Local Grids - Existing Projects

Existing Projects

 This page contains a list of existing projects in the field of smart grids and microgrids. .In cases where a paper can be found on the web,a link is given. However, it cannot be guaranteed that the link points to a version of the paper matching the citation.


The list of projects are organized into the following sections:

Microgrid projects in Developing countries

 India

  1. SELCO India
    Aimed at empowering underprivileged people in South India, the Solar Electric Light Company provides solar lights to eliminate dependency on using fuel-based products for lighting. SELCO has established 45 energy centers in Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar and Tamil Nadu. Various case studies can be found here.

  2. DESI Power
    DESI Power is an independant rural power producer, focused on the socio-economic development of off-grid rural villages in India. DESI Power builds and operates decentralised electric power plants using renewable sources such as biomass, biogas, bio-fuel and solar. It also establishes the rural infrastructure for access to electricity and economic development around it. An interesting article outlining a case study can be found here.

  3. OMC Power
    Started in 2011, OMC Power has set up around 20 microgrids, in a couple of districts in Uttar Pradesh in India. Each microgrid capacity ranges from 36kW to 50kW and costs around 60 lakhs (~88,000 $).

  4. ONergy
    With the objective of providing electricity in rural areas, ONergy provides complete energy solutions with an entire range of solar products. such as such as solar lanterns, solar home systems, solar water heating systems, solar inverters, solar street lighting etc.Various case studies can be found here.

  5. Mera Gao Power
    Mera Gao Power(MGP) operates a microgrid in Uttar Pradesh providing lighting systems and mobile charging units to off-grid areas. These microgrids are set up for a reasonable a cost of around 1000$ per village hamlet.

  6. Naturetech Infra
    A rural clean energy service, Naturetech has microgrid plants operating in Sitapur, Gonda, Unnao and Amethi districts in UP. Each microgrid has a local power point that can be used to charge mobiles/laptops etc. Using a Smart SMS based pre-paid metering system, the villagers recharge their accounts based on their energy needs. An article on the various projects undertaken by this company can be read here .

  7. OASYS South Asia - TERI
    Under the Off-Grid Access Systems for South Asia (OASYS), several models of microgrids were implemented such as a community managed model in Odisha that caters to around 150 households, in collaboration with an NGO. A good reference to examine the various business models implemented in the electrification of off grid areas.

  8. Pollinate Energy
    This organization focuses on improving the lives of indians urban poor by providing access to sustainable technologies such as solar lights and improved stoves for cooking. Pollinate Energy works towards empowering local entrepreneurs and raise social awareness and is responsible for more than 25,000 people in Bangalore switching to LED lighting systems.

  9. Barefoot College
    This organization implements a unique model to develop solar solutions in villages in off-grid areas - they pick two grandmothers in each village, train them to be solar engineers in a 6 month training program and then electrify the village! The four distinct areas where solutions are implemented include Solar electrification of over 1000+ villages, hot water, solar cookers and fresh drinking water through solar powered desalination plants.

Africa

  1. Powerhive
    A technology venture founded in 2011, Powerhive provides access to affordable microgrid electricity for rural off grid homes. Powerhive East Africa Ltd has been instrumental in setting up four microgrids in Kenya; the case study can be found here.

  2. Steamaco
    A Kenyan renewable energy firm, Steamaco utilizes the rampant use of cell phones and the abundance of sunshine in Kenya to provide power to off-grid areas. A solar power system is established in the center of a rural community/hamlet and is the payment for power consumption can be done using a prepaid service on the mobile phone! A case study summary of the same can be found here.

  3. Powergen
    Another renewable energy company that uses the mobile phone business model, Powergen Renewable Energy addresses the huge demand for reliable power in off grid areas, by setting up AC solar microgrids. 20 such grids have been installed in Kenya and Tanzania, providing over 500 homes with electricity!

  4. Kilowatts for Humanity - The Muhuru Bay Microgrid
    Kilowatts for Humanity (KWH) has implemented international rural electrification projects since 2009 - one such project is the Muhuru Bay Microgrid in Kenya. Implemented at a school called the Kristy's Cape Academy, a 3kW chraging station was set up using clean, renewable energy ( wind and solar). Battery powered home lighting kits were provided - which the students could take home to light up their homes. This in turn generated additional income for the school.

