Assessment of Load Profiles in Minigrids: A Case in Tanzania
Paper in proceeding, 2015

Over 500 million people lack access to modern energy sources in sub-Saharan Africa as of today. Many of these people live in remote rural areas. Improving access to modern energy sources is considered an important goal towards reaching the Millennium goals. Minigrids are seen as an important technology to increase electricity access in non- electrified rural areas. There is currently a lack of measured load data from minigrids in developing countries. This paper investigates the differences between daily load profiles created from measurements and from appliance data collected through interviews. The paper reports differing results from the two methodologies. Specifically the interview data largely underestimate the base load from household. However, the study also concludes that measurements require special equipment and knowledge that can obstruct the access to data. Interview based load profiles can furthermore be used in previous non-electrified areas to indicate electricity usage before minigrids are constructed.

load assessment

rural electrification

load profiles

Author

Elias Hartvigsson

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Electric Power Engineering

Jimmy Ehnberg

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Electric Power Engineering

Erik Ahlgren

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Energy Technology

Sverker Molander

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Environmental Systems Analysis

50th International Universities Power Engineering Conference, UPEC 2015

Vol. 2015-November Article no. 7339818-
978-146739682-0 (ISBN)

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Areas of Advance

Energy

Subject Categories

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.1109/UPEC.2015.7339818

ISBN

978-146739682-0

More information

Latest update

7/11/2024