Exploiting Renewable Energy in Power Grid Systems of Developing Nations Dauda A. Folarina, Japhet D. Sakalaa, Edwin Matlosea and Mangus A. Gasennelwe-jeffreya Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana. email:
[email protected] Abstract It is a known fact coming to the issue of electricity, demand exceeds supply of energy to end-users in most of the developing countries. According to the annual reports of some of the selected developing countries in Africa, the generating capacity is far less than the required energy for their population. Nigeria with a population of over 174 million produces less than 4,500MW of energy with less than 40% of the population having access to electricity supply. Botswana has 22% of her 2 million population having access to electricity supply while about 50% is outsourced from South Africa and Zambia. Ghana has reached 75% of her required power supply. This paper elucidates the benefits of tapping renewable energy as a means of additional support to boost power generation in developing countries of Africa. Most of these countries are endowed with natural resources such as wind, solar, and biomass among others. The renewable energy is one of the components of smart grid (SG) which can be tapped via storage device. Adopting this technology will enhance the generating capacity of the developing countries and thereby improving the quality of power supply to the end- users.
Keywords: Demand, Supply, Renewable energy, Access, Technology, Smart grid
1. INTRODUCTION The electrical power generation and distribution using traditional grids that serve consumers currently have been developed more than a century ago. Whereas the present grids have functioned well in the past, definitely, they will be inadequate in the future (Euro, 2006; Hamilton, 2010) in relations to their efficiency andenvironment friendliness. Conversely, new challenges are arising from regularly increasing consumer demands, global warming and reduction of non-renewable energy sources at much speedy rate (Birol, 2006; Armaroli and Balzani, 2007). Electricity networks must guarantee safe, secure, constant and sustainable electricity supplies, take advantage of new technologies and incorporate large scale renewable generation systems. In order to meet condition of managing intermittency of renewable energy(RE) sources logically to avoid future supply failures, which provide an outstanding opportunity for the deployment of smart grid technologies adoption essentials to be considered as an excellent opportunity (Brown and Zhou, 2013). As peak demand of electricity is increasing at rapid speed in all regions, smart grids deployment may also help in handling the increase in anticipated peak demand (IEA, 2011).
Electricity is an important facet of any nation’s development. In developing nations of Africa, electricity is the pillar of growth and development with roles in the nation’s production of goods and services in the industrial sector as well as agriculture, health and education (Euro, 2006). SubSahara Africa is blessed with an abundant amount of fossil fuel and RE resources, but unable to satisfy the electricity demand of their regions. According to the World Bank data; only about 30% of Sub-Saharan Africa has access to electricity. The poor energy situation of countries under study results from the national grid network with problems ranging from inefficient power plants which are few in numbers to lack of renewables to support peak load, physical deterioration of the long transmission lines to distribution facilities which are inadequately maintained, lack of two-way flow of communication facilities, illegal electricity connections and outdated meters used by the consumers (Euro, 2006). This paper addresses the need to incorporate RE sources in order to solve the problem of inadequate supply of electricity needed in developing countries of Africa. In order to correct the shortfall in electricity supply in future, it suggests the integration of smartgrid into the electricity system in collaboration with the renewable energy.
2. BACKGROUND In most countries, electricity has been regarded as a public service since the middle of the 20th century. Most of the developing countries have now adopted universal access to electricity as a development objective. Adequate and reliable supplies of electricity have been a principal focus of national energy policies, as a consequence of its role in enabling economic growth and improving people's standards of living. Even when private sector actors deliver electricity, the availability and reliability of the supply is regarded as a responsibility of government. Rates of improvement in terms of expanding access and delivering inclusive electricity services also vary. Vietnam, for example, increased its electrification rate from less than 10% to 98% over three decades. Ghana increased the proportion of the total population with access to electricity from 45% in 2005 to 72% in 2010, and is aiming for universal access by 2020. In some countries, however, there has been very little progress and, under business as usual scenarios, there will still be 1.4 billion globally without electricity by 2030 (IEA, 2011). Within countries, differences in access to electricity are to be found between rural and urban areas. Across sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, 56% of the urban population lacks access to electricity, compared with 89% of the rural population. Worldwide, the proportion of the population without access in rural areas is five times higher than that in urban areas (IEA, 2011). Barriers to expanding access to electricity have been broadly categorised as financial and economic; capacity and technical; and policy and institutional (Practical Action, 2010; Sovacool, 2012; Watson et al., 2012). The first of these include high costs of investment and operation (and the affordability of tariffs), access to investment finance and the effectiveness of cost recovery mechanisms. In the second category are technical and managerial capacities to design, install and operate electricity systems, and the efficiency of the technologies deployed. The third category includes the adequacy of the policy framework and the effectiveness of institutions responsible for implementing policy. Botswana's energy capacity is thermal, mainly coalfired, with some small diesel generators in rural areas. The bulk of domestic electricity production is generated by the Morupule coal-fired station. More than half of Botswana’s power requirements are imported from South Africa and Zambia.
