TY - GEN
T1 - Accelerating Mini-grid Feasibility Assessments with Rapid Engineering and Business Model Evaluation
AU - Kemabonta, Tam
AU - Van Hove, Elena
AU - Johnson, Nathan G.
AU - Alsanad, Abdulrahman
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 IEEE.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - There are over 700 million people without access to electricity in the world today, most of which live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Due to the high cost of grid extension, off-grid mini-grids with renewable energy technologies have been considered to be a least cost option for providing electricity access for communities, with solar home systems common for isolated households. However, mini-grid feasibility assessments can be expensive, time consuming, and achieve limited accuracy with current planning tools and constraints. In this paper we develop new planning processes for off-grid mini-grid systems and demonstrate this approach for a mini-grid project for an off-grid community in Sierra Leone, with comparisons made to conventional planning steps. Results show a decrease in assessment time per site of over 75-80% when compared to conventional practices, and provide additional benefits including power engineering, costing of the distribution network, and more detailed cashflow and business model analysis.
AB - There are over 700 million people without access to electricity in the world today, most of which live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Due to the high cost of grid extension, off-grid mini-grids with renewable energy technologies have been considered to be a least cost option for providing electricity access for communities, with solar home systems common for isolated households. However, mini-grid feasibility assessments can be expensive, time consuming, and achieve limited accuracy with current planning tools and constraints. In this paper we develop new planning processes for off-grid mini-grid systems and demonstrate this approach for a mini-grid project for an off-grid community in Sierra Leone, with comparisons made to conventional planning steps. Results show a decrease in assessment time per site of over 75-80% when compared to conventional practices, and provide additional benefits including power engineering, costing of the distribution network, and more detailed cashflow and business model analysis.
KW - Business model
KW - Energy access
KW - Mini-grids
KW - Power Engineering
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141506417&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1109/GHTC55712.2022.9910609
DO - 10.1109/GHTC55712.2022.9910609
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85141506417
T3 - 2022 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, GHTC 2022
SP - 196
EP - 203
BT - 2022 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, GHTC 2022
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 12th Annual IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, GHTC 2022
Y2 - 8 September 2022 through 11 September 2022
ER -