Linking household and productive use of electricity with mini-grid dimensioning and operation

Hartvigsson, Elias,1986Chalmers tekniska högskola,Chalmers University of Technology (author)

Off-grid systems, and mini-grids in particular, are expected to play a significant role in improving electricity access to one billion people until 2040. One of the major challenges for mini-grids is associated with their high costs, low financial viability and local development impact. Productive use of electricity can be an important driver of local development and impacts the total load in a mini-grid. By using a mixture of high-resolution (minutes) measurements and long-term data (years) on electricity expenditures and purchased electricity from a mini-grid in the Tanzanian highlands, we analyse the technical and economic impact from household and productive use of electricity, respectively. The high-resolution data is analysed using performance indicators and the long-term data using regression tools. We find that a mixture of household use and productive use of electricity provides both technical and economic benefits for the operator. In addition, we find that while productive use customers only represent 25% of the customers, they generate 44% of the operator's income. Furthermore, productive use of electricity customers are also likely responsible for the peak demand in the mini-grid, which occurs during day time. Lastly, we find empirical evidence suggesting that expenditures and demand are unit elastic, which has implications on economic policies for supporting rural electrification.

Ehnberg, Jimmy,1976Chalmers tekniska högskola,Chalmers University of Technology(Swepub:cth)ehnberg (author)
Ahlgren, Erik,1962Chalmers tekniska högskola,Chalmers University of Technology(Swepub:cth)ahleri (author)
Molander, Sverker,1957Chalmers tekniska högskola,Chalmers University of Technology(Swepub:cth)svemol (author)
Chalmers tekniska högskola (creator_code:org_t)

In:Energy for Sustainable Development: Elsevier BV60, s. 82-892352-46690973-0826

By the author/editor: Hartvigsson, Eli ...; Ehnberg, Jimmy, ...; Ahlgren, Erik, 1 ...; Molander, Sverke ...

About the subject

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY: ENGINEERING AND ...; and Environmental En ...; and Environmental Ma ...

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY: ENGINEERING AND ...; and Environmental En ...; and Energy Systems

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