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Basics of Hybrid Power
Published in Yatish T. Shah, Hybrid Power, 2021
There are three main approaches to conduct rural electrification in a competitive and effective way: mini-grids, nanogrids, and stand-alone systems [11,52–55]. All of these systems operate independently of the national electricity grid and are thus known as “off-grid systems.” A mini-grid, also sometimes referred to as an isolated grid, is an off-grid system that involves small-scale electricity generation and which serves a limited number of consumers via a distribution grid that can operate in isolation from national electricity transmission networks (Mini-Grid Policy Toolkit, 2014 [52, 55]). Mini-grids can supply electricity to concentrated settlements, including domestic, business, and institutional customers, with power at or above grid quality level.
New PV Markets Sustaining Mass Production
Published in Peter F. Varadi, Wolfgang Palz, Michael Eckhart, Allan R. Hoffman, Paula Mints, Bill Rever, John Wohlgemuth, Frank P.H. Wouters, Sun Towards High Noon, 2017
A number of factors have come together in recent years that are beginning to shape our future electrical energy systems. One major factor was Hurricane Sandy in the US Northeast, a Category 3 hurricane that lasted from October 22 to November 2, 2012, and killed 285 people. It had a lasting effect on local officials, who had to deal with the loss of power, heat, and clean water that affected millions of people in more than a dozen states, and who were determined not to let that happen again. One important response was to turn to increased use of mini-grids, which are discussed below in some detail. A mini-grid, which can be thought of as a miniaturized version of a traditional grid, is a smaller, low-voltage distribution grid, providing electricity to a collection or a community of houses and businesses, often a village or small town. It can be supplied by a single source of electricity, e.g., diesel generators, a solar photovoltaics (PV) installation, a micro-hydro station, a small wind farm, or a hybrid combination. It includes control capability, which means it can connect to or disconnect from a traditional grid and operate autonomously if necessary—e.g., when the traditional grid experiences an outage.
Feasibility analysis of solar PV/biogas hybrid energy system for rural electrification in Ghana
Published in Cogent Engineering, 2022
Flavio Odoi-Yorke, Stephen Abaase, Mohammed Zebilila, Lawrence Atepor
Figure 15 shows the capital subsidy’s impact on the hybrid system NPC and LCOE. The resilience of the system NPC and LCOE was investigated using five different upfront capital subsidy scenarios: 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. The 0% is the base scenario when the system is implemented without subsidies such as grants and donor aid from the government or nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). A 25% capital subsidy reduces the LCOE by 13%, and a 50% subsidy declines the LCOE by 24%. Correspondingly, a 100% subsidy reduces the LCOE by about 48%. This sensitivity test indicates that the LCOE is only 32% higher than the current tariffs charged to the lifeline customers when the entire system’s upfront cost is subsidised. This clearly indicates that even with a 100% subsidy, the hybrid system’s LCOE is still high compared to the grid tariff. However, these findings confirm similar studies conducted in Ghana by Adaramola et al. (2017), CEESD (2019), and Agyekum and Nutakor (2020), where the proposed hybrid energy system LCOE could not reach grid parity at a 100% capital subsidy. A recent study attests that an unsubsidised mini-grid costs approximately 0.40–0.50 $/kWh, but with ongoing technological advancements and efficiencies, this cost could decline to less than 0.20 $/kWh by 2030 (United Nations, 2021). Similarly, a Tier 1 off-grid solar system is not currently affordable for many households (United Nations, 2021).
Technical and economic feasibility assessment for a solar PV mini-grid for Matekenya village
Published in Cogent Engineering, 2022
Peter Maliro, Bakary Diarra, Ravi Samikannu
These systems can be used to supply the electricity in a form of a mini-grid (Wu et al., 2021). Mini-grid is a small and isolated electricity distribution system that can be used to supply electricity to communities or institutions that are not connected to the utility grid (The Mini-Grids Partnership (MGP), 2020),(GIZ, 2016),(Magni et al., 2022),(Kumar et al., 2019),(Opiyo, 2019). Minigrid can use one energy source to supply electricity or more than one source. Minigrid that use more than one source of energy to supply electricity is known as hybrid mini-grids. Examples of hybrid mini-grids are; PV/biomass mini-grids, PV/wind mini-grid, PV/Genset mini-grid, and PV/Wind/biomass (Eteiba et al., 2017; Jahangir & Cheraghi, 2020; Malik et al., 2021; Samy & Barakat, 2019; Samy et al., 2020; Babatunde et al., 2022). Minigrid can also be standalone (The Mini-Grids Partnership (MGP), 2020; Wu et al., 2021), grid-tied (Samy et al., 2021), or grid connected (Pramanik et al., 2022). Mini-grids are classified as either autonomous or interconnected (IRENA, 2016). Autonomous mini-grids are independent of other grids and are subdivided into lower-tier levels and higher tier levels. The lower tier of the service grid is in Tier 3–4 and supplies power for less than 24 hours and is used to support basic loads (IRENA, 2016). Tier 5 is a higher-tier service and supplies power for 24 hours. Interconnected mini-grid are those that have the capability of connecting to neighboring grids. They are subdivided into interconnected community application which is tier 5+ and interconnected large industrial application which is tier 5++ (IRENA, 2016). The interconnected large industrial application is more reliable than the interconnected community application. Mini-grid development consists of three phases which include project development, implementation, and operation (Green Minigrid Help Desk, 2020). The first phase focuses on collecting information that will help to understand community needs and capabilities to have the right design of the mini-grid. The second involves the construction and commissioning and the third phase involves operation and maintenance.