TY - JOUR
T1 - Status of Micro/Mini-Grid Systems in a Himalayan Nation
T2 - A Comprehensive Review
AU - Shrestha, Ashish
AU - Rajbhandari, Yaju
AU - Khadka, Nasib
AU - Bista, Aayush
AU - Marahatta, Anup
AU - Dahal, Rojesh
AU - Mallik, Jiwan Kumar
AU - Thapa, Anup
AU - Hayes, Barry P.
AU - Korba, Petr
AU - Longatt, Francisco M.Gonzalez
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 IEEE.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Nepal is a Himalayan country with its 83% of its geography being composed of hills and mountains. Around 22% of the Nepalese population is not receiving electricity through the national power utility and is forced to identify alternative approaches to electrification. The Micro/Mini-Grid (MG) system is one of the promising approaches in terms of cost, reliability and performance for rural electrification, where electrification through national power utility is not techno-economically feasible. However, various issues must be identified and considered during the implementation of MGs in a rural community. In this paper, numerous technical, social and management issues are identified and discussed relating to the implementation and operation of reliable and stable MGs in the Himalayas. To our knowledge, this is the first scientific work that presents a comprehensive review of Himalayan MGs and their associated elements. This article reviews the available research articles, project documents, and Government reports on MG development, from which a clear roadmap is constructed. From the comprehensive study, it is observed that the existing MGs are not adequately designed for the specific area, considering the local resources and local information. Based on the identified issues, some practical and efficient recommendations have been made, so that future MG projects will address the possible problems during the design and implementation phase.
AB - Nepal is a Himalayan country with its 83% of its geography being composed of hills and mountains. Around 22% of the Nepalese population is not receiving electricity through the national power utility and is forced to identify alternative approaches to electrification. The Micro/Mini-Grid (MG) system is one of the promising approaches in terms of cost, reliability and performance for rural electrification, where electrification through national power utility is not techno-economically feasible. However, various issues must be identified and considered during the implementation of MGs in a rural community. In this paper, numerous technical, social and management issues are identified and discussed relating to the implementation and operation of reliable and stable MGs in the Himalayas. To our knowledge, this is the first scientific work that presents a comprehensive review of Himalayan MGs and their associated elements. This article reviews the available research articles, project documents, and Government reports on MG development, from which a clear roadmap is constructed. From the comprehensive study, it is observed that the existing MGs are not adequately designed for the specific area, considering the local resources and local information. Based on the identified issues, some practical and efficient recommendations have been made, so that future MG projects will address the possible problems during the design and implementation phase.
KW - Control management
KW - distribute generation system
KW - isolated energy system
KW - mini-grid
KW - rural electrification
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85089174877
U2 - 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3006912
DO - 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3006912
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089174877
SN - 2169-3536
VL - 8
SP - 120983
EP - 120998
JO - IEEE Access
JF - IEEE Access
M1 - 9133062
ER -
