Microgrids: An Environmental Design and Policy Perspective

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Microgrids: An Environmental Design and Policy Perspective
Introduction
Out of a total global population of 7 billion, about 1.3 billion people lack access to modern supply of energy. According to the International Energy Association (IEA), it is estimated that out of the 1.3 billion, 622 million Africans have no access to electricity. Out of the 1.3 billion population without energy supply, 621 million people live in Sub-Saharan Africa and only a million people come from the Northern region of the African continent (Akinyele, Belikov, and Levron 1). Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the use of microgrids globally due to their potential to achieve a dependable, flexible, smart, and efficient electrical grid system, the capacities to supply electric energy particularly to communities living off-grid, and for the economic purpose (Warneryd, Hasansson and Karltorp 6). The characteristics of microgrids and the commitments to achieve a low-carbon environment by governments, policymakers, industries, developers, and other stakeholders have inreased the adoption of microgrids as a dependable option of electric energy generation in the present and the future (Phommixay, Doumbia and St-Pierre 74). While staggering amounts of research studies have explored microgrid technologies and their potential usage, there is a lack of considerations examining the use of microgrids from the perspective of environmental design and policy or city planning. This paper provides various definitions of microgrids, ways in which they can be used to increasing community resilience to disasters, and potential challenges to implementing microgrids more widely.
Definition of Microgrids
While there are various ways of defining microgrids, they are generally described as smaller versions of electric power grids. In general, microgrids refer to a localized arrangement of sources and loads of electricity operating in association with an already existing grid system (on-grid mode) or as a stand-alone system when it is disconnected from the grid system (off-grid mode) (Hirsch, Parag and Guerrero 406). Microgrids are also considered to be small-scale systems of electric power that are specially designed to supply electric energy to small and remote communities. However, the grids can differ in sizes and capacities depending on their scales. In terms of scale, there are mini-microgrids (0.001-0.005 MW), small microgrids (0.005-5MW, medium microgrids (5-50MW), and large distributed generation (DG) (50-300 MW) (Akinyele, Belikov, and Levron 5). The incentives to the deployment of microgrids among communities living in off-grid areas include the lack of access to the national grid, economic factors, and the remoteness of such locations. Based on energy sources, microgrids are classified into solar, wind, hydro, agro-waste, energy crops, fuelwood, animal waste, municipal solid waste, sawdust, and wave and tidal energy (Akinyele, Belikov, and Levron 5). These energy sources are either renewable (solar, hydro, wind, geothermal, biomass) or conventional non-renewable sources such as gas/steam turbines and micro-turbines. However, to align with the goals of environmental policymake...