Solar Power Mini Grid
User Manual: What is solar power
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Electrical microgrid (minigrid)
► An electrical grid at your fingertips
To meet the growing demand for larger and more complex rural electrification systems, Studer Innotec
offers a new concept for microgrids (figure 1). This concept brings a very robust solution, which is simple
to implement while providing flexibility in both its design and management. A standard hybrid unit is at the
core of the system and decentralized units can provide redundancy, storage service, power assistance, and
interface with other renewable sources to the microgrid.
This concept offers the following advantages :
Independance•
Each decentralized unit is independent from the rest of the system and can supply its own load in case
of non-availability of the central unit. Each decentralized unit is also protected against the mal-functioning
of other participants of the system if they have excessive energy consumption. Energy and power allocations
can be managed for each distributed group.
Flexibility•
Each decentralized unit can add its own power to what is allocated from the central unit.
Sharing •
Each distributed system with its own energy source can share the excess with other participants of the
minigrid on a “share the excess, keep the essential” principle. It also has a given quota of energy
available from the minigrid.
Figure 1: Minigrid example
► System Extension...
The minigrid is an open and modular
network that can easily be extended,
in case of village growth for example,
to accommodate new consumers and
energy producers.
In addition, the minigrid can integra-
te and feed its excess energy into the
public grid, if it would become available,
making it a sustainable investment.
In this case it would participate as an
energy producer and stabilizer of the
grid and have a backup function in
case of mains failure.
