Sustainable Energy System Planning in Developing Countries: A Decision Support System Considering Variations Over Time

Abstract

Planning energy systems is subject to changes in components' health and installation costs, fossil fuel prices, and load demand. Especially in developing countries, electrical loads are reported to increase drastically after electrification. Improper sizing of the energy system's components can lead to reduced environmental sustainability, decreased reliability, and long-term project failures. As no tools for energy system planning exist that aim at developing countries and sufficiently account for temporal variations, we modify the software NESSI4D in a design science cycle to provide the comprehensive decision support system NESSI4D + . We conduct an applicability check with a representative rural village in mountainous Nepal that validates NESSI4D + 's relevance and shows the importance of considering temporal variations for economically, ecologically, and socially long-term sustainable energy projects.

Fostering Energy Resilience in the Rural Thai Power System—A Case Study in Nakhon Phanom

“…Over several design cycles, this multi-energy software has been specifically developed to support decision-making by in developing countries, such as policyholders, NGOs, village heads, and energy planners. Its applicability has been tested in several peer-reviewed publications as well as discussions at national and international conferences; see, e.g., Kraschewski et al [15] or Eckhoff et al [16]. NESSI4D simulates thermal and electrical energy yield of several conventional and renewable energy technologies, energy-consuming components, and two-and four-wheeled fuel-based and electrical vehicles.…”