Polygeneration Energy Container: Designing and Testing Energy Services for Remote Developing Communities

Nearly one and a half billion people in the world do not have access to electricity, and even when energy resources are available, millions of people are unable to pay for them. As so, the access to modern affordable and renewable-based energy services in developing countries is essential to achieve a sustainable development by reducing poverty and improving the living conditions (health, security, etc.). In this paper, we analyze how rural electrification efforts can benefit from the implementation of microgrid systems. Following a systematic methodology, we estimate a demand that can evolve through time and design a system that copes with the demand increase. Then, we test the operation of such a facility using a pilot installation, the polygeneration energy container (PEC), an experimental setup that mimics the deployment of a hybrid microgrid system. The development of the experiment has allowed us to test design issues and solve operation and maintenance challenges associated with autonomous electricity production systems. The results demonstrated that it is possible to design systems that are robust and flexible to operate under different conditions.