Smart Grids for Small Grids – Webinar
Webinar by Green Empowerment about Load Management Solutions for Mini-Grids
Renewable mini-grids are a promising solution to rural electrification. In off-grid environments, fluctuating energy use has posed challenges for most systems. It is common for communities to experience a power deficit during peak consumer hours and a large power excess during off peak hours. During peak hours of energy use, power deficits can lead to service interruptions at times when electricity is needed most.
Green Empowerment, in cooperation with WISIONS, is developing open-source monitoring and control solutions for the small-scale, renewable, last mile, energy access sector under a program called Smart Grids for Small Grids. Devices for monitoring that can generate good quality electrical data can be used by micro-utilities and practitioners to better understand maintenance requirements, system utilisation, and inform future project planning. Using this data also provides the basis of Green Empowerments research into smarter control of certain types of appliances as a means of improving the efficiency of these types of systems so that they can provide the maximum benefits for the people they serve.
In this webinar by Green Empowerment, they will share a high-level overview of the solutions they’ve been exploring, the results of testing carried out to date and what next steps they propose.