Data-driven approaches enabling the design of community energy systems in the Global South

<p>This thesis answers the primary research question: <p><em>What techniques can be developed to address the challenges of context specificity and replication at scale in the design of electricity access systems suitable for rural, low-income communities in the Global South?</...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Clements, A
Other Authors: McCulloch, M
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
_version_ 1797073526171107328
author Clements, A
author2 McCulloch, M
author_facet McCulloch, M
Clements, A
author_sort Clements, A
collection OXFORD
description <p>This thesis answers the primary research question: <p><em>What techniques can be developed to address the challenges of context specificity and replication at scale in the design of electricity access systems suitable for rural, low-income communities in the Global South?</em></p> <p>This is addressed through two sub-questions:</p> <p> 1. <em>To build electricity access systems that are suitable for specific contexts, how can we take account of end-user needs, aspirations, and context in the design process?</em></p> <p> 2. <em>To support replication of electricity access systems at scale, how can we use time series electricity demand data coupled with demographic data to estimate electricity demand for these communities?</em></p> <p>Five techniques are developed. The first is the Service Value Method, which gathers and integrates end-user needs, aspirations, and context into engineering design practice. It incorporates data-gathering methods suitable for Global South contexts.</p> <p>The remaining four techniques relate to how electricity and demographic data can be used to estimate electricity demand for new communities, supporting replication of systems at scale. Time series electricity data are linked to household demographic data, and exploited to estimate a) daily electricity consumption (relevant for battery-charging systems), and b) daily load profiles (relevant for micro-grids). For each demand metric, the approach is to retain the variation in electricity use for each household across different days. </p> <p>Throughout this thesis a case study from Kenya of lighting electricity data from households using two solar nano-grids is used to demonstrate these techniques. Results from the case study, comprising a dataset of household lighting electricity data, and the typical use patterns derived from them, contribute to demand estimation research for these contexts. </p></p>
first_indexed 2024-03-06T23:23:28Z
format Thesis
id oxford-uuid:699181d7-a0b9-48df-a8d0-64093f5db085
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-06T23:23:28Z
publishDate 2018
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:699181d7-a0b9-48df-a8d0-64093f5db0852022-03-26T18:51:50ZData-driven approaches enabling the design of community energy systems in the Global SouthThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:699181d7-a0b9-48df-a8d0-64093f5db085Electricity access system designEnglishORA Deposit2018Clements, AMcCulloch, M<p>This thesis answers the primary research question: <p><em>What techniques can be developed to address the challenges of context specificity and replication at scale in the design of electricity access systems suitable for rural, low-income communities in the Global South?</em></p> <p>This is addressed through two sub-questions:</p> <p> 1. <em>To build electricity access systems that are suitable for specific contexts, how can we take account of end-user needs, aspirations, and context in the design process?</em></p> <p> 2. <em>To support replication of electricity access systems at scale, how can we use time series electricity demand data coupled with demographic data to estimate electricity demand for these communities?</em></p> <p>Five techniques are developed. The first is the Service Value Method, which gathers and integrates end-user needs, aspirations, and context into engineering design practice. It incorporates data-gathering methods suitable for Global South contexts.</p> <p>The remaining four techniques relate to how electricity and demographic data can be used to estimate electricity demand for new communities, supporting replication of systems at scale. Time series electricity data are linked to household demographic data, and exploited to estimate a) daily electricity consumption (relevant for battery-charging systems), and b) daily load profiles (relevant for micro-grids). For each demand metric, the approach is to retain the variation in electricity use for each household across different days. </p> <p>Throughout this thesis a case study from Kenya of lighting electricity data from households using two solar nano-grids is used to demonstrate these techniques. Results from the case study, comprising a dataset of household lighting electricity data, and the typical use patterns derived from them, contribute to demand estimation research for these contexts. </p></p>
spellingShingle Electricity access system design
Clements, A
Data-driven approaches enabling the design of community energy systems in the Global South
title Data-driven approaches enabling the design of community energy systems in the Global South
title_full Data-driven approaches enabling the design of community energy systems in the Global South
title_fullStr Data-driven approaches enabling the design of community energy systems in the Global South
title_full_unstemmed Data-driven approaches enabling the design of community energy systems in the Global South
title_short Data-driven approaches enabling the design of community energy systems in the Global South
title_sort data driven approaches enabling the design of community energy systems in the global south
topic Electricity access system design
work_keys_str_mv AT clementsa datadrivenapproachesenablingthedesignofcommunityenergysystemsintheglobalsouth