Abstract
The International Energy Agency has projected that the total energy demand for electricity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expected to rise by an average of 4% per year up to 2040. It implies that ~620 million people are living without electricity in SSA. Going with the 2030 vision of the United Nations that electricity should be accessible to all, it is important that new technology and methods are provided. In comparison to other nations worldwide, smart grid (SG) is an emerging technology in SSA. SG is an information technology-enhanced power grid, which provides a two-way communication network between energy producers and customers. Also, it includes renewable energy, smart meters, and smart devices that help to manage energy demands and reduce energy generation costs. However, SG is facing inherent difficulties, such as energy theft, lack of trust, security, and privacy issues. Therefore, this paper proposes a blockchain-based decentralized energy system (BDES) to accelerate rural and urban electrification by improving service delivery while minimizing the cost of generation and addressing historical antipathy and cybersecurity risk within SSA. Additionally, energy insufficiency and fixed pricing schemes may raise concerns in SG, such as the imbalance of order. The paper also introduces a blockchain-based energy trading system, which includes price negotiation and incentive mechanisms to address the imbalance of order. Moreover, existing models for energy planning do not consider the effect of fill rate (FR) and service level (SL). A blockchain levelized cost of energy (BLCOE) is proposed as the least-cost solution that measures the impact of energy reliability on generation cost using FR and SL. Simulation results are presented to show the performance of the proposed model and the least-cost option varies with relative energy generation cost of centralized, decentralized and BDES infrastructure. Case studies of Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, and Senegal illustrate situations that are more suitable for BDES. For other SSA countries, BDES can cost-effectively service a large population and regions. Additionally, BLCOE reduces energy costs by approximately 95% for battery and 75% for the solar modules. The future BLCOE varies across SSA on an average of about 0.049 $/kWh as compared to 0.15 $/kWh of an existing system in the literature.
Highlights
With the world population explosion and industrialization growth in developing countries, consumers’ need for energy consumption has reached an unprecedented level
The minimum blockchain levelized cost of energy (BLCOE) confirms that the fixed cost associated with systems, such as inverters and wiring, have no significant impact as fill rate (FR) values approach one
It is economical to design the system with the blockchain concept, as blockchain does not alter the reliability even if FR is less than 90%
Summary
With the world population explosion and industrialization growth in developing countries, consumers’ need for energy consumption has reached an unprecedented level. India and China are speedily industrializing, the present limited set of traditional energy generating plants like natural gas and coal will no longer be sufficient [1]. CES generates electricity at large scale and ensures economies of scale by reducing the energy set up cost; this benefit is often not felt in rural communities [2]. It is, necessary to consider the condition under which the energy needs of rural communities can be satisfied more efficiently via decentralized manners [3]. Decentralized energy system (DES) provides independent and flexible sources of energy that satisfy several communities
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