Academic literature on the topic 'Rural electrification'

The objectives of this project are to propose improvements to one of the civil society organisations, Lightup Borneo, helping it to attain an optimal power generation system capable of supplying reliable and continuous electricity, as well as to achieve sustainability of rural electrification projects. The project spans six months; methodology includes desk research, field research, case study and simulation using HOMER. The review of government programmes provided references for accomplishing the project objectives. Kampung Mantapok was chosen as the subject of case study. Current system installed at this village only consists of 10 kW micro-hydropower system. Total electricity demand of the village is 53.72 kWh/d, with two daily peak load occurring at 11 am and 5 pm. Eight system configurations were derived based on two-level full factorial design and evaluated with HOMER. A system configuration consisting of 10 kW micro-hydro generator, 3 kW inverter and two units of 280 Ah battery was selected. Its COE and NPC are the lowest – RM 0.181 (US$ 0.045) and RM 46,230 (US$ 11,558) respectively. It has 0 % of annual capacity shortage and unmet load. When system cost increases, when river discharge reduces. COE reduces when electricity load, capacity shortage and battery lifetime increase. Villagers’ level of satisfaction and confidence, assuming to be inversely proportional to capacity shortage and unmet load, are equally important as the system cost. Current system has 5 % of capacity shortage and lower resiliency, indicating incapability of handling load growth and variations of river discharge. Improvements for current system are justified given the above facts. The upfront cost for improvements is 19 % of the capital cost of current system. The improved system also outweighs diesel-fuelled system by saving 11 tons of carbon dioxide emission and having 73 % lower COE and NPC. In order to achieve sustainability of rural electrification projects, four recommendations were proposed, namely integration of development programmes, establishment of community organizations, enhancing knowledge sharing and communication. Project findings are useful for Lightup Borneo’s upcoming projects, life-cycle analysis of power generation system and study of community-based electricity generation, as well as energy policy reform in Malaysia.<br>Syftet med detta projekt är att föreslå förbättringar till en icke-statlig organisation i Malaysia, Lightup Borneo, för utformning av ett optimalt elproduktionssystem som kontinuerligt kan leverera el. Dessutom diskuteras hur hållbarhet kan uppnås i elektrifieringsprojekt på landsbyggden. Projektet har sträckt sig över sex månader, och inkluderar resultat från faktainsamling, fältarbete, samt en datorsstödd fallstudieanalys med hjälp av mjukvaran Homer. Statliga program för elektrifiering har undersökts, och verkar som referenser för genomförande av projektets mål. Kampung Mantapok valdes som föremål för fallstudien. Det system som för närvarande är installerat i denna by består endast av en 10 kW mikrovattenkraftverk med en enkel kontrollmodul. Byns totala elbehov är 53.72 kWh/d, med dagliga toppbelastningar kl 11 samt 17. Ett antal systemkonfigurationer, baserade på faktorförsök har utvärderas med HOMER. En systemkonfiguration bestående av en 10 kW mikrogenerator för vattenkraft, en 3 kW inverter samt två 280 Ah batterier valdes. I denna utformning erhölls det lägsta COE och NPC – RM 0.181 (US$ 0.045) respektive RM 46,230 (US$ 11,558). Denna konfiguration tillgodoser 100% av elbehovet på årsbasis. Systemkostnaden ökar då flödesuttaget från floden minskar. COE minskar när ellasten, kapacitetbrist och batteriets livstid ökar.Lika viktiga som systemkostnaden är bybornas tillfredsställelse och tillit till systemet för eltillförsel. Det nuvarande systemet har en 5%-ig kapacitetsbrist på årsbasis och visar sämre flexibilitet vad gäller att hantera varierande flöden och en framtida behovstillväxt. Därför är förbättringar i det nuvarande systemet motiverade. Investeringskostnaderna för förbättringar utgör 19% av investeringskostnaden för nuvarande system, men 11 ton koldioxid kan sparas genom minskat behov av diesel, och COE och NPC minskar med 73%. För att uppnå hållbarhet i elektrifieringsprojekt på landsbygden föreslås fyra rekommendationer: integrering av utvecklingsprogram, upprättande av samhällsorganisation per by, samt förbättrat utbyte av kunskap och kommunikation. Projektets resultat är användbara för Lightup Borneos kommande projekt, livscykelanalys av system för elproduktion och studie av samhällsbaserade elproduktion, och om energireform i Malaysia.

