Abstract
Off-grid solar home systems (SHSs) currently constitute a major source of providing basic electricity needs in un(der)-electrified regions of the world, with around 73 million households having benefited from off-grid solar solutions by 2017. However, in and of itself, state-of-the-art SHSs can only provide electricity access with adequate power supply availability up to tier 2, and to some extent, tier 3 levels of the Multi-tier Framework (MTF) for measuring household electricity access. When considering system metrics of loss of load probability (LLP) and battery size, meeting the electricity needs of tiers 4 and 5 is untenable through SHSs alone. Alternatively, a bottom-up microgrid composed of interconnected SHSs is proposed. Such an approach can enable the so-called climb up the rural electrification ladder. The impact of the microgrid size on the system metrics like LLP and energy deficit is evaluated. Finally, it is found that the interconnected SHS-based microgrid can provide more than 40% and 30% gains in battery sizing for the same LLP level as compared to the standalone SHSs sizes for tiers 4 and 5 of the MTF, respectively, thus quantifying the definite gains of an SHS-based microgrid over standalone SHSs. This study paves the way for visualizing SHS-based rural DC microgrids that can not only enable electricity access to the higher tiers of the MTF with lower battery storage needs but also make use of existing SHS infrastructure, thus enabling a technologically easy climb up the rural electrification ladder.
Highlights
By the end of 2016, almost 1.1 billion people globally lacked access to electricity [1]
This study presented a detailed methodology for modeling an interconnected solar home systems (SHSs)-based microgrid
Meeting the energy demand of higher tiers such as tier 4 and tier 5 is shown to be possible with this approach of bottom-up, interconnected SHS-based microgrid as opposed to standalone SHSs
Summary
By the end of 2016, almost 1.1 billion people globally lacked access to electricity [1]. Household electricity access is a major challenge that needs urgent attention. While conventional grid-based electricity has not reached large sections of the global population for various reasons, solar-based off-grid solutions have reached soaring levels of popularity and acceptance [2]. Solar lanterns and solar home systems (SHSs) are examples of such off-grid solutions. From 2010 to 2017, over 130 million off-grid solar devices have been cumulatively sold, and around 360 million people have moved from kerosene and solid fuels while getting basic solar-based electricity access [3]. An SHS is usually defined as a solar Photovoltaic (PV)
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