Case study of microgrid for electrification and its benefits in rural Nepal

Case Study of Microgrid for Electrification and its Benefits in Rural Nepal Saurav MS Basnet

Haneen Aburub

Ward Jewell

Amir Poudel

Center for Energy Studies Wichita State Univ. Wichita, Kansas, USA [email protected]



Adv. Academic Programs Johns Hopkins Univ. Washington, DC, USA [email protected]

foreseeable future mainly due to high cost. Therefore, per capita electricity consumption of Nepal is among the lowest in the world.

Abstract— This paper describes a microgrid for electrification of an isolated rural village in Nepal. Photovoltaic and various storage systems were modeled to find the optimal design. The economic and environmental impacts are also studied.

Electricity plays a major role in socio-economic development. Economic growth is directly or indirectly related to energy consumption. Therefore, there is a vast financial gap between people living in urban areas and remote areas. Development of alternative energy sources in these remote areas has the possibility to enhance the life of the people, increase employment opportunities and access to education of children. It also creates the possibility of carbon trading in the global market under the clean development mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto protocol by reducing greenhouse gases. Nepal is not rich in fossil fuel resources but it has abundant renewable energy resources, in particular water and solar energy. Water runs down from the vast Himalayan mountain ranges in over 6,000 rivers and rivulets and the country receives ample solar radiation, an average of 3-6.2 kWh/m2, and the sun shines almost 300 days per year [1]. This freely available water and solar energy can be converted into electricity.

Keywords— Microgrid; Peak Load; Rural; Pollutant; Pump Hydro Storage (PHS); Greenhouse Gases (GHGs); Photovoltaic (PV); Net Present Value (NPC)

I.

INTRODUCTION

A microgrid is a distributed energy system consisting of resources and loads capable of operating in conjunction with or isolated from the main power grid. It has the power of meeting the increasing energy demand efficiently and flexibly, whether they are connected to the grid or not. It supplies reliable electricity without the need for expensive transmission infrastructure investments. The microgrid in this paper serves a remote and non grid connected population. Reliable electrification is the basic infrastructure of development. In any developed country people cannot imagine life without electricity; minutes of blackout may cause millions of dollars in damages and lost revenue. That may not be true for developing countries where 1.5 billion people are still living without electricity and almost 2 billion people depend on traditional biomass for their daily energy needs, such as lighting and cooking [1]. However, due to rapid migration to the urbanized areas governments are often focused only on such areas and remote rural places are still left out.

Water originating from the world’s highest peaks is underutilized as farmers residing a couple of meters above major rivers lack technology to pump water to drink and irrigate. Figure 1 show the Google earth view of Dapkha village on the bank of Sunkoshi River, which falls under Bhirpani VDC, Ramechhap district, Nepal. This poor isolated fishing village is connected to a highway via suspension bridge and foot trails [2].

Nepal, a landlocked country sandwiched between India and China lies between 26° 22' to 30° 27' N latitude and 80° 04' to 88° 12' E longitude, with an altitudinal range from 60 m in the south to 8,848 m in the north. Almost 58 % of the Nepalese population has no access to electricity [1]. Even the remaining population is constantly facing power cuts and load shedding. Electricity is delivered by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) using mainly run-off hydro type power plants, which is limited and expensive. Some rural areas are so remote that the nearest road and national grid is more than a day’s walking distance away. There are some remote places through which transmission lines passes but that are still not connected to the grid due to insufficient supply (generation). The probability of these remote areas linking to the national grid is very slim in the

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Dapkha, Bhirpani

Figure1: Google Earth view of Dapkha village

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Though this village lies on the bank of the Sunkoshi River, it is deprived of electricity, proper drinking water and irrigation. This paper gives an overview of the benefits of rural electrification and presents a microgrid solution for the village. To determine the optimal solution appropriate for Dapkha village, two different off-grid hybrid-microgrid combinations have been simulated: (1) Photovoltaic (PV)Battery-Diesel generator and (2) PV-pumped hydro storage (PHS)-Diesel generator. Also the contribution of the microgrid toward livelihood improvement, indoor pollutant reduction, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction has been studied. II.

B ACKGROUND

A. Previous Work In this section previous literature related to microgrids and the Nepalese renewable scenario is described. The baseline survey report of the Sindhuli road corridor which surveyed 253 households from the main town and 250 households from isolated villages to understand socioeconomic conditions [2], recommended a proper drinking water supply system, irrigation facility, and electricity coverage either through the national grid or renewable energy for isolated villages. According to the Rural Energy Policy 2006 [3], 77% of Nepal’s total energy demand is supplied by fuel wood and 9% by agricultural residue and animal dung. There have been adverse impacts on the health of rural population, mainly women and children, because of use of these energy resources. The rural children are also deprived of the opportunity of education, as they have to spend most of time collecting such energy resources. The policy emphasized the possibility of improving the living standards of the rural population by developing environmentally friendly energy resources. The main objectives of the Rural Energy Policy 2006 are: • To reduce dependency on traditional energy and conserve the environment by increasing access to clean and cost effective energy in rural areas. • To increase employment and productivity through the development of rural energy resources. • To increase the living standards of the rural population by integrating rural energy with social and economic activities. Papers [4, 5] study indoor air pollution (IAP) and its impacts. Smoke produced by burning solid biomass fuels such as wood, dung, and agriculture residues for their daily cooking activities contains health damaging substances. These substances are particles, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, sulfur oxides, formaldehyde, and polycyclic organic matter, including carcinogens such as benzopyrene. Particles with diameters below 10 μ (PM10), and particularly those