Network Cost Estimation for Mini-Grids in Large-Scale Rural Electrification Planning

Abstract

Universal access to electricity is a crucial challenge in many developing countries. Establishing the electrification agenda of an underserved region is a complicated task where computer models play a critical role in calculating geospatial plans that efficiently allocate resources. Such plans should include—among other things—reasonable estimations of the designs and economic costs of standalone systems, mini-grids, and grid extensions. This implies that computer models need to estimate the network cost for many potential mini-grids. To that end, most planning tools apply quick rules of thumb or geometric methods that ignore power flows and electric constraints, which play a significant role in network designs. This paper presents a methodology that rapidly estimates any low-voltage mini-grid network cost without neglecting the impact of electrical feasibility in such cost. We present a case study where we evaluate our method in terms of accuracy and computation time. We also compare our method with a quick estimation similar to the ones most regional planning tools apply, showing the effectiveness of our method.

The Landscape and Evolution of Rural Planning in China

“…Global research on rural planning Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy • Author Copy has not stopped. For example, rural land use planning [9][10][11][12], rural public service facilities planning [13][14][15], rural cultural facilities planning [16][17][18], rural spatial planning [19][20][21][22], rural spatial evolution [23,24], rural tourism planning [25][26][27], rural industrial planning [25,28,29], and so on. Although rural planning is a universal phenomenon worldwide, research results are abundant.…”