Hybrid micro-grid experimental application in Tanzania

Abstract

Abstract-This paper is intended to introduce the project Energy4Growing that aims at studying and setting up a hybrid micro-grid to supply power to a school in rural Tanzania. It describes the results of the early project actions which concerned in: (i) analysing the actual school power supply system through locally metered data; (ii) developing the first step of a new electro-mechanical model which addresses the simulation of operation and dynamics within an off-grid power system; (iii) validating the new model. In particular the paper focuses on describing the development and the first step implementation of the new modelling approach which address: (i) voltage and frequency analyses over medium term period by means of simplified electromechanical models of power sources and power electronics, (ii) the analysis of different dispatch strategies and their consequence on voltage and frequency trends, (iii) the effects of dispatch strategies on the energy performances of particular components such as battery bank or dump loads. The new approach has also been applied in modelling the current school power supply system.

The role of electrical energy storage in sub-Saharan Africa

“…Beside hydropower systems, other RET are appearing in rural areas of SSA thanks to the decrease of costs, the development of technological solutions (mainly for the system control aspects) and the increased policy efforts and availability of suppliers. Indeed, micro-grids integrating different energy sources (PV, small wind, petrol/diesel generators) are still rare, but feasible as for the technological state of the art [29][30][31][32][33]. The power size of these systems for rural electrification can range from tens to hundreds of kW while the storage ranges from tens to hundreds of kWh.…”

“…The project Energy4Growing (E4G) [33] (www.facebook.com/ energy4growing2014) aims at studying, developing and implementing an off-grid power system to supply electricity to the school of Ngarenanyuki, a rural village in northern Tanzania. About 460 students attend the targeted school, 85% of them are resident in the institution facilities that include classrooms, offices, dormitories, library, kitchen, teachers' houses, etc.…”