The practical challenges of minigrids

Electricity grids around the world are facing a number of dramatic challenges destined to have a significant impact on their operation for years to come. In developed countries, the growing proliferation of distributed generation, an aging equipment fleet and increasingly intermeshed systems brings many challenges to system operators. In developing nations, a push for low emissions generations technologies is adding to the usual challenges associated with power system development. Minigrids are increasingly being claimed as a way of meeting such challenges. By simplifying the control challenges faced by the system operator, a minigrid facilitates large numbers of distributed generators, tight integration between supply and demand, and other such benefits of so-called “smart grid” operation. Minigrids are not without their challenges though, and this paper describes a number of practical challenges encountered when operating an actual minigrid system, in both grid-connected and islanded modes of operation.