Transition to Renewable Energies Through Mini-grids

Providing Access to Clean, Reliable and Affordable Power to the Poor in Bihar (India) Through Solar Microgrid Networks

Abstract

Bihar is 3^rd largest state in terms of population of the 27 states in India, having 9% of population, and in terms of area it is the 12^th largest and has less than 3% of the total national area. Per capita energy consumption is 95 units, which is 8 times less than the national average. The reasons for this are attributed to Insufficient supply and high transmission & distribution losses (51%). Bihar clearly is the state with the highest population density, wherein most of the other states have no access to electricity which causes a huge demand-supply gap. These factors among others have led to strong market opportunitys for off-grid energy solutions. The government in Bihar has made some changes in its laws which have led to the emergence of enterprises in various sectors as well as the improvement of infrastructure.

Objectives

To create a sustainable solar microgrid project in order to adress the electricity shortage problems that Bihar is facing.

Approach

To begin the installation, a room is constructed where solar panels of 5.5kW are set up to generate power during the day and store it in the energy bank. At night this energy is converted from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) using a solar power conditioning unit (PCU) and is then transmitted to various clusters of 10 houses each. Each cluster has a distribution box which supplies power to 10 households (HHs) separately. In order to limit the supply, a load checker is kept for HHs to keep a cap on maximim alloted usage. Due to problems with theft of the components, the transimission system was subsequently built underground.

Learned Lessons

Some of the issues that were resolved immediately after carefully observing the operations in the first plant and these were:

Abuse of system - Reduced through underground transmission and load checkers.

Securing of equipment in locked cabinets and hardware in a locked room.

System Maintenance - Train people locally to do the basic maintenance.

Regular visits by technical supervisors.

- Monitoring

Incentivizing local NGO Vs Remote monitoring.

- Regular payment collection.

Currently being addressed by incentivizing operators.

Pepaid meter- for buying credits by making advanced payment- were not installed because of weather issues leading to insufficient charge in batteries.

Diesel Generator Hybrid system with a BMS to be introduced.

The 3 middle ones in orange were further improved by having a network of SMGs.

Discussion and Open questions

1. The allowed consumption is 15 watts per household, is it possible to increase the demand?

• It is allowed to increase it to 30 Watt.

2- How did you identify the village? And how can you assess their willingness to adopt solar mini grid? What is the cost per unit of electricity, and the payback period for the investment?

Village here means a town that does not have electricity. And we can assist them with having electricity. The cost of each kWh is 55 Rupee. The payback period is around 3 years.

3- There are several stakeholders for the systems, how do you manage that?

No, they are owned by the company itself. With non government organization (NGO),

Companies can build Operate and Transfer.

4- Is it possible to manage the systems by the community?

At the moment No, because you need some authority. We do our best to do that in the near future.

5- Are you paying NGOs?

We do not pay, but part of the fees collected by them is shared.

6- Does your company has any gender issues?

No. In fact one of the operators is a woman.

7- How do you see the rule of private sector?

Now the government is doing the projects, but later on the private sector should do much effort.

8- In the process of distribution, how do you manage the waste of energy?

There is no waste of energy. It is decentralized.

9- Why is the cost per unit of electricity very high?

Because it includes pulps and lightings with the cost of the solar system

10- How do you see your company in the future?

We have a longer vision for scaling, and expected to grow.

11- What do you see the key requirement to transition to renewable energy?

The main is regulation and policy

12- Do the Micro energy systems work better?

Yes there are fewer losses in case of less populations

13- What is the most recent question you look forward to know?

At what scale I can use this power?

A Case of Nepal

Abstract

More than 2 billion populations worldwide have no access or no reliable access to electricity, where 99 % of these populations are in developing countries. About 80% of them live in rural areas. In Nepal 56% population has access to electricity (49% - rural areas), but with up to 16 hours of load-shedding in National Grid. So this study has been done to show if individual renewable energy technologies have socio-economic benefits.

