An analysis of the viability and competitiveness of DC microgrids in northern India

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2013.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Campanella, Andrew
Other Authors: Robert Stoner.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100357
_version_ 1811090836156317696
author Campanella, Andrew
author2 Robert Stoner.
author_facet Robert Stoner.
Campanella, Andrew
author_sort Campanella, Andrew
collection MIT
description Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2013.
first_indexed 2024-09-23T14:52:43Z
format Thesis
id mit-1721.1/100357
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language eng
last_indexed 2024-09-23T14:52:43Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/1003572019-04-10T10:38:06Z An analysis of the viability and competitiveness of DC microgrids in northern India Campanella, Andrew Robert Stoner. System Design and Management Program. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division. System Design and Management Program. Engineering Systems Division. System Design and Management Program. Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2013. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 71-74). The electrification of rural and remote villages in developing countries poses major challenges. While extension of the central power grid offers economies of scale in generation and transmission, distribution infrastructure to reach remote areas can be prohibitively costly to install and maintain. The low demand of newly electrified customers also makes many electrification projects economically unviable. Northern India provides a case study in the challenges of rural electrification. Microgrids, wherein smaller numbers of customers are connected to a local electricity infrastructure that may or may not be connected to the central grid, have long been studied as a potential way to electrify remote and rural customers. This study proposes and analyzes a set of technical and economic models describing a solar powered DC microgrid, where a private enterprise provides lighting and mobile phone charging as a service. The models are analyzed to determine sensitivity to factors such as village size, length of distribution networks, customer load, and operations and maintenance costs. The models are tested to determine the technical and economic factors that limit the practical applicability of the proposed enterprise. The microgrid enterprise is then compared to a similar company that uses single household solar home systems (SHS) to provide the same service. The study concludes with a general discussion of the differences between the solar home system and microgrid approaches. by Andrew Campanella. S.M. in Engineering and Management 2015-12-16T16:34:03Z 2015-12-16T16:34:03Z 2013 2013 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100357 931084518 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 74 pages application/pdf a-ii--- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Engineering Systems Division.
System Design and Management Program.
Campanella, Andrew
An analysis of the viability and competitiveness of DC microgrids in northern India
title An analysis of the viability and competitiveness of DC microgrids in northern India
title_full An analysis of the viability and competitiveness of DC microgrids in northern India
title_fullStr An analysis of the viability and competitiveness of DC microgrids in northern India
title_full_unstemmed An analysis of the viability and competitiveness of DC microgrids in northern India
title_short An analysis of the viability and competitiveness of DC microgrids in northern India
title_sort analysis of the viability and competitiveness of dc microgrids in northern india
topic Engineering Systems Division.
System Design and Management Program.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100357
work_keys_str_mv AT campanellaandrew ananalysisoftheviabilityandcompetitivenessofdcmicrogridsinnorthernindia
AT campanellaandrew analysisoftheviabilityandcompetitivenessofdcmicrogridsinnorthernindia