LAPSE:2021.0418
Published Article
LAPSE:2021.0418
Sustainable Rural Electrification Through Solar PV DC Microgrids—An Architecture-Based Assessment
May 25, 2021
Solar photovoltaic (PV) direct current (DC) microgrids have gained significant popularity during the last decade for low cost and sustainable rural electrification. Various system architectures have been practically deployed, however, their assessment concerning system sizing, losses, and operational efficiency is not readily available in the literature. Therefore, in this research work, a mathematical framework for the comparative analysis of various architectures of solar photovoltaic-based DC microgrids for rural applications is presented. The compared architectures mainly include (a) central generation and central storage architecture, (b) central generation and distributed storage architecture, (c) distributed generation and central storage architecture, and (d) distributed generation and distributed storage architecture. Each architecture is evaluated for losses, including distribution losses and power electronic conversion losses, for typical power delivery from source end to the load end in the custom village settings. Newton−Raphson method modified for DC power flow was used for distribution loss analysis, while power electronic converter loss modeling along with the Matlab curve-fitting tool was used for the evaluation of power electronic losses. Based upon the loss analysis, a framework for DC microgrid components (PV and battery) sizing was presented and also applied to the various architectures under consideration. The case study results show that distributed generation and distributed storage architecture with typical usage diversity of 40% is the most feasible architecture from both system sizing and operational cost perspectives and is 13% more efficient from central generation and central storage architecture for a typical village of 40 houses. The presented framework and the analysis results will be useful in selecting an optimal DC microgrid architecture for future rural electrification implementations.
Keywords
DC microgrids, DC power systems, loss analysis, Newton–Raphson, rural electrification, system sizing
Suggested Citation
Nasir M, Iqbal S, Khan HA, Vasquez JC, Guerrero JM. Sustainable Rural Electrification Through Solar PV DC Microgrids—An Architecture-Based Assessment. (2021). LAPSE:2021.0418
Author Affiliations
Nasir M: Center for Research on Microgrids (CROM), Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark [ORCID]
Iqbal S: Department of Electrical Engineering, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore 54892, Pakistan
Khan HA: Department of Electrical Engineering, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore 54892, Pakistan [ORCID]
Vasquez JC: Center for Research on Microgrids (CROM), Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark [ORCID]
Guerrero JM: Center for Research on Microgrids (CROM), Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark [ORCID]
Journal Name
Processes
Volume
8
Issue
11
Article Number
E1417
Year
2020
Publication Date
2020-11-06
Published Version
ISSN
2227-9717
Version Comments
Original Submission
Other Meta
PII: pr8111417, Publication Type: Journal Article
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LAPSE:2021.0418
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doi:10.3390/pr8111417
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May 25, 2021
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CC BY 4.0
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May 25, 2021
 
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May 25, 2021
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Calvin Tsay
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