Objectives

To show the socio benefits those the individual renewable energy technologies have in Nepal.

Approach

The approach that has been considered is Next Generation of Renewable Based Mini-Grids. This approach has many advantages such as:

- Grid Stabilization

- Reliable energy supply

- Avoids end-user maintenance

- Periodic maintenance

- Simple integration of different energy sources (PV, wind, hydro, etc.)

- Least-cost option

- Increasing quality of energy services

- Support local infrastructure and economic development

- Alternative solution to the national electrical grid

Discussion and open questions

1- What do you see the key requirement to transition to renewable energy?

The main is regulation and policy

2- If using individual renewable energy systems reliable, why it did not expand?

In Nepal they have just small projects, they will expand later

3- Who owns the assets?

The community

4- In the new project, which will takes place in Nepal, are new villages will be electrified by new installations or old mini-grids will be connected together?

No new installations. Try to connect all the systems together. The 6 projects are near to each other that will balance the power in the grid

5- Do you use smart management?

We do not use at the moment, may be in the future.

6- Do the micro energy systems work better?

Yes, houses are separated, so the voltage will drop in case of not using micro energy systems.

7- What is the most recent question you look forward to know?

What are the technical impacts of the new project!

3- Geographic analysis of isolated diesel mini-grids for the implementation of renewable energies – A case study of Tanzania

Abstract

Tanzania is an African country with around 47 million populations live in a country area of around 950,000 km². The installed capacity of electricity power generation is more than 950MW, where 60.5% of it is renewable energies (mainly hydropower). There are many mini-grid diesel generator,, which have high power generation costs due to diesel fuel price, transport costs and low efficiency. At the same time, these generators cause CO₂-emissions, air pollutants. So idea to upgrade of former diesel mini-grids with renewable energies has appeared.

Objectives

The main goal is to show the effects of using diesel mini-grids with renewable energies.

Approach

The main idea was to upgrade of former diesel mini-grids with renewable energies, this upgrade has many advantages such as:

- lower power generation costs

- lower fuel dependency

- fewer CO2-emissions, fewer detrimental environmental effects

- existing diesel generators serve as back-up power sources

Different methods are used in the localization of diesel main-grids and deciding whether the power plant operates off-grid or on-grid such as:

- Use the global spatial information

- Use the information on power plant inventory and locations from world power plant database.

- Spatial extension of transmission grid

- Extraction of 25 km buffer zone

Results

- State-owned village mini-grids have to be targeted for a broader implementation of renewable energies in decentralized power generation

- Problem: Tariff structure

· loss of 0.42 USD per generated kWh in diesel mini-grids

· av. deficit of 85 Million USD between 2003 - 2009

· Subsidies necessary for enabling electricity access, but investments in RE cannot be covered with low tariffs

Recommendations

- Necessary to break the negative feed-back-loop

- Fuel imports – Debt – Lack of capital – Fuel imports

- External funding necessary for upgrading with RE

- Improved and more reliable power supply through hybrid mini-grids can increase electricity access (National target: 30 % of population in 2015)

Further research

- Community-operated diesel mini-grids, individually operated diesel generators

Discussion and open questions

1- Why do you do analysis although it is owned by the government?

Because the situation is not the same in all countries

2- Is there hybrid mini grid

Yes, they are private. Non from TANESCO (

3- What does the generation cost include?

Capital Investment and Operation and Maintenance Cost

4- Is there are subsidies of diesel in Tanzania?

Yes, around 6%

5- What is the efficiency of the used diesel mini-grid generators?

No details.

6- What is the size of the used Diesel generators?

250kW, for 100000 people, and there are some Mega watts.

7- What do you see them as a key requirement to transition to renewable energy?

The main is regulation and policy.

8- What is the most recent question you look forward to know?

The output of the study can be used by micro energy companies.

9- What happens to the data from Mini grids?

Any company wants to target Tanzania, and then they can contact TANESCO.