Eie 05 011 Si2419343 Micro Grids Impact Report

The sole responsibility for the content of this report lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Communities. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

MIC

RO

GR

IDS

PROJECT NUMBER: EIE/05/011/SI2.419343

MICROGRIDS PROMOTION OF MICROGRIDS AND RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES FOR

ELECTRIFICATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Intelligent Energy – Europe (IEE)

Type of Action: 1

Key Action: Strengthening local energy expertise in developing countries

IMPACT REPORT

12 december 2007

IMPACT REPORT FOR MICROGRIDS PROJECT

EIE/05/011/SI2.419343 MICROGRIDS ii

ÍNDICE

page

ÍNDICE......................................................................................................... ii

1. Introduction ........................................................................................1

2. Potencial deployment of microgrids for rural electrification..........3

3. Opportunities for Microgrids for Rural Electrification ....................7

4. Benefits of Micro grids for rural electrification and how to replicate MICROGRIDS experience...................................................9

5. Last Conferences in Dakar and Bilbao ...........................................12

6. Conclusions......................................................................................15


EIE/05/011/SI2.419343 MICROGRIDS 1

1. Introduction

The main action in the dissemination task of WP5 has consisted on organising different type of events. Moreover the web site of the project has been developed (http://www.microgrids-eie.com) to spread the tasks made in the project, and two articles describing the results of the project have been submitted to the well known Renewable Energy journal.

Table 1 represents the summary of the events performed as part of WP5 “Specific Disemination Activities”:

Table 1 summary of the events performed as part of WP5 “Specific Disemination Activities”: N EVENT Location Date 1 Technology Transfer on the "Basic Seminar on

RES" Dakar July 2006

2 Microgrids project presentation Thies/Fatick/Kaolak August 2006

3 Potential Deployment of UGs for rural electrification

Thies/Fatick/Kaolak Dec. 2006

4 Opportunities of UGs for rural electrification Dakar April 2007 5 Benefits of UGs for rural electrification. How to

replicate UGs Thies/Fatick/Kaolak Oct. 2007

6 Benefits of UGs for rural electrification. UGs experience

Dakar Oct. 2007

7 Benefits of UGs for rural electrification. UGs experience

Bilbao Nov. 2007

The aim of the first event was to complete the formation session organised in Europe by ESTIA and Robotiker in June 2006 about renewable energies and microgrids. A feedback was made taking into account questions Senegalese partners had on these topics after the European formation session. The event organised in Dakar was the first in Senegal and allowed to present the project to many people who did not went to European session. Thus, it has been a key event to set the project in Senegal, all the more so as a press conference was organised with the presence of Energy Ministry personalities.

The second event where the governors of target regions were visited has helped to prepare the following events in the regions. Actually, because the knowledge and the control of governors on regions’ people, every event has to be organised with their advice to be efficient.



The third event consisted on workshops organised in the capital of the three regions to study the potential deployment of microgrids for rural electrification. These workshops are described in the next section.

Event 4 about opportunities of microgrids for rural electrification was organised in Dakar and is described in section 3.

Three other seminars have been organised in the capital of the three regions in October of 2007 about the benefits of microgrids for rural electrification. Explanations on these seminars are given in section 4.

Section 5 describes the conference organised in Dakar in October of 2007, where the main results of the Microgrids project have been presented. The conference made in Bilbao in November of 2007 is also presented in section 5.

Finally, section 6 conclude this document.



2. Potencial deployment of microgrids for rural electrification

The objective of the first workshops carried out in the three target regions was to analyze the difficulties and needs for the spread of electrification systems in rural areas and to identify strategies and actions to fulfil these needs and remove these obstacles. The workshops were organised in Thies, Fatick and Kaolack in December 2006.

The target groups were:

• Representatives of governmental organizations involved in rural electrification and renewable energies

• Representatives of citizens.

• Renewable energy technicians. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, the event consisted of the following tasks:

• General information about the MICROGRIDS project issued in order to make the people aware of the background.

