Rural electrification: An overview of optimization methods

Akbaş, Beste; Kocaman, Ayse Selin; Nock, Destenie; Trotter, Philipp A.

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2021.111935

Cited by 40 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 143 publications

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“…Importantly, relatively few models or analyses explicitly consider or account for latent electricity demand. Interestingly, in a recent review of optimization models used for rural electrification research, latent demand for electricity was not addressed in any of the publications reviewed (Akbas et al 2022).…”

Section: Background and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…in the sector to fuel electricity development. It is possible that high users in the commercial sector could crosssubsidize other lower demand sectors (e.g., healthcare and crop production) and rural environments, thus creating more affordable electricity access.Additionally, based on existing, least-cost, rural electrification literature, stakeholders interested in meeting latent demand in the residential and commercial sectors may want to consider investing in either extending Kenya's grid network or building larger capacity minigrid systems (Afful-Dadzie et al 2017,Akbas et al 2022, Kemausuor et al 2014. Korkovelos et al 2020Moner-Girona et al 2019.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Latent demand for electricity in sub-Saharan Africa: a review

Sackey

Levin

Nock

2022

Environ. Res.: Infrastruct. Sustain.

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Universal access to electricity is an essential part of sub-Saharan Africa’s path to development. With the United Nations setting Goal 7 of its Sustainable Development Goals to be universal access to clean, reliable and affordable electricity, substantial research efforts have been made to optimize electricity supply based on projected demand in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. However, most of these projections of electricity demand do not explicitly account for latent demand (i.e., electricity demand that would exist if the necessary techno-economic conditions were met). Our paper reviews electricity demand estimation and consumption literature to propose a framework for quantifying latent demand. In our study, we found that of the 56 papers reviewed only 3 (5%) of them incorporated latent demand in their projection of electricity demand in SSA. Majority of the literature on electricity consumption and demand estimation in SSA use econometric models to identify determinants of electricity consumption and project future demand. Furthermore, we identified population density, urbanization, household income, electricity price, market value of crops and availability of natural resources to be significant determinants of electricity consumption in SSA. We conclude the review by proposing a methodology for more accurately projecting latent demand in sub-Saharan Africa. Incorporating latent demand in electrification models would help inform energy sector stakeholders in SSA, especially investors and policymakers, about which sectors and geographic locations hold potential for wealth creation via electricity access.

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Section: Background and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Latent demand for electricity in sub-Saharan Africa: a review

Sackey

Levin

Nock

2022

Environ. Res.: Infrastruct. Sustain.

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“…Access to clean and affordable energy is at the intersection of sustainable development, social welfare, and environmental stewardship. About 733 million people currently lack electricity access worldwide, most of whom are located in rural locations (Akbas et al 2022. Decentralised electrification will play an important role in providing electricity access to underserved communities where the grid cannot be extended given their remoteness (Cozzi et al 2020, IEA et al 2021 and off-grid systems options, such as mini-grids powered by renewable sources, are expected to provide and enhance access to the current un-electrified population (Cozzi et al 2020, IEA et al 2021.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sizing solar-based mini-grids for growing electricity demand: Insights from rural India

et al. 2022

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Mini-grids are a critical way to meet electricity access goals according to current and projected electricity demand of communities and so appropriately sizing them is essential to ensure their financial viability. However, estimation of demand for communities awaiting electricity access is uncertain and growth in demand along with the associated cost implications is rarely considered during estimation of mini-grid sizing. Using a case study of two rural communities in India, we assess the implications of demand growth on financial costs and performance of a mini-grid system consisting of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and battery storage using two different system sizing approaches. We show a cost-saving potential of up to 12% when mini-grids are sized using a multi-stage approach where mini-grids gradually expand in several stages, rather than a single-stage optimisation approach. We perform a sensitivity analysis of the cost of the two sizing approaches by varying six key parameters: demand growth rate, logistics cost, system re-sizing frequency, likelihood of blackouts, solar PV and battery cost, and degradation rate. Of these, we find that system costs are most sensitive to variations in demand growth rates and cost decreases in solar PV and batteries. Our study shows that demand growth scenarios and choice of mini-grid sizing approaches have important financial and operational implications for the design of systems for rural electrification.

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“…[6][7][8], meshed [9] and parallel [10] configurations. However, the radial configuration is one of the most cost-efficient and appropriate designs for rural electrification [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modified Minimum Spanning Tree for Optimised DC Microgrid Cabling Design

Kebir

Ahsan

McCulloch

et al. 2022

IEEE Trans. Smart Grid

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The construction of low-cost nanogrids could help speed up the electrification rate in remote communities in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the challenges in nanogrid design for these communities is the uncertainty in future load demand profiles impacting the cabling topology. We propose two new wiring design approaches for radial direct current power distribution systems. The first one is a modified minimum spanning tree (MST) algorithm and the second one is an adaptive shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA). Their objective is to identify the optimal cable path and the lowest cost wiring characteristics to electrify rural areas with poor infrastructural development. A comparative study of computation burdens has shown the applicability limits relative to the SFLA based approach and encouraged the implementation of the MST as it is faster and does not imply any limitation regarding the number of dwellings to electrify, while providing low-cost wiring design option. The latter is applied to a village located in Kenya and demonstrated more than 25% savings on the entire system cabling cost compared to a classical wiring design based on shortest-path calculation.

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Rural electrification: An overview of optimization methods

Cited by 40 publications

References 143 publications

Latent demand for electricity in sub-Saharan Africa: a review

Latent demand for electricity in sub-Saharan Africa: a review

Sizing solar-based mini-grids for growing electricity demand: Insights from rural India

Modified Minimum Spanning Tree for Optimised DC Microgrid Cabling Design

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