Towards more reliable community load profiling for future renewable energy projects

In South Africa, a significant rural population lacks electricity access, hindering economic development. Although microgrids have shown potential to alleviate this, these systems mainly serve urban areas, leaving rural communities underserved. This is mainly due to unreliable load profiling in rural areas, which does not boost investor confidence. In this paper, a reliable load profiling of a rural area in South Africa is put forward. Historical electricity consumption data was collected from three feeders supplying the Nduma district and processed to identify consumption patterns and trends. Results showed a significant impact of Covid-19 restrictions and load-shedding on the overall load profile.