• A presentation on Renewable Energy situation in Senegal done covering subjects such as previous projects, main barriers, institutional policies and figures (cost, amortization, benefits…)

• The dynamics of the working session. Three groups were formed according to the three target groups. Target groups listed all main parameters and difficulties related to electrification and regarding their particular area of activities. Taking all this information as a basis, possible solutions were proposed and evaluated.

The timetable was: 10:00 to 11:00 Common Session 1. Presentation.

10:00 to 10:15 General presentation. Objectives. 10:15 to 10:30 Microgrids project. 10:30 to 11:00 Renewable Energy in Senegal 11:00 to 11:15 Working group dynamics



11:00 to 13:00 Working groups session 1. Barriers.

Logistics:

- One room per working group. - Two people from the organization per working group:

• Director. In charge of managing the group dynamics. • Secretary. In charge of recording all the information.

- Post-its and pens for everybody.

Schedule/dynamics:

- One or more written specific questions regarding barriers are issued to the group. These questions are to be defined, and could be different for each group.

- 11:00 to 11:30. First round. People write their answers in an individual way and they are sticked to the walls so everybody can see them.

- 11:30 to 12:00. Answers are organized by subjects and can be clarified by the authors if necessary.

- 12:00 to 12:15. Second round. New writing for ideas. - 12:15 to 13:00. General discussion.

13:00 to 14:30 Lunch 14:30 to 16:30 Working groups session 2. Solutions. 16:30 to 17:30 Common session 2. Conclusions.

Discussion showed that many project on renewable energies were been started since eighties. However the results of these projects have been limited and have not, in general, lead to long-standing approaches. Among these projects can be cited:

• The German cooperation (GTZ): PV power stations, mini power stations, pumping systems and familiar PV systems (FPS) in Kaolack, Fatick and Diourbel.

• The Japanese cooperation (JICA): Senegalo-Nippon, solar energy project (PSNES), carrying out of the national rural electrification plan, a pilot project installation (FPS) in Mar island of Fatick.



• Spanish cooperation (ATERSA, ISOPHOTON): FPSs installation in every region of Senegal, and above all in Fatick (Isophoton), streetlight and FPSs installation on 227 villages of Senegal.

• FONDEM ONG (Fondation Energie pour le Monde): solar electrification of catholic private health centres of Senegal, particularly in Ziguinchor.

In these workshops, discussions about the difficulties of expanding and perpetuating renewable energies lead to the proposition of some solutions concerning these difficulties. These identified barriers and proposed solutions have been completed in the following events.

Thus, according to Senegalese experts, the main constraints and solutions to the development of micro-grids with high content of renewable energies in Senegal are:

• Administrative procedures are heavy. They must be lightened.

• The tax system is restrictive. Some incentive measures have to be applied for the energetic sector.

• The local or administrative authorities and the regional committees for the development are not sufficiently implicated upstream of and downstream from the electrification projects. Governors, prefectures and other authorities must be involved in the projects.

• Beneficiaries, it is to say population of non-electrified villages, are not involved in the financing of the project. They have to take part in the financing to be considered as partners.

• There are no maintenance systems. The training in maintenance of professionals’ associations must be encouraged to professionalize this field.

• The spare parts are not available. A toll-house must be created to ease the access to the tools for the technicians in renewable energies.

There are not monitoring systems to assess the projects. The partners of the projects must carry out the monitoring and assessment of the project at medium and long term to do ease the capitalisation of the projects.



There are few continuing education procedures for local expertise. The local expertise must be strengthened through seminars and continuing education sessions.

Renewable energies are not included in the training programs. Renewable energies must be included in the school programs, specially in the scientific education.



3. Opportunities for Microgrids for Rural Electrification

This conference was carried out in Dakar in April 2007. The objective of the conference was to meet Energy professionals and Energy policy makers in order to present:

• The results of the analysis of the needs of rural electrification.

• The development of opportunities of their activity by the installation of MICROGRIDS based in renewable energies.