Increased urbanisation in the face of scarcity of resources to expand and maintain energy plants, has contributed to the fact that only 22 % Botswana’s population have access to electricity. The SADC average for percentage electrification is at most 20 %. Botswana has no hydro-electric power resources and all power is from thermal generation. Installed electricity capacity are 220 GW and 600GW for Morupule A and B plants respectively and domestic production totalled 901 million kW hours. An additional 228 million kWh were imported mainly from South Africa. Consumption per capita is estimated at 874 kWh. Almost all of Botswana's power comes from the coal-powered Morupule Power Station. The country is undertaking a rural electrification programme and a 15 year planning programme is being developed to cater for the expected increase in supply of electricity across the Botswana grid. Although Botswana is ideally suited for solar energy applications, enjoying over 3,200 hours of sunshine per year, its contribution to the national energy balance is insignificant.
3. Drivers of Smart Grid The electricity supply industry is facing lot of challenges: Supply-demand gap; rising costs; low energy efficiencies; and global warming, caused by traditional electricity generation and distribution practices. Also there are many other factors which are driving the need for adoption and implementation of the smart grid technologies. Some of the key drivers of smart grid technologies are: increasing demand of electricity; supply shortfalls of electricity; need of reduce losses; peak demand management; integration of renewable energy generation systems; solution to global warming; effective use of electric vehicles; better customer satisfaction; overcoming difficulties in meter reading; poor efficiencies of conventional power generation systems; potential of technological advancements and new business opportunities (IEA/OECD,2012).
4.2 Ghana Perspective 4. Energy Situation in Developing Countries 4.1 Botswana Perspective Botswana is endowed with biomass (mainly fuel wood), coal and solar energy sources. There is also small potential for wind energy and waste as energy source. Coal is contributing the largest share of the main energy supply followed by petroleum products and wood. With the exception of fuel-wood, new and RE sources are hardly used and solar, despite Government policy to promote it, still contributes less than 1% to total Primary Energy Supply. Electricity accounts for 8% of total energy consumption. The country’s total electrical energy consumption equals 1352 GWh. Electricity grids exist only in close proximity to urban areas. Botswana also has interconnections with the Republic of South Africa, from where it imports electricity, and with Zimbabwe and Zambia for the interchange of power as required. Electrical power produced by Botswana comes from thermal powered plants. Botswana plans to provide electricity to 70 percent of the population by March 2009 and to the rest of its citizens by 2016. Currently, only 22 percent of Botswana's population has access to electricity. The generating capacity of the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) is centered at the 132-MW Morupule power station. Nearly 70 percent of national demand is fulfilled by power imports. Through government funding, BPC is engaged in a major program to extend the electricity grid into rural areas, the largest phase of which was completed in early 2004. Future plans are to develop hydropower potential in northern Botswana, in particularto exploit potential on the Zambezi and the Okavango river systems to meet water demands beyond 2020. Table 1 shows renewable source of energy in Botswana. (Cozzi, 2011) Table 1: Botswana RE Potential (Source: World Bank, 2013) S/No. 1. 2.
3. 4.
5.
PLANT TYPE Solar Potential Wind Potential HydroPotential Natural Gas Reserves Oil Reserves
CAPACITY
UNIT
2,087,670,493
MWh/year
0.1
Area(km2), Class = 3-7 wind @ 50m N/A
N/A N/A
Cubic metres (Cum)
N/A
Barrels (bbl.)
Over the last two decades the demand for electricity has been growing by 10-15 percent yearly. The increasing commercial and industrial sectors are, together with the high population growth, the main drivers of electricity demand. Current demand forecasts project that electricity demand will continue to grow at least seven percent per year. On the supply side, the power sector has constantly fallen short of capacity targets. In 2008, the Ghanaian Minister of Energy set a target of 3500MW of installed capacity by 2013 (World Bank, 2013). At the end of 2013, the Ghanaian grid had 2,703.5MW of installed capacity, 200MW of which is idled due to a shortage of natural gas, and only 2295MW of dependable power. Assuming a reasonable reserve margin of 20 percent, Ghana would have required 2500MW of installed capacity in 2013. Absent significant investments, the shortfalls will continue and become more severe. Key Challenge in the Electricity Sector includes: (i) Poor Transmission and Distribution Systems: Most of the country’s high voltage transmission system are ageing critically. Hence, they are increasingly undependable. The majority of Ghana’s transmission system was built in the decades ago. The transmission system has not been significantly upgraded since construction. As a result, in recent years the transmission infrastructure has caused several total system collapses. (ii) Poor Investment Return of Transmission and Distribution Company: The electricity distribution sub-sector suffers from poor commercial and operational performance. Ghana’s two distribution companies do not recover their cost of distributing electricity through established electricity tariffs. In addition, high losses due to old and overloaded networks in many areas; and problems with metering, billing, electricity theft, and inadequate revenue collection generate additional losses for the distribution companies. This leads the distribution companies to fall behind on payments to the transmission grid and power generators. (World Bank, 2013).
