Campus Microgrids within the South African Context: A Case Study to Illustrate Unique Design, Control Challenges, and Hybrid Dispatch Strategies

Stephanus Erasmus, Nicolaas Esterhuysen and Jacques Maritz ()
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Stephanus Erasmus: Grid Related Research Group, Department of Engineering Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9301, South Africa
Nicolaas Esterhuysen: Grid Related Research Group, Department of Engineering Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9301, South Africa
Jacques Maritz: Grid Related Research Group, Department of Engineering Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9301, South Africa

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: South African universities boast a remarkable solar photovoltaic (PV) resource as a primary renewable energy component. Due to high peak demand tariffs and inherent prominent heating and cooling loads, fast and granular demand response programs are well established within typical campus grids, with electrical networks adapted towards hosting centralized PV plants and emergency diesel generation. With unreliable utility supply and aging infrastructure comes a natural landscape and niche application for campus microgrids (MG) in South Africa. One such case, the University of the Free State’s QwaQwa satellite campus in the Phuthaditjhaba district, is no exception to this, as it has sufficient solar PV generation, but it also has an unreliable utility component. This paper investigates a possible MG for the UFS QwaQwa campus with an emphasis on Hybrid PV-Diesel dispatch strategies, specifically, to ensure uptime during the loss of grid supply and decrease fuel usage. The proposed centralized diesel-PV MG system achieves a diesel cost reduction of 21.55%, based on simulated results using actual campus load data from 2019. The approach improves electricity availability, supplying 100% of all campus demand, compared to 70% under a de-centralized approach.

Keywords: grid unreliability; hybrid dispatch; niche campus microgrids (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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