Thus, the target group were energy professionals and energy policy makers.

Main activities of the conference titled “La politique des Energies Renouvelables du Sénégal et le projet Micro réseaux (Microgrids)” were:

• MICROGRIDS project presentation by European partners. Brief description of the 3 last events.

• The rural electrification and renewable energy situation in Senegal, presented by the Renewable Energy Ministry. The following subjects were treated : the actual institutional policies in this area, the previous projects and the barriers to cross.

• Results description of the study made in the WP3 by the Senegalese partners (SEMIS/CERER) about the “Analysis of local needs for electrification of rural areas”.

• An important session consisted of presenting the Final Report of the previous events-group: “Barriers and Solutions for Potential Deployment for microgrids for Rural Electrification”.

• Opportunities of the rural electrification for the enterprises concluded the conference with the participation of energy professionals, institutions and Senegalese partners. A special attention was paid to the figures (cost, amortization, benefits).

It must be noticed that just some weeks before the conference, the Government of Senegal created a new Ministry, the Renewable Energies Ministry. The new minister Christian Sina Diatta took activilly part in the conference and its organisation. The impact of the conference was very significant thanks to him. All experts and important decisions



takers of institutions, universities, research centers and entreprises concerned by renewable energies were present in the conference. Moreover, this event was very widelly disseminated by TVs, newspapers and radios (see Figure 2).

Figure 1: Christian Sina Diatta Minister with Microgrids project partners in the

dinner after the conference.

Figure 2: Some articles publicated in Senegaleses newspapers.

The discussions which closed the conference underlined:

• The need to alleviate administrative procedures.

• The need to assure technical and financial maintenance of facilities resulting from projects.

• The opportunity to create a Financing Commission to support the penetration of Renewable Energies.

• New strategies: Introduction of Renewable Energies in school and Cyber Forums.



4. Benefits of Micro grids for rural electrification and how to replicate MICROGRIDS experience

The objective of these second workshops in the target regions was to meet again Energy professionals and politicians from Fatick, Thies and Kaolak regions to:

• Disseminate Microgrids project results.

• Measure the Project acceptance by Senegalese agents.

• Identify the next step of the project: objectives, technological and financial means.

The target groupswere:

• Energy professionals;

• Politicians (Fatick/Thies/Kaolak);

• Energy agencies and companies.

Figure 3: The workshop in Fatick.



The final results concerning the analysis of the electrification needs in the investigated rural areas (Thies, Fatick and Kaolack) have been presented and discussed. Then, the conceptual rural electrification Kit designed using the results of the rural electrification needs surveys has been presented. Moreover, a demonstration of the didactic Kit, designed to train Microgrids installation, maintenance and operating technicians, has been carried out (Figure 4).

Figure 4: One part of the educational Kit.

These workshops have also allowed to present the Rural Electrification Funds created by decree N°2006-247 of 21 March 2006.



A significant part of the time of the workshops has been reserved for discussions which have allowed the involvement of local personalities in relation with rural electrification problem and renewable energies.

In conclusion local governorsand authorities have expressed their satisfaction with the results of Microgrids project. They have also expressed the eagerness of local population to have access to electricity.

Workshops have allowed to spread the main results of the Microgrids project. They have led to some debates about the permanence of the systems based in Renewable Energies in Senegal. Questions from Presidents of Rural Communities and Regional services for the development have been answered from Senegalese institutions as ASER, the DE, ESP and private actors as SEMIS.

Local medias have disseminated the given information about the needs of rural electrification, the nature of exploitable energetic resources and the specificity of Microgrids project’s Hybrid Systems.



5. Last Conferences in Dakar and Bilbao

The conference in Dakar: “la Politique des Energies Renouvelables du Sénégal et le Projet Micro réseaux (Microgrids)” has been carried out in October 2007 while the conference in Bilbao was made in November.

Figure 5: The last conference in Dakar has been a big success.

