Energy companies on the Colombian Caribbean coast face a daily loss of more than USD400,000 due to theft. This problem causes a 50% increase in the energy bills that legal users must pay monthly, leading to a severe social issue. Most energy theft comes from informal businesses, of which fried food carts are a significant part.

We needed to find a solution to this problem to mitigate energy theft in a region of the country where connecting to illegal and unsafe energy sources to work is normalized.

Objectives

1. To mitigate the impact of energy theft.

2. To find a solution that turns the actors of the problem into the actual solvers by using easy-access tools.

3. To reduce the insecurity faced by those who use illegal energy as a source for their daily labor.

According to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), more than 5.65 million Colombians work informally.

In the Colombian Caribbean, 7 out of 10 people depend on informal businesses, the region of the country with the highest informal dependency.

The problem is that the "rebusque" economy forces these entrepreneurs to operate in complex conditions and, in many cases, with illegal energy.

This context, among other factors, has caused energy companies to lose US$400,000 daily due to energy theft.

Energy companies lose US$400,000 per day due to energy theft, among others, from informal businesses. Many of those who operate these businesses are dedicated to fried food, a gastronomic tradition of decades in the country. The big problem is that informality forces these entrepreneurs to connect to illegal and unsafe energy sources, mainly because they need help to afford to pay for a legal energy source.

Centelsa by Nexans, a company dedicated to electrification, provided a solution. Then, with the oil that used to be wasted, we built a new operating mechanism that allowed them:

1. To have enough light to work until the early morning hours.

2. To have a connection for mobile and electronic devices.

3. To have a source of energy to cook their fried food.

4. To have a cart with enough mobility to increase their sales.

Centelsa by Nexans, a company with a vision of electrifying the future, developed a self-sufficient fried food cart fully powered by waste oil that was no longer fit for consumption.

This allowed them to:

1. Have enough lighting to work all night legally.

2. Assure power to run electronics and charge mobile devices.

3. Use a new, reliable fuel capable of running the fryers.

4. Move faster through town with a waste oil-powered food cart.

5. Avoid fines and closings for waste oil inappropriate disposal.

We took the oil they repeatedly use that is no longer fit for consumption and filtered it into an engine to replace the gasoline, turning it into a reliable energy source. In this way, not only were they able to access utterly legal energy, but they also avoided the waste of oil that ended up being environmental and public health.

Implementation

We took the oil they repeatedly use that is no longer fit for consumption and filtered it into an engine to replace the gasoline, turning it into a reliable energy source. In this way, not only were they able to access utterly legal energy, but they avoided the waste of oil that also ended up being an environmental and public health problem.

Timeline

1. We ran a pilot to determine how to run the engine with waste oil from their activity.

2. We designed a cart that solved the energy needs they had, like lighting, power access, heat, and movement.

3. We put the cart into operation in known areas where they usually work.

4. We expanded the coverage of the food cart to other cities in the region.

Placement

Streets of the most important cities of the Colombian Caribbean coast.

Scale

Cities like Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Riohacha.

90% of informal businesses operate with stolen energy. We worked on 70% of these businesses. It represents a decrease in energy theft of more than $290,000 daily.

The scalability of the initiative seeks to cover 70% of the food carts operating in the Caribbean. In addition, the local government is interested in protecting 100% of the informal businesses that still work with illegal energy.

Self-Sufficient Food Cart achieved more than USD150000 on earned media.

35% of fried food carts are using our innovation.

Self-Sufficient Food Cart became a sustainable initiative that positively impacted the region because the oil that used to be wasted now functions as an energy source for informal businesses and helps reduce the energy theft problem.

From 2.2%, Centelsa by Nexans grew to 19% spontaneous awareness.

We wanted to mitigate the negative buzz around energy theft in the Colombian Caribbean region. At the same time, we needed to find something that would turn informal workers into part of the solution.

By turning the waste oil from fried food carts into a completely new energy system, we created a positive feeling around a sustainable solution that fought the social problem of energy theft and the environmental impact of waste oil.