Imperial College London
Alternate

DrChiaraCandelise

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Centre for Environmental Policy

Honorary Research Fellow
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6781c.candelise05 CV

 
 
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Location

 

401Weeks BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Few:2022:10.1016/j.esd.2021.11.008,
author = {Few, S and Barton, J and Sandwell, P and Mori, R and Kulkarni, P and Thomson, M and Nelson, J and Candelise, C},
doi = {10.1016/j.esd.2021.11.008},
journal = {Energy for Sustainable Development},
pages = {151--164},
title = {Electricity demand in populations gaining access: Impact of rurality and climatic conditions, and implications for microgrid design},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2021.11.008},
volume = {66},
year = {2022}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Almost 800 million people currently lack access to reliable electricity, for many of whom solar microgrid systems are expected to be the most cost-effective solution. Quantifying current and future electricity demand is crucial for cost-effective design of reliable microgrids. However, electricity usage is connected to a wide range of social and economic factors alongside climatic conditions, making estimation of demand challenging. This paper presents a framework facilitating each stage of solar microgrid design from demand estimation through to cost-optimal sizing of the microgrid and its economic and environmental characterisation. Household demand is simulated based upon (1) climatic conditions, (2) appliance ratings and usage patterns, and (3) rates of growth in appliance ownership based upon the Multi-Tier Framework for measuring household electricity access. Microgrid demands are simulated based on the combination of these with (4) nondomestic demand based upon locally available data. The framework is demonstrated across four rates of domestic demand growth and two climatic conditions (‘tropical savanna’ and ‘humid subtropical’), alongside nondomestic demand based upon two operational microgrids (one rural and one peri-urban). When growth rates are high, newly introduced appliances tend to dominate, with differing impacts on the demand profile depending on power and usage times. Cooling represents a modest contribution to demand in the tropical savanna climate. However, in the hotter and more seasonally varying humid subtropical climate, cooling becomes the dominant driver of demand, increasing seasonality and proportion of demand at night. Nondomestic demand in the rural microgrid is primarily agricultural, and exhibits more seasonality and better alignment with daylight hours than demand in the peri-urban setting, which is more service-based. Across cases, increased seasonality and proportion of demand at night lead to poorer alignme
AU  - Few,S
AU  - Barton,J
AU  - Sandwell,P
AU  - Mori,R
AU  - Kulkarni,P
AU  - Thomson,M
AU  - Nelson,J
AU  - Candelise,C
DO  - 10.1016/j.esd.2021.11.008
EP  - 164
PY  - 2022///
SN  - 0973-0826
SP  - 151
TI  - Electricity demand in populations gaining access: Impact of rurality and climatic conditions, and implications for microgrid design
T2  - Energy for Sustainable Development
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2021.11.008
UR  - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0973082621001447?via%3Dihub
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/95260
VL  - 66
ER  -
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