Review of technical and economic challenges for implementing rural microgrids in south africa

Abstract

Electrification is a persisting problem all over the world. The worst affected are people who live in rural areas of developing countries. South Africa is no different as they have still to attain 100% electrification. Due to their small-scale nature, off-grid microgrids are well suited to rural electrification purposes. Independent solar, wind, biomass and microhydro microgrids form the main scope of this paper. In order to compare various renewable resources the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) can be used as a reasonable metric. The technical and economic factors affecting microgrids across the globe are reviewed and interpreted with respect to South Africa in this paper. It is expected that that South Africa can implement microgrids successfully by taking note of these economic factors as well as factors specific to itself, and use them to their advantage so as to solve its rural electrification problem.