Access to clean and affordable energy is a prerequisite for human development. In order to achieve access to sustainable energy for all innovation in rural electrification is needed. Decentralized renewable energy technologies in form of Solar Home Systems and Mini-grids possess the potential of electrifying a large number of rural households which cannot be connected to the national grid with local available energy sources. However, the deployment of Mini-grids is facing barriers such as a lack of private investments. By building on already existing SHSs swarm grids can enable households to trade electricity and use their excess electricity to supply additional loads. Swarm grids as an evolutionary bottom-up approach to electrification can overcome some of the obstacles regular Mini-grids face and play a vital role in improving electricity access. As part of this thesis a model has been developed which allows for simulating the electricity flow including line losses in swarm grids of any size on an hourly basis. The model facilitates the gaining of a better understanding for the impact global parameters (e.g. distance between households) have on the feasibility of swarm grids. A field trip to Bangladesh has been undertaken in order to obtain input data for simulating different cases in the model created. The simulations performed indicate that in a swarm grid the generated excess energy of SHSs which so far is wasted can supply the demand of households without SHS as well as commercial loads such as irrigation pumps. Overall the results point towards swarm grids being an innovation with the potential of improving rural electricity access by building on existing infrastructure.

Energy is a basic need for the overall growth and improvements of people’s living standard.But around 2 to 3 billion people in the world have no access to electric lighting. Like otherdeveloping countries the rural electrification in Ethiopia is very low and government takessome actions to promote the investment in these areas but due to economic constraints andlow level of technological advancement the growth is very low.This study focuses on solar PV based rural electrification, its impact on environment andsocio-economic development in Rema village. Three cases studies: typical households,small scale business center and public services are considered for systematic study.Interviews from villagers, existing energy system, literature data and HOMER software areused to calculate energy demand and cost of electrification. A comparison between theresults is carried out.According to the village survey the existing PV home system has a positive impact on a socioeconomic development of the village of Rema. Solar PV electricity can be used in generatingincomes. It is also used for climate mitigation by curbing CO2 emission and can be used forclimate adaptation by reducing the deforestation and facilitate carbon sequestration. PVbased electrification of health center and schools have played a vital role in improving thequality of services. The presence of refrigerator helped to have vaccines and medicines4preserved for different types of killer diseases. The teaching-learning process of schoolsimproved due the presence of electricity. The solar powered water supply in near areasreduced the time required for fetching water and made girls to focus on their education.Most villagers has positive attitude towards the technology but unsatisfied with the currentsystem size. The high level of technical skills required for maintenance and the small numberof solar technicians’ available in the village is also a problem reported in the village. HOMERsoftware is used to model the existing energy system and the required energy demandbefore PV based rural electrification and after PV based rural electrification. A new model isdeveloped depending on the villagers demand. . Modeling result shows that 3 kWP and 12kWP were found to be enough to fulfill the demand in clinics and schools with an initialinvestment of 18576 and 80704US$, respectively and a PV size of 165 Wp, 250 Wp and 350Wp is required for households with agriculture only, mixed and small scale business income,respectively. This led a requirement of initial capital of US$ 654, 1848 and 2339,respectively. However, these initial investments are unaffordable for most of the villagers.PV systems required for households with agriculture only, has lower investment per Wattthan others, while investment per Watt for small scale business has lower than householdswith mixed type. Therefore, the battery size plays an important role in the investment,operation and maintenance costs.The two main problems associated with solar PV in rural electrification are financial capabilityand technical problems. These problems can be curbed by loan arrangement and trainingthe villagers. But to make sustainable it must be used for income generating activities.

At the beginning of the 1970s, the industrial countries accounted for about 80%of world oil consumption. Today, they are down tolittle more than 50%. Already, China uses more totalprimary energy than United States.  Developing countries are in the process ofconsuming a substantial amount of energydue to alarming growth, industrialization, urbanization etc. With a tight and volatile oil market, combined with sharply risingconsumption in emerging countries there is renownedconcerns about energy security. Various models are beingimplemented in these countries with the help ofdonors and local governments toenhance the use of renewable energy fora sustainable development. Use of renewable energy for rural electrificationhas not progressed as anticipated regardless of provisions of subsidies &amp;other measurers by governments. InSri Lanka, the primary energy contributions in 2009 to nationalenergy supply were 51% from biomass, 44.8% from crude oil and petroleumproducts, and 3.6% from hydroelectricity and other renewable sources. The useof non-conventional energy resources, NCRE, (small-scale hydropower, biomass,biogas and waste, solar power and wind power) in Sri Lanka is of a relativelysmaller scale (&lt;1%) and therefore its contribution is presently of lowsignificance in the macro energy picture. Regardless, the energy policydocument of the government of Sri Lanka has set a target to reach a minimumlevel of 10% of electrical energy supplied to the grid to be from non-conventionalrenewable energy in 2015. Inthis context, this study attempts to analyse the strengths and weaknesses ofthe existing financial and institutional models for renewable energydissemination for rural electrification in Sri Lanka and to recommend possiblemeasures needed for better financial and institutional models. In addition to aliterature survey, a questionnaire survey was carried out with power producers,financial institutions and government and non-government organizations in therenewable energy business to obtain their perception for better analysis.