Bangladesh

  1. Grameen Shakthi - Solar Home System
    A renewable energy company in Bangladesh, Grameen Shakthi (GS) has installed more than a million solar home systems (SHS's) in rural areas in Bangladesh, making this country one of the most successful in implementing renewable energy programs in the world! Other than the Grameen Shakthi PV program, the company has also implemented a biogas program (started in 2005) and an improved cooking stoves program (in 2006) - both very popular programs in the rural world in Bangladesh.

  2. Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (IDCOL)
    IDCOL started its Solar Home System (SHS) program in 2003, with the aim of providing clean electricity to off-grid areas in Bangladesh. Under this program, around 65,000 SHS are being installed every month - having already installed around 3 million of them as of April 2014! According to IDCOL, 180,000 tonnes of kerosene has been replaced with Solar Home Systems, saving around 225 million USD!

Central America

  1. Soluz Honduras
    This private energy company serves around two thousand rural households that are off the grid with power generated from PV systems. Established in 1998, Soluz Honduras was able to sell power to 10,000 people (around 2000 households) by 2002 to the northern and north western parts of the country.

  2. Quetsol
    Densely forrested mountain terrain in remote islands in Guetamala, makes it impossible to connect suchs areas to the existing grid. Quetsol implements a "pay-as-you-go" plan to enable people in off-grid areas to access solar energy immediately. Initially, each family is supplied with a kit (a few lights and a charger) and can continue to buy power on an incremental basis.

  3. Kingo
    A renewable-energy company that provides power to off-grid areas, Kingo implements the concept of "pre-paid energy". Households can purchase power for a day, a month or a year, just like one would recharge their pre-paid phones. This eliminates the need for external microfinancing options - making it affordable and easy to implement. Its prepaid energy service consists of a solar system called a "Kingo" and a cloud-based platform called "Ant" that is used to recharge for energy.

  4. EarthSpark
    Another renewable-energy company that uses the "pre-paid energy" model, EarthSpark in collaboration with the government of haiti, launched a microgrid in the town of Les Anglais, Haiti. Launched in November, 2012 with just 14 customers, the customer base increased to 54 by the end of 2013.

Microgrid projects in the developed world

  1. Maui Smart Grid Project
    This project aims at integrating renewable sources of energy with grid, with the objective of providing grid stability. The objectives include Reducing the demand for electricity by 15% during peak hours, integrate wind energy into the grid and faster restoration during outages.

  2. Hachinoche Microgrid Project
    Reference Paper - Kojima, Y.; Koshio, M.; Nakamura, S.; Maejima, H.; Fujioka, Y.; Goda, T., "A Demonstration Project in Hachinohe: Microgrid with Private Distribution Line," System of Systems Engineering, 2007. SoSE '07. IEEE International Conference on , vol., no., pp.1,6, 16-18 April 2007,
    This project addresses demand side management by integrating renewable sources of energy by implementing a microgrid. The microgrid may or may not be connected to the utility grid, and the power generated by the renewables is disallowed from going back into the grid in this project.

  3. Microgrid Demonstration in Las Amos
    In this project, a feeder level energy management system called Micro-EMS has been developed. This system controls the charge and discharge of the battery, such that the fluctuation in energy generated by the PV cells is managed.

Smart Grid Projects

  1. CRISP : Critical Infrastructures for Sustainable Power
    The objective of this project is to investigate, develop and test how latest ICT’s can be used to monitor and manage power networks that implement Distributed Generation (DG) and Renewable Energy Sources (RES). CRISP also mentions the idea of a bottom-up approach to building a grid, involving renewable energy sources and a backup power grid.

  2. FINSENY : Future Internet for Smart ENergYR
    This project aims to identify the ICT technology required for Smart Energy Systems. The various sectors that the project focuses upon are : Distribution Networks, Microgrids, Smart Buildings, Electric Mobility and Electronic Marketplace for energy (Eg. Real time pricing for energy).

