2015 6th International Renewable Energy Congress (IREC) 978-1-4799-7947-9/15$31.00©2015 IEEE The Role of Microgrids & Renewable Energy in Addressing Sub-Saharan Africa’s Current and Future Energy Needs Paul Buchana, Taha Selim Ustun Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Carnegie-Mellon University pbuchana@andrew.cmu.edu Abstract—Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has a rich mix of renewable energy sources (RES) most of which are massively underutilized in as far as electricity generation from them is concerned. This is largely attributed to the lack of adequate energy infrastructure and the high capital costs associated with the deployment of requisite infrastructure. In order to attract and justify investment in this area, there is need for sustainable demand with sufficient loads able to sink the generated power. However, this is not the case in the region as many communities are poor especially those in rural and remote areas. It is also worth noting that lack of electricity is closely correlated with poverty and thus the need to avail these communities with affordable electricity as to attain long-term mutual benefits. Since most of the RES in the region are wide spread and populations live in clusters, generation is expected to be distributed. This justifies the use of standalone autonomous systems, i.e.--Microgrids that are able to connect to the grid. Microgrids offer an affordable and reliable solution as compared to grid extension to areas that are located far from the grid. They also allow for renewable and fossil fuel incorporation thus serving as the most ideal solution to addressing SSA’s source, storage and load interconnection needs. In this paper, the effects of lack of electricity in SSA are investigated, the challenges facing rural electrification in the region are analyzed and some feasible technical and financial solutions needed to avert these shortcomings are proposed. HOMER simulation results for optimal microgrid configurations in Nyakabanda, Rwanda as a test case are also documented. Index Terms—Renewable Energy, Microgrids, Utility Grid, Rural Electrification, Sub-Saharan Africa, Rwanda, HOMER I. INTRODUCTION The use of fossil fuels to generate electricity has for a longtime proved to be very unattractive owing to the fact that the process releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere which in turn increases the total carbon footprint and leads to devastating effects such as increased global warming and its associated consequences [1], [2]. Fossil fuels are a finite and scarce source of energy and with the zeal for many nations to become energy independent, a number of them have turned to clean, renewable and alternative sources [1]. Although the upfront costs of installing RE generation equipment are high relative to installation of fossil fuel run generators, factors such as inaccessibility of rural and remote areas of SSA coupled with rising fuel prices lead to increased long-term projected running costs ergo tipping the scales back in favor of RE generation. However, some RE sources such as hydro and geothermal are dispersed while others such as wind and solar are intermittent in nature. Furthermore, wind and solar intensities vary from site to site making power generation from them more ideal in some locations as compared to others. Connecting these generation sources directly to the grid poses two main challenges. One of them is the cost implication especially associated with extending the grid to sites that are dispersed and the other is the frequency control issue linked with the integration of intermittent sources such as wind and solar [3]. Installation of decentralized microgrids closer to generation and demand can avert some of the financial and technical challenges posed. In remote areas to which grid extension costs are high, decentralized electricity generation, transmission and distribution is usually the most cost-effective option. This is made possible by the availability of RES and the deployment of microgrids. In SSA, many countries have utility grids that span a small geographical area serving mostly the urban population. This is mainly attributed to the high upfront capital costs associated with setting up adequate energy infrastructure. In addition, the demand in rural and remote areas is low hence this slows down rural electrification efforts since the timespan over which the investment can be recouped is not attractive [4]. The utility grid is also sensitive to generation and load changes. Directly integrating the power output from intermittent RES is undesirable as unacceptable changes in grid voltage and frequency can cause significant system damage [5]. Microgrid installation with storage can help with frequency smoothing and voltage stabilization by ramping power up or down as and when required [6]. The desired output can then be seamless integrated into the grid via microgrid to grid coupling. Despite having a number of RES, many communities in SSA remain without electricity. However, with the promise of continued social and economic growth in the region coupled with the need to address rural electrification and electrification challenges in general, RES and microgrid technologies are envisioned to be at the forefront of this campaign [7].