POWER February 2021 - 6

Mini-Grids Making Electricity
More Accessible
Mini-grids-smaller off-grid electricity
distribution networks-are being recognized
as a cost-effective solution to
bring power to rural communities that
often have no access to a traditional
power grid. They also are being used
as proving grounds for new configurations
of power generation technologies.
Though the generation parameters
for mini-grids vary, the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate
Change defines a mini-grid as having
fewer than 15 MW of generation capacity,
and as an installation disconnected
from a larger power grid.
The World Bank and the International
Energy Agency, among others, have
identified mini-grids as a way to bring
electricity to billions of people worldwide
who do not have access to a reliable
power supply. Major energy companies
are entering the space. ENGIE inaugurated
its first PowerCorner mini-grid
in Zambia in April 2019, and has since
added more than a dozen installations on
the continent. ENGIE has a goal of developing
2,000 mini-grids in Africa by 2025.
India's Tata Power has a similar project in
its home country.
The African Development Bank (AfDB)
in December 2020 announced a $7 million
grant to help Africa's mini-grid sector
develop up to 80 MW of new generation
capacity, along with attracting $650 million
of investment from the private sector.
The Sustainable Energy for Africa
(SEFA) funding stream was established
by Denmark in 2011, and is supported
by public money from Italy, Norway,
Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the U.S. The
growth of the mini-grid market comes
as countries face objectives of increasing
the availability of electricity to households
and businesses, while at the same
time reducing dependency on fossil fuels,
usually by adopting renewable energy
or other lower-carbon technologies.
An example of this is a mini-grid project
in India, an installation by Husk Power
Systems, a Colorado-based company
that operates more than 100 community
mini-grids across Asia and Africa. The
India facility (Figure 1), located in Chanpatia,
in Bihar state, has about 160 customers,
and serves a mix of residences
and businesses.
6
The mini-grid provides renewable generation
through a hybrid set-up of solar
photovoltaic (PV) and biomass gasification,
along with battery storage. Rice
husks and corn cobs provide the fuel for
the gasifiers. The system includes fully
automated process management for
the biomass gasification, with a mix of
DC plus AC coupling for solar PV to enhance
system efficiency and modularity,
according to Husk. The lithium-ion-based
energy storage helps reduce system
losses and enhances the PV utilization
during periods of peak power demand.
The mini-grid can be remotely managed
and monitored, and is supported
by a " state-of-the-art forecasting engine
to alert for demand supply gaps
and necessary resolution steps, " according
to Husk. The mini-grid concept
is part of the global trend for privatization
of power distribution companies,
or DISCOMs, and a solution to providing
power to what are often called
" last-mile communities, " areas unable
to connect to a traditional power grid.
Mini-grid developers are bringing electricity
to these areas, driving socio-economic
improvements, and improving
the quality of life in those regions.
Manoj Sinha, CEO of Husk Power,
told POWER that the drivers of the
mini-grid market are different in developed
nations versus installations in
the developing world. " In the Western
market, in the U.S. and Europe, it's
about resiliency and integrating renewable
assets onto the grid, mostly
on the battery side, " Sinha said. He
noted that natural disasters, including
fires in California and situations that
have prompted public safety power
shutoffs, " catapulted the need for the
mini-grid and microgrid concept. That
includes when an electric vehicle can
act as a source of power, both for the
grid and for the household, " he said.
He added that " the developing market
is a completely different set of drivers.
We started the mini-grid market
in my home state of Bihar in India. The
whole concept of doing decentralized
power generation and distribution was
to bring power to people without access
to electricity. " The SEFA funding,
known as the Africa Mini-grid Market
Acceleration Programme, reportedly
would initially provide 880,000 new
electricity access points for 4 million
www.powermag.com
1. Husk Power's mini-grids are in use in India
(shown here) and Africa. The mini-grid concept
is growing as a way to provide electricity to areas
with limited or no access to power. Courtesy:
Husk Power / YouTube
people on the continent.
" When we started this in 2008, I
had to explain what a mini-grid is, " said
Sinha, referring to Husk's development
of the technology. " I don't have to do
that any longer. " He said mini-grids are
a good solution because they provide " a
more capital-efficient way to bring power
to people, and it also tackles climate
change as part of the equation. The technology
plays a huge role in making this
happen. Hundreds of thousands of minigrids
spread across Asia and Africa, to
be able to effectively manage these geographically
disparate assets, we need
a management system, and doing it all
automatically, based on machine learning.
Most mini-grid companies don't talk
about levelized cost of energy (LCOE),
and LCOE is one thing we manage very,
very carefully. In developing markets,
the cost [of power] matters a lot more.
They're looking at getting high-quality
power that meets their basic needs. "
Sinha said balancing power costs
with reliability is critical as electricity is
brought to developing markets. " That
can be best served by mini-grids, " he
said. " These can provide that source
of high-quality, high-reliability power.
Areas such as India, and sub-Saharan
Africa, these regions need to have minigrids
as part of a national power infrastructure
program. "
As noted earlier, these mini-grids
also provide opportunities for new configurations
of power systems. Other
aspects of the Bihar mini-grid include
aerial bunched cables with large cross
sections to minimize distribution losses,
along with low-tension distribution
POWER | February 2021
http://www.powermag.com
POWER February 2021

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