DC system based bottom up grid extension for rural communities

Abstract

Wordwide many people live without a connection to the electrical network service. The majority of them are in rural and remote areas from the utility network. Although offgrid electrification mode offers alternative solutions, grid extension is still the preferred mode of electrification for energy access to tier 4. On the other hand, the classic top-down approach for grid extension used by many utilities makes it difficult, even sometime impossible, for rural communities to connect to the grid. Thus need to find alternative approaches for the grid extension. This paper presents a network expansion strategy using a Direct Current system. The approach uses the swarm electrification concept and the existing off-grid solutions in rural communities to develop a grid extension from the endusers to the grid. The DC system is the backbone of the system. The proposed system is modeled and simulated in DIgSILENT PowerFactory environment. The simulation results indicate an efficient interconnection of the generation units.