Methodology for Monitoring Sustainable Development of Isolated Microgrids in Rural Communities

Claudia Rahmann, Oscar Núñez, Felipe Valencia, Susana Arrechea, Jalel Sager and Daniel Kammen
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Claudia Rahmann: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Chile, Santiago 8370451, Chile
Oscar Núñez: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Chile, Santiago 8370451, Chile
Felipe Valencia: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Chile, Santiago 8370451, Chile
Susana Arrechea: Escuela de Ingeniería Química, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Ciudad Universitaria, 11 Av., Guatemala 01012, Guatemala
Jalel Sager: Energy and Resources Group and Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3050, USA
Daniel Kammen: Energy and Resources Group and Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3050, USA

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 11, 1-24

Abstract: Microgrids are a rapidly evolving and increasingly common form of local power generation used to serve the needs of both rural and urban communities. In this paper, we present a methodology to evaluate the evolution of the sustainability of stand-alone microgrids projects. The proposed methodology considers a composite sustainability index (CSI) that includes both positive and negative impacts of the operation of the microgrid in a given community. The CSI is constructed along environmental, social, economic and technical dimensions of the microgrid. The sub-indexes of each dimension are aggregated into the CSI via a set of adaptive weighting factors, which indicate the relative importance of the corresponding dimension in the sustainability goals. The proposed methodology aims to be a support instrument for policy makers especially when defining sound corrective measures to guarantee the sustainability of small, isolated microgrid projects. To validate the performance of the proposed methodology, a microgrid installed in the northern part of Chile (Huatacondo) has been used as a benchmarking project.

Keywords: sustainable development; isolated microgrids; composite index; policy makers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:11:p:1163-:d:82586

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