Flexible Demand for Optimzed Microgrid Design and Cost

Although access to energy has been a major enabler for the development of our civilization, more than a billion people remain without access to electricity. Recent improvements in solar technology offer a unique opportunity to achieve global electrification. However, field studies have reported number of project failures. This chapter is dedicated to project developers, engineers, academicians and policymakers, who wish to contribute to rural development. In the first part, it recalls some important features of a well-thought rural electrification project, while proposing to involve students to liaise with local population. In a second part, it presents an original approach for achieving lowest cost solar microgrid design considering the random nature of solar energy and the users' willingness to be flexible in their consumption. The inconvenience (loss of utility) for users has been modeled and the results suggest that rural users are likely to adapt their consumption to the availability of solar energy to reduce their electricity bill. Such a conclusion is likely to apply to interconnected power grid as renewable energy becomes more and more prominent in the energy mix and energy storage remains a costly challenge.