These final conferences of the MICROGRIDS project in Dakar and Bilbao have dealt with different subjects as:

• Presentation to a large public of the MICROGRIDS project objectives;

• Dissemination of the results of the project (project assessment): Analysis of local needs, presentation of the Kits; conclusions of the precedent events (main parameters and difficulties related to rural electrification, possible solutions ...);

• Funding for micro grids projects for rural electrification: example of PLE (Local Electrification Plan) and ERIL (Rural electrification issued from local initiative);



• Encouragement of energy agencies and the energy professionals from Senegal to use the MICROGRIDS experience in the development of suitable solutions for electrification of the remote area.

• Involvement of the energy companies and investors to identify the financial and technological means for the next step after the end of the project. Debate on measures to point out in order to bring the project to another level (a micro grid installation based on KIT architecture).

Figure 6: The presence of the minister of Biofuel and Renewabl Energy, Mr. Christian Sina DIATTA,

has attracted many medias.

The conference in Dakar has created synergies between specialists of rural electrification from different backgrounds. Nevertheless, it has been noted that the number of organization involved in the field of rural electrification and renewable energies is still not sufficient. This problem would be studied and taken into account in the project (Microgrids II) which would take over from Microgrids project.



The success of this conference has proved that more and more people is interested by renewable energies and rural electrification. All partners and participants have underlined the need of extending the application field and the partners of Microgrids, by carrying out a Mivrogrids II project which would apply the results of the first project and thus allow a durable and high quality rural electrification.

The conference in Bilbao has allowed to inform Spanish and French NGOs, educational centres and enterprises on Microgrids project results, and to propose them to take part on rural electrification based on renewable energies in Africa.

Figure 6: The Conference in Bilbao also gathered a wide group of energy professionals.



6. Conclusions

The micro-grid concept is not really new in Senegal. Aside pure PV power stations (Diaoulé in Fatick and Ndiébel in Kaolack in the frame of a Senegal-German project, Djirnda in Fatick in the frame of a Senegal-Nippon project), some hybrid PV-diesel generator power stations have been installed in Fatick, precisely in Bassoul-Bassar and Saloum Island.

However, despite rural population needs, these kinds of power stations have not still been installed at a large-scale. Moreover the already installed power stations have had some operating problems and they have not been, in general, durable.

Thus, after an early peak of installation of isolated micro power plants based on renewable energies in the eighties, the confidence on these systems has gradually decreased. It was time to mobilize people involved in rural electrification and renewable energies again, in order to think about the errors made in the past and to correct them. It is what Microgrids project has done in one part. After this reflection time, some actions would be applied to obtain a durable and large scale rural electrification based on renewable energies.

The reflection carried out during the dissemination activities organised in the WP5 of the Microgrids project has lead to some conclusions saying that activities have to be developed in order to deal with three major challenges for the development of micro-grids in Senegal:

• The availability: the appropriate offer of energetic services must be increased.

• The acceptability: adapted energetic equipments which answer to the rural population needs must be created (for the transformation of farm products, for the construction of farm tools and equipments …).

• The accessibility: poor people of rural regions must have access to energetic services.

Besides its impact on mobilizing people, on spreading the advantages of the use of micro grids for rural electrification (Senegalese medias have significantly taken part in all the



organised events) and on making a profound reflection on how to obtain a durable development of micro grids, the impact of Microgrids project has also been very significant in other fields.

One of the problems noted which stopped a durable development of micro grids for rural electrification was the lack of expertise and training at different levels: for systems dimensioning, installation, maintenance etc… WP2 has allowed to train lecturers from universities, technical schools training officers and teachers. Now, they will be a bit more ready to transmit these knowledge in schools, technical training centres and universities to schoolchildren, technicians and students. Moreover, the educational (or training) Kit designed in the WP4 of the project has been evaluated as a very good tool to support courses on renewable energies and micro grids. The list o components and the electrical diagram have been transferred to Senegalese partners. They could now easily replicate this training Kit in order to equip a maximum of schools, universities and training centres. The Kit could also be used as a demonstrator in rural villages to explain what is a micro grids to local population.