  3. INTEGRAL
    Reference Paper - Penya, Yoseba K., Juan Garbajosa, Mariano Ortega, and Eloy González. "ENERGOS: Integral smart grid management." In Industrial Informatics (INDIN), 2011 9th IEEE International Conference on, pp. 727-732. IEEE, 2011.,
    This project aims to find a solution for controlling and coordinating DER aggregations based on ICT standards. Its objectives include : (i) Defining an Integrated Distributed Control for controlling and coordinating a large number of DER’s/RES’s. (ii) To realize this control mechanism using common ICT solutions (iii) To be able to demonstrate the validity of the solution.

  4. INTEGRIS : Intelligent Electrical Grid Sensor Communications
    In this project, the development of an ICT infrastructure has been proposed based on a hybrid solution. This solution is a combination of powerline communication and wireless integrated communication which meets the communication requirements of a smart energy system.

  5. MIRABEL : Micro-Request based Aggregation, Forecasting and Scheduling of Energy Demand, Supply and Distribution.
    Reference Paper - Verhoosel, J. P. C., Frens-Jan Rumph, and Mente Konsman. "Modeling of Flexibility in Electricity Demandand Supply for Renewables Integration." In 2nd Workshop on eeBuildings Data Models, 27 October 2011, Sophia Antipolis, France. 2011.,
    This projects aims to balance demand and supply (RES’s) using micro-requests. These micro-requests are aggregated to control time shifts that help reduce the peak demand. This is done by the concept of a flex offer, to take advantage of the presence of devices with energy flexibility.

  6. PowerMatcher
    Reference Paper - Kok, J. Koen, Cor J. Warmer, and I. G. Kamphuis.. "PowerMatcher: multiagent control in the electricity infrastructure." In Proceedings of the fourth international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems, pp. 75-82. ACM, 2005.,
    Using a demand response model, this project uses bids to balance demand and supply. Here bids are submitted by the various devices, which are collected by the “auctioneer”, who can then make an informed decision on energy management.

  7. EMAN-IETF : Energy Management – Internet Engineering Task Force
    This project aims to work on the management of energy-aware devices. It outlines the requirements for energy management, the framework for energy management, Energy aware devices and networks, Power and energy monitoring, and battery management.

  8. ENTSO – E : The European Network of Transmission System Operators
    This project aims to integrate Renewable Energy Sources(RES) into the power system in order to adhere to Europe’s energy and climate policies. The energy policies include : sustainability, affordability and security of supply.

  9. BEMI : Bi Directional Energy Management Interface
    Reference Paper - Nestle, David, Christian Bendel, and Jan Ringelstein." "Bidirectional Energy Management Interface (BEMI)–integration of the low voltage level into grid communication and control." ." In 19th International Conference on Electricity Distribution, Vienna, pp. 21-24. 2007., Focusing on the concept of Decentralized Electrical Generation Units, this project places an intelligent energy management interface in grid connection points, to manage and control distributed energy resources in a power network system. It is based on the concept of Demand Response.

  10. ENERGOS
    Reference Paper - Penya, Yoseba K., Juan Garbajosa, Mariano Ortega, and Eloy González. "ENERGOS: Integral smart grid management." In Industrial Informatics (INDIN), 2011 9th IEEE International Conference on, pp. 727-732. IEEE, 2011.,
    This project addresses optimal deployment and management of smart grids using the existing ICT technologies. Its research areas include demand forecasting and management, Micro-grid automatic supervision and control, Real time data acquisition and processing, smart meters and operation planning.

  11. Miyako-Island Mega-Solar Demonstration Research Facility
    This project aims at utilizing renewable sources of energy such as PV power and wind power and evaluate the influence of such energy on the grid. It also aims at stabilizing the grid on integrating the grid with the renewable sources of energy, using a storage battery.

  12. Yokohama Smart City Project
    The objectives of this project are to demonstrate the effectiveness of Energy Management systems, To be able to effectively integrate solar energy into the grid, use storage batteries to bring about grid stability and implement demand response programs in various environments.

  13. Kitakyushu Smart Community Project
    This project aims at implementing demand side self-management, using dynamic pricing and incentives. One of its objectives are to transform consumers into “prosumers”, by installing photo voltaic cells and other systems that can produce energy.

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Last updated on Feb 14, 2016