have business reputation considerations
- Decisions regarding approval or removal of NFE members, NFE project members and their respective board members as

# Surplus Sharing

### What and why

- After the end of every fiscal year, NFE shall do the following:
- Determine available surpluses for each project for reallocation.
- Allocate some or all surpluses to members, following the procedures described under “How Surplus Is distributed”.

If, instead of surpluses, there are losses, the losses will be allocated in any manner that the Board determines to be fair and equitable, in consideration of the circumstances leading to the loss.

### How Surplus is Distributed

- Books are balanced for each project under NFE as well as NFE itself.
- NFE will propose to the board on how to invest the surplus in any of 3 ways in order of priority 
    - Every project will first pay back the principal contribution from all it's funders.
    - The project will then consider how much to reinvest back in the project expansion
    - Remaining surplus per project is distributed to it's members equally (workers) or proportionally to contributions for funders and customers.

# Will & Testament

### How NFE will close 

<article class="notion-root max-width" id="bkmrk-any-proposal-to-sell">Any proposal to sell, dissolve, or liquidate NFE or it's projects must be approved by 2/3 of the board. In such an event, after paying or adequately providing for all debts, liabilities, and repayment to contributors, NFE shall make payments in following the procedures described under “Surplus Sharing”

Defending and Compensating members

NFE shall have the power to indemnify its Workers, Customers, Funders and their agents to the fullest extent permitted by law. NFE shall compensate a Worker, Customer or Funder for any expenses incurred from lawsuits, penalties, fines, and costs of defense if the person incurred these expenses in connection with fulfilling their duties as a Worker, Customer or Funder. This is also called “indemnification.”

However, NFE is not obligated to “indemnify” a person if such expenses arose from a situation where the person stole funds, knowingly received funds they were not entitled to, intentionally committed a crime, or recklessly or intentionally harmed NFE or its members.

</article>

# Changing Bylaws

Prior to the first Board election, these Bylaws may be changed by approval of a majority of Initial Worker-Owners.

Once a Board has been elected, with exceptions listed below or on a specific Bylaws page, these Bylaws may be changed by approval of 2/3 of Board at a duly called Owner meeting, or by 2/3 of those voting by electronic ballot duly submitted to Owners, so long as a quorum participates. All elections should provide at least 15 days prior notice.

**Exceptions include:**

- Changes to the Bylaws (including formatting changes) not affecting the decision-making power or financial rights of Members may be made by approval of 2/3 of the Board.
- Each time a page in the Bylaws is amended, the Board Secretary will email a copy of the new Bylaws to all Owners, and will put the Bylaws on the NFE Library. The Library will include an archive of all old Bylaws. NFE's Library software (bookstack) will be used to maintain revision history and comments for more context on why each change was made.

# Ownership (Membership)

<p class="callout info">This project is community owned as per the model described [here](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/team/page/ownership). </p>

<p class="callout success">This the membership for NFE co-operative. </p>

### Funders 

- Tushabes - <span class="whitespace-nowrap font-bold text-xl">12,027.86</span> USD
- Arindas - 1,000 USD
- Kimbowas - 1,000 USD

### Workers 

- Dansturn Kimbowa - L3
- Hillary Arinda - L3
- Aaron Tushabe - L3

### Customers 

- Non eligible yet

# Membership

### Workers 

- Founding Team 
    - Dansturn Kimbowa
    - Hillary Arinda
    - Aaron Tushabe

### Funders 

- Danturn and Ethol Kimbowa
- Martha and Aaron Tushabe
- Hillary Arinda

### Customers 

- Sezibwa Homes 
    - Samuel Kisakye
    - Juliet N. Sezibwa
    - Peter Ntale
    - Wataba Samuel
    - Jackie Nabisere
    - Chicken Masters - Office
    - Robert Irumba
    - Stephen Nganda
    - Derrick Katwesigye
    - Ronald Babalanda

