LoRa-based Demand-side Load Monitoring and Management System for Microgrids in Africa

Abstract

Distributed microgrids based on Renewable Energy Sources (RES), offer a solution to the vast electricity shortage in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, they suffer reliability issues and experience frequent outages mostly due to microgrid instability. This paper proposes a system to manage imbalances caused by lack of coordination between the power generated at a certain time with the prevailing energy demanded by the connected consumers. The system comprises of wireless, low-power, low-maintenance network of distributed power sensory modules for demand-side load monitoring and management. This system may be integrated with other monitoring and control systems namely weather prediction, battery management and photovoltaic energy generation management systems to deliver more reliable microgrids. Advances in wireless sensor networks, in particular Long Range Wide Area Networks (LoRaWAN) are leveraged to design an affordable and bi-directional sensor network. These sensors track the consumer's side load and relay these data to a central computer. These designed wireless power sensor modules are essential to small-scale microgrid operators to ensure a reliable power supply to their consumers. They may also be useful for operators to effectively implement time-dependent load and tariff management solutions to the consumers in the targeted rural SSA.