New report explores challenges and best practices for promoting productive use of energy in African micro-grids

Demand for electricity from small industry and businesses (productive use of energy - PUE), is a key success factor for micro-grids. This is because productive customers tend to use larger volumes of electricity than residential customers, thereby enabling micro-grids to reach the critical revenue needed for their financial viability. This is according to a new report Productive Use of Energy in African Micro-Grids: Technical and Business Considerations. The report is part of a series of reports being developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Energy 4 Impact, in support of the Power Africa Beyond the Grid Programme.

Focusing on small agricultural processing, and small industrial and commercial loads, the report is a useful resource for entrepreneurs and developers designing micro-grids to inform their technical and business decisions and to improve system design, reduce risk, and increase success with adding PU loads to both new and existing micro-grids. 

It is also is a resource that entrepreneurs, governments, and non-governmental organisations can use to help design programmes to meet their individual goals of PUE in micro-grids and economic development in rural Africa.

Download the full report here.