Abstract
Throughout the developing world, most remote and isolated communities are still without reliable electricity in the twenty-first century, and this is primarily due to the high cost of grid extensions. In communities that do have electricity, they usually rely on diesel generators, though these have high operating and maintenance costs, while also polluting the environment. A more sustainable approach is to deploy microgrids, however, microgrids have a high upfront cost, which is a major obstacle, especially in rural areas of developing countries. This study aims to investigate the parameters that can be influenced to make microgrids more economical for rural electrification. Through sensitivity analyses, five key policy and technology parameters were identified. They include real discount rates, diesel prices, grants, battery chemistry, and operating strategies. The system was then redesigned using scenarios formulated by varying these parameters. Results show that the parameters affect the configuration, levelized cost of energy (LCOE), renewable energy penetration (REP), and pollutant emissions. The study uses three remote communities in the Beni Department of Bolivia as case studies. MDSTool was used as a modeling framework to design the microgrids. The unique insights and lessons learned during the design process are discussed at length because these may be valuable for future microgrid designs for remote communities.
Highlights
The benefits of rural electrification are well-documented in the literature [1] and include economic, health, educational, social life, and environmental benefits
The operating strategy applied in each scenario was as follows: Scenario 5A (S5A) was load-following off (LF-OFF); Scenario 5B (S5B) was load-following on (LF-ON); Scenario 5C (S5C) was CC; Scenario
The investigation was conducted on case studies of three rural communities in the Beni Department of Bolivia using the MDSTool as a modeling tool
Summary
The benefits of rural electrification are well-documented in the literature [1] and include economic, health, educational, social life, and environmental benefits. The economic benefits include an increase in the number of enterprises in the newly-electrified communities, as reported in Bolivia [2]. In a similar study in [3], the enterprises operated by rural households in Indonesia increased by 43% after gaining access to electricity. The health benefits of having reliable electricity were reported in [4], where. 35% of newly solar-electrified households in rural Namibia reported an improvement in health [4]. Access to electricity has been widely reported to immensely benefit education. Villagers in rural Zambia have greater access to news outside of their community through TV and radio as a result of having reliable access to electricity [10], and another study in Kenya had similar conclusions [11]
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