Modified microgrid concept for rural electrification in Africa

With the population of 13.4% of the world and a land area of 15%, Africa has only 2% of the world´s industrial capacity. Its per capita income is only 15% of the world average and only consumes 3% of world energy. Many sub-Saharan and sub-Equatorial African countries are poor and have limited electricity infrastructures. A survey of energy resources conducted by the World Energy Council (WEC) in 2004 shows that Africa has more than enough to satisfy all its energy requirements. These include 7.1% of the world´s known oil reserves, 7.5% of the gas, 10.6% of the coal and 13% of the hydro. Due to the high cost for the construction of UHV/EHV transmission lines, there are needs to develop a balanced distributed generation strategy which takes into account future integration with small, midsize and large regional projects. This paper recommends a bottom up approach through an evaluation of autonomous or non-autonomous modified microgrids concept to provide electricity to local residents and which serve as basic building blocks for future system expansion. Issues regarding to the control associated with the integration of micro grids to larger systems are addressed