IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2016 - 15

villages that IEEE Smart Village serves tend to prefer
installing those to carrying 15-lb battery packs to and
from their homes. As market options and local expectations have evolved, so has IEEE Smart Village. From the
original flagship solution of the SunBlazer (Figure 5) with
portable battery kits, IEEE Smart Village has adapted its
offerings to now include 24-V dc microgrids, 220-V ac
microgrids, and solar home systems.
Today, a common technological challenge across many
solar-battery applications is the charge controller. IEEE
Smart Village has engaged in a partnership with Arizona
State University to develop an open-source charge controller for universal application to off-grid power system
Figure 5. IEEE Member Dr. Martin Niboh (front right) and a team of
configurations (Figure 6). Currently available commercial
enthusiastic energy entrepreneurs set up the first SunBlazer II system
with Torchbearer Foundation in Bamenda, Cameroon. Trained in both the
designs are often too expensive, fail to provide required
technical and operational side of microutility deployment, these recent
functionality, or are not modular across use cases. This
electrical engineering graduates from the Bamenda Polytechnic are now
new design will permit the phased expansion of power
establishing microutility social enterprises in western Africa. (Photo courtesy of Michael Wilson, Torchbearer Foundation.)
system architectures by enabling power conversion, connectivity, and control within a single device for the following use cases:
specific needs. For example, could energy-efficient dc fans
xx
solar charging kiosks to charge 12-V batteries from
and dc television sets be leased at a lower cost than powcentralized 24-V batteries
ering inefficient, legacy ac appliances? Can we minimize
xx
isolated solar home systems to charge 12-V batteries
the startup demand (inrush current) of an electric motor
from a voltage solar PV panel (e.g., 18-24 Vdc, 45-55 Vdc)
powering a refrigerator compressor or sawmill? Each vilxx
dc microgrids to charge 12-V batteries from a higher
lage reached by IEEE Smart Village presents its own quesdc voltage source (50-60 Vdc)
tions and provides valuable lessons learned to be leverxx
ac microgrids to charge 12-V batteries from
aged in future deployments.
110/220 Vac.
Ultimately, IEEE Smart Village plans to develop an
IEEE Smart Village is working with partners under an
overall hardware, software, and communications archiopen-source strategy to allow design, redesign, and extentecture that will offer a complete range of interoperable
sion of the architecture to adapt for systems of any size.
solutions. In many ways, the technology needs to be
Planned expansions to this design
include remote monitoring, compatibility with different types of battery
chemistries, and demand response.
Another area of development for
IEEE Smart Village is common remote
dc Microgrid
monitoring and control for compo(50-60 Vdc)
nents across all systems. This would
Large Solar
Small Solar
SunBlazer-Lite or
enable systems to be expanded and
Panels
Panels
Cental Storage
upgraded as customers increase ener(45-55 Vdc)
(18-24 Vdc)
(24 Vdc)
gy consumption. Local NGO partners
could select and configure the approSmart Village Universal Charge Controller
priate system depending on their
own budgets, customer budgets, local
conditions, and competing options.
Output from
Standardizing open-source software
Appliances
Off-the-Shelf
Home Battery
(12 Vdc)
for control and monitoring would
Rectifier
(12 Vdc)
(18-20
Vdc)
minimize overhead so local entrepreneurs and consumers pay only for
hardware costs.
ac Microgrid
In addition, IEEE Smart Village is
(110/220 Vac)
gathering data and exploring how
people use power in an effort to
Figure 6. The IEEE Smart Village Universal Charge Controller developed in a partnership with Arizona
improve and optimize the entire State University. The device is open source to facilitate rapid adoption, fabrication, and redesign for
value chain to best support villagers' existing and new markets.
IEEE Electrific ation Magazine / March 2 0 1 6

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2016