Swarm Electrification - A Paradigm Change: Building a Micro-Grid from the Bottom-up
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Why Swarm Electrification?
Imagine a Beach party in central Africa far away from the big cities: flashing lights, loud music, laughter. The scene we saw was made possible by a mini grid - a single photovoltaic module feeding one battery had not made it possible.
In Germany there is a 100% electrical grid connection which amounts to 0.8 billion people - but according to the United Nations Foundation worldwide 1.3 billion people lack that access. In India the percentage of people who lack access to electricity amounted to 34% in 2009.[1] Another billion of those who are electrified are only provided poor quality: electricity comes only limited time of the day and short cuts are experienced regularly.
For the research team of “Microenergy-Systems” at the Technical University (TU) of Berlin this seems like a huge market for innovative approaches. Especially because the experts from the International Energy Agency (IEA) expect in their “Energy for All Case” that 70% of the non-electrified rural areas cannot be reached with centralized grids but with mini-grids or stand-alone off-grid solutions.
Energy access in developing countries can be classified in three categories:
- In urban regions people could be classified as temporarily on-grid. So even if energy prices in for example India are much lower than in Germany this still means no advantage when this electricity comes with much poorer quality.
- In suburban areas poor people can live insight of electrical land lines but without having there own connection. The needed transformer station is what provides a lot of costs – an official program would be needed to subsidize the electrification. From a new perspective people living here could be called close-to-grid. For these Solar Home Systems (SHS) would seem like the second best solution.
- But the topic here is yet another. It is about rural population being classified as off-grid. To change these peoples life to the better a new perspective can be helpful. Calling them people far-from-grid.
But waiting for political policies to change facing the task of connecting far rural areas doesn’t seem to be satisfying. By installing SHS, diesel generators and other electricity producing systems and connecting them to form mini grids rural population could experience a proactive way.
What is Swarm Electrification?
The approach sees households and small businesses in rural undeveloped areas as the basis for the development of a micro empowerment from the buttom-up. The implementation of this new technological approach is end-user financed by providing micro loans according to the example of the Grameen Bank.
A premise to install a swarm grid is an off-grid village with some installed generators. Usually that would be Solar Home Systems which operate according to the presented slides with
- 20 to 85 Wp photovoltaic panels
- Lead acid batteries
- Efficient 12 V direct current (DC) loads (e.g. LED lights)
These systems generally have a payback period of one to three years and can guarantee three days of electricity autonomy in case of cloudy conditions.
The idea of the Swarm Electrification Team consisting of Daniel Philipp, Hannes Kirchhoff, Brian Edlefsen and Joseph Theune is to build up a grid in three phases:
- Phase 1: Households with SHS get connected to each other to be able to use each others battery capacities
- Phase 2: Connecting neighbour swarm grids to a regional grid
- Phase 3: Getting connected to the national grid
Why would the big utilities go that last step?
Utilities are driven by politicians that are interested in high electrification rates which they could easily augment with one step. The main reason for short cuts is overload which could be minimized by a bigger grid. Utilities could cut off that part of the grid if they realize that the frequency in the grid is unstable. Additionally the investment for the utility is comparatively low because the power meters are already there and with one step they could connect thousands.
What problems remain to be solved?
Four main questions were tackled: AC or DC, mesh or bus, role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the
Group 1: AC or DC? About safety, appliances and flexibility
Supervised by Daniel In the industrialized world the standard is to use alternating current (AC) to transport electricity standard but most appliances work on direct current (DC): lamps, cell phones, laptops; Edison and tesla were fighting about DC AC, Tesla won with AC; AC works with induction, thas why cables through the oceans are HVDC cables; Voltage drop, not important but energy loss no problem in swarmification, washing machines are not there et and can be designed using dc; limitation is in the power not the transformation /inverter, on the long run Safety 24V you can touch it Presentation: appliances are DC, but grid is AC; evolution in off grid areas to design a Dc grid, more efficient; energy generation is DC;
Group2: Mesh or bus? How topology matters.
Supervised by Hannes Connecting houses in villages, with DC connection, inverters and cabeling are expansive so efficient design of grid and stable network; bus has advantages but is less robust Mesh design is most robust, monitoring is complicated, a lot of meters and many connections Optimal design – nice peace of art
Group3: Smart swarms? The role of ICTs.
Supervised by Brian According to the Worldbank two thirds of the worlds population has access to communication technology, such as cell phones. Information and communication technology; making money, mobile phone tower – anchor partner 3.5kW (Ancor Business Community concept), leap frog, quantum leap land lines do not exist but mobile towers Presentation: risks and chances (get funding, anchor cell phone tower, base consumption load to connect with small businesses, stabilize by smart metering, provider to manage production, decentralized) with icts; need to collect data who needs to py who, what extend do we need and want; new busness ideas: solar phones; manage by ReMMP
Group 4: Link the interlinked? How to grow the swarm.
Supervised by Joseph
going from step 2 to 3
3 scenarios: Link individual SHS to each other, connect a swarm grid with another swarm grid, from swarm to centralized main
Advantages of interconnection: - Stability (less power cuts) - Lower operation and maintenance (O&M) costs per household - More electrified people - More storage capacity - Higher peak loads possible Differences in the costs: - Connection technology has to be paid - Less O&M costs - Maybe less batteries or less generation is needed in the whole system - Agreement on technical standards would mean to be working with economies of scale