### Advisors 

- [Sumaya](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumaya-mahomed-sustainability/)
- [Alba](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alba-topulli-9a233a61/)
- [Joel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-mugyenyi-46417b142/)
- [Elaine](https://www.linkedin.com/in/elaine-catherine-baker/)

# Roadmap

### Now 

- Optimize Phase 1 Operations for Sezibwa Rentals 
    - Billing 2.0: Improve invoicing with MBE - Aaron/Hillary
    - Metering 2.1: Improve metering with Realtime Monitoring - Hillary   
        
        - meter reading cron job
        - Customer App for user monitoring
    - Business As Usual - operations: Customer Support, Billing, Taxes - Aaron
- Phase 2 for Sezibwa Rentals   
    
    - Fundraising for Batteries - Aaron
    - Storage 1.0:   
        
        - Locally source LFP battery and inverters - Dansturn
    - Energy consumption and outage profiling - Samson
- Scaling from 10 households to 100 households   
    
    - New Product: Submetering
    - Interconnection process: Code 2.0 applications
    - Interconnection application for 2 sites 
        - Kyanja - Not yet started
        - Pearl Marina - In-progress
        - Kyaliwajala - Not yet started

### Next 

- Fundraising for NFE growth for the next 2 to 3 years - Equity Investors: Break down [here](https://bookstack.nearlyfreeenergy.com/books/team/page/financial-model-game-plan-q2).
- Metering 2.2 
    - OpenEMS integration
- Billing 2.1 
    - CRM and billing with MPM
- Storage 2.0: 
    - Using OpenEMS for Battery and inverter monitoring - Aaron

### Later 

- NFE Platform (metering, storage, solar) for other energy developers (similar to [weEMS](https://white-energy.eu/en/)) 
    - NFE partners (NFE platform as a service)
    - New Product: Single Home Backup version 1.0
- NFE Pilot in the US (we see here and we have NFE community members based in the US)
- Discovery: 
    - Water Outage Backup for Communities
    - Unlimited Drinking water - Using reverse osmosis systems for homes
    - Community wide Wifi networks

### Released

- [Sezibwa Rental Homes; Phase 1](https://nearlyfreeenergy.com/2025/11/12/go-live-pilot-at-sezibwa-rental-homes-phase-1-0/)
- Metering version 1.0 (based on [Calinmeter](https://www.szcalinmeter.com/) and CalinAMI)
- Billing version 1.0 (based on custom spreadsheets tariff calculations, Whatsapp for communication and URA's [EFRIS](https://ura.go.ug/en/efris/) for invoicing)
- Metering 2.0 
    - Locally sourced meters from [Chint](https://www.chintglobal.com/eg/en/products/instruments-meters/electricity-meter/ddsy666.html)
    - Access to data from Chint meters is also open (they are programmable)

# Financial Model Game plan - Q2

---

# **🎯 The 3 Goals**

1. **Microgrid unit economics model**
2. **Fundraising narrative**
3. **Stress test your monetization models (Owned vs Partner)**

---

# **🧭 Phase 1 (Week 1–2): Build Financial Clarity (Foundation)**

## **1) Microgrid Unit Economics Model**

### **What you’re building**

<span class="s3">A </span>**per-site financial model**<span class="s3"> that answers:</span>

> “If we deploy one microgrid, does it make money?”

---

## **Step 1: Define core inputs**

Start simple (don’t overcomplicate):

### **Costs (CapEx)**

- Battery (e.g., 10kWh setup)
- Inverter
- Installation (+20%)
- Metering hardware
- Any fixed setup costs

### **Revenue**

- Avg monthly revenue per household
- Number of households (e.g., 10 → 100 → 360)
- Tariff (or effective price per kWh)

### **Operating costs (OpEx)**

- Maintenance
- Staff/ops allocation
- Platform/software (NFE OS)
- Losses / non-payment buffer

---

## **Step 2: Build outputs**

You want 5 key metrics:

