A case study for micro-grid PV: Rural electrification in India

This paper describes the particulars of an installation of a PV micro-grid for rural electrification in India. The project is representative of current PV off-grid & micro-grid electrifications taking place both in India, as well as other parts of the developing world. The specific project provides basic lighting and mobile phone charging for a 79-home below poverty line (BPL) tribal habitation in the Visakhapatnam District of Andhra Pradesh state. The project has been completed, and includes 365kW of PV along with battery storage. Overall, this project is considered successful and various metrics of the completion are presented and include: overall costs, O&M strategies, implementation strategies, etc. Major learning points about the organization and execution of these types of projects are detailed, along with typical challenges for this type of remote location application. The aspect of capacity level (% of the 24hrs when power is available) is examined in more detail, with modeling being done to identify an optimal approach to increasing the level given cost constraints. This case study can serve as a template for subsequent installation. The lessons learned, and experience can be used and improved upon. The combination of real data and modeling is also presented as a useful approach for PV and micro-grid optimization under resource and cost constraints. In particular for India, the federal government is looking at increasing the number of rural electrifications to 2000, and there is a large opportunity for PV in this context.