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Achintya Madduri, Javier Rosa, Matt Podolsky , Daniel Soto*, Eric Brewer, Seth Sanders

“Smart” Micro-Grids for Developing Regions. Achintya Madduri, Javier Rosa, Matt Podolsky , Daniel Soto*, Eric Brewer, Seth Sanders. (*) In Collaboration with: Matt Bassinger , John Sarik , and Vijay Modi of the Earth Institute, Columbia University. Outline. How we fit into LoCal .

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Achintya Madduri, Javier Rosa, Matt Podolsky , Daniel Soto*, Eric Brewer, Seth Sanders

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  1. “Smart” Micro-Grids for Developing Regions Achintya Madduri, Javier Rosa, Matt Podolsky, Daniel Soto*, Eric Brewer, Seth Sanders (*) In Collaboration with: Matt Bassinger, John Sarik, and Vijay Modi of the Earth Institute, Columbia University

  2. Outline • How we fit into LoCal. • Need for electrifying rural developing regions. • Work done so far by Columbia University in Africa: usage statistics, methodology, etc. • DC microgriddescription and features. • Future plans.

  3. How Does this fit into LoCal? • Do more with less. • Build a grid from ground up to achieve maximal energy efficiency. • Test-bed for LoCal grid-tied ideas: IPS, thermal slack, demand-response, etc.

  4. Need for Rural Electrification • Displace fossil fuels for night-time lighting. • Low power required per household, but individual generation or fixed monthly cost not practical.

  5. Millennium Village Project • The Modi Group at Columbia University has implemented a community generation project: Shared Solar in 20 sites in Africa. • Goal: Was to build a framework to effectively collect tariff. • Existing overhead (administrative) costs are high • Non-payment rates for post-paid plans at 40% • Collected fine-grain data on usage and losses.

  6. Shared Solar Overview • Central generation station using a single large source (ex. 2.5 kW Solar Panel) • 220 V-AC transmission & distribution • Centralized metering, switching, and SMS communications. • 100 m radius for transmission. • 20 households with usage of ~200 W-hrs/day

  7. Uganda, 7% Electricity Penetration

  8. Shared Solar Installation & Gateway

  9. Problems Encountered • Off the shelf metering hardware inefficient, expensive, prone-to-failure, and no longer available. • Solution: Custom Hardware that we have developed and tested. • Bigger problem: System losses due to invertersand multiple AC-DC/DC-AC conversions while using mostly DC appliances.

  10. DC Micro-Grid • DC generation, distribution, and appliances. • Soft-transmission-voltage control scheme to ensure effective power sharing (ex. 280-320 VDC). • Real-time switching and metering for each household in a tree architecture. • Grid-controlled distributed storage. • Communications over power lines.

  11. AC vs. DC Comparison

  12. Overview of Architecture

  13. Power Sharing Architecture

  14. Power Sharing Controls

  15. Distributed Storage • Storage should be sufficient for night-time usage. • Distributed storage minimizes losses of stored electricity. • Allows for incremental growth of high-cost components.

  16. Communications Over Power Lines • Low cost communications using a TDMA scheme over power lines. • Allows to close loop for power sharing. • Low bitrate communications: • Charge state of household • Credits • Usage

  17. Future Plans • Deploy AC-grid custom metering hardware in Haiti with Columbia University. • Finish framework for DC grid for both power and communications. • Simulate with sample DC-DC convertors and loads with usage patterns obtained from AC grid deployments.

  18. Thank You • Acknowledgements: • Modi Group, Columbia University • Alex McEachern, Power Standards Lab • Paul G. Allen Foundation • Questions?

  19. Summary • Target a market that is high need but has low usage. • Efficiency is essential to making a solution sustainable. • Re-make the grid to provide the desired utility without the existing constraints.

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