Participatory smartgrid control and transactive energy management in community shared solar cogeneration systems for isolated rural villages

Abstract

Global humanitarian initiatives such as the IEEE Smart Village programme have been calling for new technologies based on smart village thinking to bridge the urban-rural energy divide and to support off-grid community energization worldwide through micro-utility programmes. Smart village power solutions include energy systems designed to serve the energy needs of small villages and groups of isolated clustered family houses and have the potential for improving livelihoods and sustainability in small rural villages. The African word "Ubuntu" refers to an old African way of life concept adopted by African societies long before electricity. Applying ubuntu in rural energy projects is not always understood by developers, but it has the potential to shape the current workspace with participatory methods to help reduce barriers of energy entry through old values and wisdom. In this paper we describe a smartgrid control automation solution that supports social ubuntu principles and ways of operating microgrids to help overcome village community energy management challenges. The solution is based on transactive participatory smartgrid control, with self-configured retail pricing signals defined around the needs of isolated off-grid rural villages. It describes new ways of operating prosumer based solar-powered microgrids that aid rural populations in resource constrained parts of the world. A scenario based case study illustrates the benefit of this community energy management system in isolated off-grid applications. The experiment shows that there are promising indications for a reduction in the village energy bill with transactive demand management and load curtailment.