Electro-mechanical model for understanding the operation and dynamic behavior of a micro-grid: A case study in Tanzania

This paper introduces the project Energy4Growing which aims to set up a hybrid micro-grid to supply power to a school in rural Tanzania. It describes the results of the early project actions which concerned: (i) monitoring of the actual school power supply system; (ii) first step development of a new model which addresses the simulation of the electro-mechanical operation and dynamic behavior within an off-grid power supply system with respect to perturbation in the power injections and consumptions. In particular it focuses on the new model which has the capability to address: (i) V and F trends analysis over medium term period by means of simplified electrical models of power sources and power electronics, (ii) the analysis of different control strategies and their consequence on V and f trends, (iii) the effects of control strategies on the energy performances of particular components such as battery pack or dump loads. This new approach is also applied by modelling the actual school power supply system with MATLAB SimPowerSystem.