A Rising Role for Decentralized Solar Minigrids in Integrated Rural Electrification Planning? Large-Scale, Least-Cost, and Customer-Wise Design of Grid and Off-Grid Supply Systems in Uganda

Andrés González-García, Pedro Ciller, Stephen Lee, Rafael Palacios, Fernando de Cuadra García and José Ignacio Pérez-Arriaga
Additional contact information
Andrés González-García: Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica, Universidad Pontificia Comillas (IIT-Comillas), 28015 Madrid, Spain
Pedro Ciller: Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica, Universidad Pontificia Comillas (IIT-Comillas), 28015 Madrid, Spain
Stephen Lee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Rafael Palacios: Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica, Universidad Pontificia Comillas (IIT-Comillas), 28015 Madrid, Spain
Fernando de Cuadra García: Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica, Universidad Pontificia Comillas (IIT-Comillas), 28015 Madrid, Spain
José Ignacio Pérez-Arriaga: Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica, Universidad Pontificia Comillas (IIT-Comillas), 28015 Madrid, Spain

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 13, 1-31

Abstract: Increasing Uganda’s low electrification rate is one of the country’s major challenges. Power service is essential to achieve socioeconomic development and poverty reduction, especially in rural areas. This paper shows the advantages of using an integrated (grid and off-grid) electrification model with high geospatial, temporal, and customer-class granularity as the Reference Electrification Model (REM). In universal electrification strategies, REM will help better ascertain the role of minigrids, jointly with grid extension, solar kits, and stand-alone systems. REM has been applied to the Southern Service Territory (SST) to determine the least-cost mix of electrification modes—grid extension, off-grid minigrids, and standalone systems—that satisfies the hourly demand requirements of each customer—residential, commercial, or industrial—considering its individual location. REM incorporates the existing grid layout, the hourly solar local profile, and the catalogs of actual components for network and generation designs. The paper shows that minigrids can provide grid-like service at a significantly lower cost in many circumstances and to a considerable extent. Therefore, minigrid strategies should play a more important role in electrification planning, both transitorily and on a permanent basis, particularly when the central grid suffers from frequent and prolonged blackouts.

Keywords: universal access; rural electrification; grid extension; minigrids; standalone systems; geospatial electrification planning; power systems design; electrification strategies; reference electrification model (REM) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/13/4517/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/13/4517/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:13:p:4517-:d:844004

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().