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Energy Access Practitioner Network
The Role of Hybrid Renewable Mini-grids in Providing Energy
Access
Richenda Van Leeuwen
Executive Director, Energy and Climate, Energy Access Initiative
United Nations Foundation
www.unfoundation.org
Sustainable Energy for All Initiative
1.3 billion people worldwide are without access to electricity and a
billion more have only intermittent access. 2.8 billion people lack
access to clean cooking solutions.
In response, the UN has declared 2014-2024 as the Decade of Sustainable
Energy for All and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a new
initiative in 2011 by the same name, calling on governments, businesses, and
civil society to make commitments to action to accomplish three objectives
by 2030:
High Impact Opportunities
Seven high impact opportunities have been identified based
on their significance and ability to make an immediate
impact towards reaching the initiative’s three objectives.
The Importance of Mini- and
Off-grid Solutions
Source: IEA (2010), World Energy Outlook, p.257.
Energy Access Practitioner Network
• In 2011 the United Nations Foundation launched a global
Energy Access Practitioner Network . Rapid growth to
>1,000 individual members.
• Focus on market-based sustainable energy applications,
especially renewable and hybrid mini- & off-grid solutions,
and catalyzing energy service delivery at country level
towards achieving universal energy access
• Promotes adoption of new technologies, advocacy on
supportive policies, innovative financial and business models,
brokering new partnerships & dissemination of best practices.
• Micro-grids working group has 100 members, with strong
technical and knowledge sharing capacity.
Practitioner Network Recommendations
• Based on input from its working groups, the Practitioner Network released a set of recommendations on Achieving Universal Energy Access by 2030, at the Rio+20 summit in 2012.
• The recommendations from members identified five areas of particular importance for scaling up energy access:
understanding the market improving policy and regulatory
frameworks facilitating finance advancing mini and micro-grids improving standards and testing
What is a micro-grid?
No universal definition with size classification.
Described by the US Energy Storage Technology
Advancement Act 2007 as:
“The term micro-grid means an integrated energy system
consisting of interconnected loads and distributed energy
resources, including generators and energy storage devices,
which as an integrated system can operate in parallel with the
utility grid or in an intentional islanding mode.”
Components of a modern micro-grid
A modern micro-grid may include renewable and fossil-fuel based generation, energy storage facilities, and load control.
It will be scalable, so that additional generation capacity
may be added to meet growing loads without compromising the stable operation of the existing micro-grid.
Typical off-grid energy resources for micro-grids are
wind and solar combined with diesel, combined heat and power (CHP) systems, and biogas and biomass systems, as well as micro-hydro power.
Source: Siemens White Paper on Mini-grids
Key Issues to Consider
• Ownership and governance: Government, cooperative/ collective, ownership by central utility entity or private ownership by individual or company.
• Establishing obligations with customers:
Governmental ownership: Service to all citizen residents by law; self-selection by customers willing to pay costs
Cooperative/collective ownership: customers are owners and governors through elected board
Ownership by central utility entity: customers treated like utility customers elsewhere; customers treated differently according to micro-grid factors
Private ownership by individual or company: customer relations defined by regulators
Key Issues to Consider
• Regulating the micro-grid: Self-regulation in case of
governmental and cooperative ownership; regulated as part
of central utility in case of ownership by central utility;
regulation by appropriate level of government in case of
private ownership.
• Sources of Capital: Tax revenues, government bonds or
debt, foreign aid in cases of government ownership; utility
investment from capital or debt and connection fees from
new customers in case of ownership by central utility entity
or other types of capital for different forms of ownership.
Key Issues to Consider
• Covering the cost of operating the micro-grid: Tax revenues (for government ownership), connection fees, customer charges, etc.
• Customer demand meets capacity to pay: is intent to provide 24/7
power or how is time of use/peak load management factored into a load constrained environment.
• Demand side management – Need to combine new generation capacity
with energy efficient appliances, for example use of more efficient digital x-ray machines for effective load management in a health facility.
• Regulating operations of the micro-grid: Islanded mode: Obligations to provide power service, power quality, system
safety and restoration after outage; liabilities for failure to meet obligations; requirements for interconnecting with customers with self-generation.
Connected to central grid for back up or standby power: conditions for
back up power service or standby capacity; obligations during use of power from the central grid.
Barriers and Challenges
• Lack of enabling policy frameworks, for example, clear energy delivery regulations to encourage smaller grid systems or make grid access plans available to allow for development of micro-grids in areas not considered viable for the conventional grid.
• Lack of information on viable financial and business models that can be replicated and brought to scale.
• Need for long-term support for operations and management of micro-grid systems.
• Lack of mandatory international standards for mini-grids and system components.
Practitioner Case Studies
INENSUS GmbH partnering with GIZ and l’Agence Sénégalaise
d‘Electrification Rurale (ASER) to establish mini-grids in 30 villages
in Senegal using a public-private partnership model. First installation
of 15kW micro-grid outside Dakar serving basic community
requirements.
Components of the business model include:
Negotiation with the village community to foster constellation
of engaged stakeholders;
Smart metering technology for micro- and mini-grids
developed by INENSUS keeping the grid stable; and
Tariff model to providing reliability of planning to customers
and power providers.
Inensus 15kW micro-grid, Senegal
Micro-grid configuration
Practitioner Case Studies
OMC Power in Uttar Pradesh India builds, operates and owns Micropower Plants that extract clean energy from sun (18 kW solar plant), wind and biogas. The Micropower Plants also have battery banks and diesel generators for backup, as well as a power management system for optimal energy efficiency and remote access. • For telecom consumers, OMC runs a power cable from the
Micropower Plant to the telecom base station, and power is provided on a kWh consumed basis.
• For communities within easy reach of telecom base
stations serving as “anchor tenants”, power is sold on demand through a local entrepreneur that rents out lanterns, power boxes and other power utility products.
Source: OMC Power
Lessons Learned
• Technologies are available: what is needed is to make the business case for renewable micro-grids. Price points are rapidly changing making renewables viable in more and more settings.
• Commercial entities such as telecom base stations or
community facilities such as health clinics can be used as “anchor tenants” to ensure stability and reduce perceived risk, particularly when backing out existing diesel generation.
• Policy formulation needs to be inter-disciplinary, recognizing
the development benefits across multiple sectors. • Recording and monetizing the socio-economic benefits of
electrification to communities without access may help catalyze stakeholders in other fields such as heath and education.