- Monthly revenue per site
- Monthly profit
- Payback period (months)
- Gross margin (%)
- Cash flow over time

---

## **Step 3: Answer key questions**

- How long to recover CapEx?
- What happens if:
    
    
    - Usage drops 20%?
    - Costs increase 15%?
- <span class="s1">What is your </span>**minimum viable scale per site**<span class="s1">?</span>

---

## **Deliverable**

👉 A simple Google Sheet model (I can help you structure this next)

---

# **🧭 Phase 2 (Week 2–3): Stress Test Your Two Models**

Now apply the model to your two strategies:

---

## **Model A: NFE-Owned Microgrid**

### **What to evaluate**

- Total capital required per site
- Revenue collected directly
- Payback period
- Cash constraints (how many sites you can deploy)

### **Key insight you want:**

> “How fast can we scale before we run out of cash?”

---

## **Model B: Partner-Owned Microgrid**

### **What to evaluate**

- Your revenue:
    
    
    - Flat fee per customer
    - +5% of electricity sales
- Your costs:
    
    
    - Ops + maintenance

### **Key insight:**

> “Is this a high-margin, low-capex business?”

---

## **Compare side-by-side**

<table id="bkmrk-metric-nfe-owned-par"><thead><tr><th>**Metric**

</th><th>**NFE-Owned**

</th><th>**Partner Model**

</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Capital required

</td><td>High

</td><td>Low

</td></tr><tr><td>Margin

</td><td>High (long-term)

</td><td>Lower but steady

</td></tr><tr><td>Risk

</td><td>Higher

</td><td>Lower

</td></tr><tr><td>Speed of scale

</td><td>Slower

</td><td>Faster

</td></tr></tbody></table>

---

## **Strategic output**

You should be able to say:

- “We lead with Partner model to scale fast”
- or
- “We prioritize Owned model for long-term value”

<span class="s2">👉 This becomes </span>**core to your pitch**

---

# **🧭 Phase 3 (Week 3–4): Build Your Fundraising Narrative**

Now turn your numbers into a <span class="s3">**story investors understand**</span>

---

## **1) Problem (you already do this well)**

- Unreliable grids
- Diesel backup risks
- Growing urban demand

---

## **2) Solution (tighten this)**

- “Community microgrids that turn backup power into primary infrastructure”

---

## **3) Business Model (now backed by numbers)**

Use your model to clearly show:

- Revenue per site
- Margin
- Payback

---

## **4) Traction**

- Pilot (10 homes)
- Phase 2 (100 homes)
- Pipeline (360 apartments)

---

## **5) Scaling Strategy (THIS is key)**

From your analysis:

Example:

- Phase 1: Pilot + validate
- Phase 2: Scale via partner model
- Phase 3: Selectively own high-value sites

---

## **6) Use of funds**

Your model should let you say:

- “$300K deploys X sites”
- “Each site generates $Y/month”
- “Break-even in Z months”

---

## **Deliverable**

👉 A clean 8–10 slide pitch (or 1–2 page memo)

---

# **🧭 Phase 4 (Week 4–6): Add Financial Discipline**

This replaces what a CFO would start doing.

---

## **1) Monthly financial tracking**

Track:

- Revenue per site
- Cost per site
- Collection rates
- Downtime

---

## **2) Define 5 core KPIs**

For NFE, I’d suggest:

- Revenue per customer
- Cost per customer
- Payback period per site
- System uptime (%)
- Collection efficiency (%)

---

## **3) Cash planning (critical)**

Build a simple view:

- Cash today
- Monthly burn
- Months of runway

---

# **⚠️ Critical mindset shift**

You’re moving from:

> “We are building microgrids”

to:

> “We are deploying capital into energy assets that must return money”

That shift is what investors care about.

---

# **🧩 How this all connects**

- **Unit economics → proves viability**
- **Model comparison → defines strategy**
- **Narrative → unlocks capital**
- **Tracking → sustains growth**