A prize collecting Steiner tree approach to least cost evaluation of grid and off-grid electrification systems

Gizem Bolukbasi and Ayse Selin Kocaman

Energy, 2018, vol. 160, issue C, 536-543

Abstract: The lack of access to electricity in developing countries necessitates spatial electricity planning for guiding sustainable electrification projects that evaluate the costs of centralized systems vis-a-vis decentralized systems. Heuristic approaches have been widely used in such electrification problems to find feasible, cost effective solutions; however, most of the time global optimality of these solutions is not guaranteed. Our paper through its modeling approach provides a new methodology to find the least cost solution to this electrification problem. We model the spatial network planning problem as Prize Collecting Steiner Tree problem, which would be a base for a decision support tool for rural electrification. This new method is systematically assessed using both randomly generated data and real data from rural regions across Sub-Saharan Africa. Comparative results for the proposed approach and a widely used heuristic method are presented based on computational experiments.

Keywords: Spatial electricity planning; Rural electrification; Network planner; Prize collecting Steiner tree; Sub-Saharan africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:160:y:2018:i:c:p:536-543

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.07.029

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