The impact of the work made in the frame of WP3 has also been very significant. Firstly, much people living in villages which have not access to electricity have been met during the surveys carried out in WP3. It has been noted that their motivation to access electricity has increased after these meetings. This is at double-edged. On one hand they will more easily involved themselves in project to electrify their village, for instance participating in the financing of the project. On the other hand, they now hope to quickly have access to electricity and they will thus be less indulgent with authorities if electrification projects are not soon carried out.

Secondly the surveys of WP3 have had an important impact on the work made in the WP4. Many data collected in these surveys and the analysis made on the base of these data where actually essential to lead the design of a more or less standard micro grids for Senegalese non electrified villages.

Finally, all the data collected in the survey of WP3 will be very useful when micro grids will be installed in the concerned villages. They will be used to estimate the available renewable resources, to see in what roofs or walls PV panels could be installed, to calculate how long the electrical distribution lines have to be, to approximate in what percentage local population could take part in the financing of the micro grids, to know



what are people priorities in case of the produced electrical energy is not enough to feed all the loads in one moment…

The conceptual Kit designed in WP4 has also had an important impact. It has been noted that people who participated in the different events where this conceptual Kit was presented have been convinced by the proposed concept. The structure designed on the base of the data collected in WP3 seems to be appropriate for electrification of rural villages. Moreover the procedure or methodology proposed to size a micro grids before its installation and to develop the whole of the project take into account the remarks made by participants in the events of WP5. This methodology could be use to develop durable rural electrification project based on renewable energies. Beside the methodology, some software have been provided to Senegalese partners in order to carry out more easily these procedures.

The project has probably also influenced the creation of a very important tool for rural electrification: the Rural Electrification Funds. These funds have been created to:

• Make easier the access to electricity in rural regions.

• Put a financing tool adapted to investment at operator’s disposal.

• Make easier the mobilizing of private capital for the promotion and development of electrification and economical activities in rural zones.

• Perpetuate the financial mechanism of the rural electrification Senegalese program.

• These funds are feed from:

• The allocation of the annual budget given by the government to ASER.

• The electricity charge.

• The international funding of some partners for the development.

• The equivalent given by the state for the financing of these partners for the development.

• The annual allocation which was previously given to the Electricity Preference Funds (Fonds de Préférence de l’Electricité).



• All others financings which could be left to rural electrification.

The administrative procedures to access these founds are as simple as possible. It is evident that these funds will play a decisive role in rural electrification. They will be able to be used in order to finance micro grids installations in rural non-electrified villages.

Even if it is in a very low level, Microgrids project has maybe also influenced another decisive event: the creation of a Ministry dedicated to renewable energies. This ministry has been created some months after the first events organised in the frame of WP2 and WP5.

This creation has motivated Senegalese actors on renewable energies. They hope that the new Ministry will be able to coordinate all the activities on renewable energies and thus to help a more efficient development of systems based on renewable energies in Senegal.

In the two events of Dakar where the Minister Christian Sina Diatta took part, he insisted that Microgrids project results have to be applied in the frame of a Microgrids II project.

There is no doubt that Microgrids project has had an important impact on the strategy Senegalese actors are applying to develop micro grids based on renewable energies for rural electrification. Moreover, many propositions given in the discussions carried out during the events organised in Senegal have still not be applied. For instance, it has been proposed to create the “House of Tools” which would keep different components in order to use them if some elements of an installation are not more working. Another proposition was to associate monitoring system to track the operating of micro grids. The people awareness and the training at different level of the education system on renewable energies and micro grids must also be improved gradually. Senegalese partners are determined to do all this, if it is possible in the frame of Microgrids II project, applying the results and conclusions of Microgrids project by the installation of micro grids in several non electrified rural villages. There is no doubt that if this wish is suited, the impact of Microgrids project will be still much significant. Only time will tell.

Documents

Eie 05 011 Si2419343 Micro Grids Impact Report