DC system and DC microgrids are gaining popularity in recent times. This thesis suggests a method to state the workability of a DC based PV system using the softwares Simulink, PVsyst and HOMER. The aims of this project include suggesting a DC based architecture, finding out the performance ratio and a cost analysis. The advantages of the DC based system, the cost benefits associated with it and its performance will determine its feasibility.   Not many softwares have the functionality to simulate DC based PV systems. PVsyst is considered as one of the most sought-out softwares for the simulation of PV systems. It can simulate a DC based PV system but has a lot of limitations when it comes to the architecture and voltage levels. Due to these factors, the results from softwares Simulink, Homer and PVsyst are used to calculate the performance ratio of the suggested DC system.    The simulation of the DC system involves modelling of a DC-DC converter. DC-DC converters are used in HVDC transmission and are being considered for small scale and medium scale microgrids. The DC-DC boost converter is coupled with a MPPT model in Simulink. P and O algorithm is chosen as the MPPT algorithm as it is simple and widely used. The Simulink model of PV array and MPPT based boost converter provides the power output at the needed voltage level of 350V. The input for the Simulink model is obtained from the results of HOMER. The inputs include solar irradiation data and cell temperature. The same input data is used for the simulations in HOMER and PVsyst. The performance ratio is obtained by combining the power output from Simulink with the other aspects of the system from PVsyst. The performance ratio is done only for the month of January due to the limitations in Simulink. The performance ratio is found out to be 65.5 %.   The cost estimation is done for the distribution and power electronics aspects of the system. It is found out that the cost associated with the conductors will have an impact on the total cost only if the conductors used for distribution is more in length. The cost associated with the power converters will make a difference in total cost only if the system is within the range of 100kW. The study shows the workability of the PV based DC system based on the above mentioned aspects

“Rural electrification” is a key element in the global energy development agenda. While being a developing country, Sri Lanka is enroot to achieve 100% of electrification at present. After the civil war ended in 2009 which lasted for more than 25 years, there has been much focus to fulfill the energy needs of the country. But the studies carried out to assess the impact of electrification are very much limited. This study focuses on meeting the gap of carrying out a scenario analysis of rural electrification and assessing the socio economic impact of electrification. The major focus has been given to see how energy system of a newly electrified village will vary over time. The research intends to identify how far the strategies used to implement a policy is realistic in the real world. Also the research extends to apply the proposed strategies to the energy model and analyze the behavior of the model. During the study a survey was carried out in a rural village in southern part of Sri Lanka and the data obtained were used to model the energy system of the village using a software called - LEAP (Long Range Energy Alternative Planning System). The energy system is simulated under different scenarios to analyze if certain strategies in the policy have been implemented in the village. Two scenarios were energy efficient lighting and energy efficient cooking stoves. A total energy balance has been carried out for the target sample with an analysis of global warming potential of the activities of the target family. The total energy consumption variation with the electrification and the percentage of energy consumed as electricity over time has been analyzed. Further the socio economic impacts of electrification have been studied. The impact of agricultural usage and economic productivity with electricity has been studied. The qualitative measures like attitude changes, modernization &amp; technology adaptation were addressed to the extent possible.

This study focuses on the rural areas of Bolivia. The village investigated is assumed to have 70 households and one school. Electrical supply will be covered with the help of solar powered Stirling engines. A Stirling engine is an engine with an external heat source, which could be fuel or biomass for example. The model calculates the electrical demand for two different cases. One low level demand and one high level demand. By studying the total electrical demand of the village, the model can calculate a sizing for the Stirling system. However, for the sizing to be more accurate, more research needs to be done with regards to the demand of the village and the incoming parameters of the model.<br>Den här studien fokuserar på landsbygden i Bolivia. En by som antas ha 70 hushåll och en skola är det som ligger till grund för studien. Byn ska försörjas med el med hjälp av soldrivna Stirling motorer. En Stirling motor är en motor som drivs med en extern värmekälla. Denna värmekälla kan vara exempelvis biomassa eller annan bränsle. Modellen som tas fram i projektet beräknar elektricitetsbehovet för byn för två nivåer, ett lågt elbehov och ett högt elbehov. Genom att studera det totala elbehovet över dagen kan modellen beräkna fram en storlek för Stirling systemet. För att ge mer noggranna svar, krävs dock att forskning utförs i byn som ska försörjas. Dessutom krävs en mer noggrann information om de ingående parametrarna i modellen.