Design and Modeling of a Standalone DC-Microgrid for Off-Grid Schools in Rural Areas of Developing Countries

• Autor(a) principal: Aemro, Yohannes Biru
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Moura, Pedro, Almeida, Aníbal T. de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/105933; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13236379
• topic: energy access; DC microgrid; solar photovoltaic (PV); battery storage system; off-grid effcient appliances; school energy; UN2030 agenda for sustainable development

Energy access is critical for health, education and social welfare improvements. In countries like Ethiopia, with a low electrification rate and with the majority of the population located in rural areas, about 76% of primary schools do not have access to electricity. This limits the hours of classes and does not allow the use of basic or modern teaching resources. O -grid solutions have emerged as potential cost-e ective alternatives to electrify rural areas and schools, but the availability of o -grid appliances and the size of the system can lead to di erent solutions. Therefore, this study proposes a DC microgrid system to supply the electricity demand of a rural school located in Ethiopia, considering load estimation scenarios with standard and high-e ciency appliances. The simulation results show that the designed DC microgrid is a valid option to electrify the rural school under each load and generation scenarios. The system costs were also evaluated, and the high-e ciency appliances option has a 51% lower cost. The study also applies to other sub-Saharan countries in the region with very low energy access rates and abundant solar energy, thus giving a large contribution to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Education Goal 4 (SDG 4).