Table 2: Electricity Generation Plant in Ghana (Source: World Bank, 2013) S/No .
Plant Type
1.
Thermal Power Plant Large Hydro P/P Grid Connected Solar Off Grid Solar Biomass Total Installed Capacity Contribution of Modern Renewables
2. 3.
4. 5. 6.
7.
Total Capacity (MW) 1,168
Quantity
Rate (%)
8
42.4
1,580
3
57.4
3.0
20
0.1
0.8
41,820
0.01
2.0 2,754
4
0.1
4.3 Nigeria Perspective
5.8
0.21
Ghana RE Potential (World Bank, 2013) S/N 1. 2. 3.
PLANT TYPE Solar(High solar irradiation) Hydro (Over 14 sites) High Wind Power (13 Sites)
Furthermore, the interruption in the WAGP has led to replacing natural gas with expensive light crude oil (LCO) in plants that can burn either NG or LCO. This has increased costs around US$27 million per month. This additional cost is not recovered through tariffs, increasing the distribution companies’ losses. In turn, this limits the funds available for investments in new generation and transmission system upgrades
CAPACITY 4-6kWh/m2
PERIOD Daily
7400MW
Annually
60m &80m height
Annually
The electricity infrastructure in Ghana is not developed to its potential because of pressure on both the supply and demand sides. One study concluded that between 2013 and 2023 the Ghanaian power sector requires US$4 billion in investment to upgrade the transmission, distribution, and generation assets of the system. The electricity sector faces several key challenges: · Demand in outstripping electricity supply— this results in frequent load shedding and blackouts when demand exceeds available supply · The transmission system is in poor condition—obsolete transmission equipment can become overloaded during periods of high demand · The distribution companies do not recover costs through tariffs—as a result the distribution companies are not able to pay transmission and generation companies, limiting funds available for investment. At present, the Ghanaian power sector cannot meet demand for electricity. An interruption in the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) has contributed to this problem. Poor rainfall in past years has also limited the capacity of Ghana’s large hydro generation units leading to blackouts.
The socio-economic and technological development of every nation revolves around the functionality of its electricity. In Nigeria, considering its vast population, the electricity demand far outstrips the supply. Also, the little supply is unstable. This affects the development of the vast natural resources of the country. The country is faced with acute electricity problems which is hindering its development irrespective of the availability of its vast natural resources. It is widely accepted that there is a strong correlation between socioeconomic development and the availability of electricity. For over twenty years prior to 1999, the power sector did not witness any substantial investment in infrastructural development. During that period, new plants were not constructed while the existing ones were neither upgraded nor repaired. This led to colossal failure of electricity supply in Nigeria thus bringing the power sector to a deplorable state. In 2001, generation went down from the installed capacity of about 5,600MW to an average of about 1,750MW, as compared to a load demand of 6,000MW. Also, only nineteen out of the seventynine installed generating units were in operation. With a share of 2% in the total final energy consumption, electricity remains a marginal source of energy in Nigeria. Furthermore, electricity only represents 9% of the household’s total energy consumption (SEFA, 2013). Electricity consumption from residential and commercial sectors represented 80% of the total electricity demand. The rest was covered by the Industrial, Street Lighting and Special Tariff sectors. The share of large consumers, such as industry or large commercial areas, only represented 1% of the total electricity consumption(PHCN, 2009). As a result of high economic growth and demographic pressure, in 2008, the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) together with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) projected a demand of 15,730 MW for 2010 and 119,200 MW for 2030 under the reference scenario (7% yearly economic growth) (Sambo, 2008). Other
actors like the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN, 2009) or World Alliance for Decentralized Energy (WADE) et al. have also developed scenarios (WADE, 2009). The results of these studies vary widely, but they all conclude that the current gap between supply and demand is already very substantial (1:3) and that, it willbecome more entrenched under a ‘business as usual’ scenario. Thus, there is need to incorporate smart technology intonetwork grid by exploring renewables energy source maximally. Moreover, the significant gap between demand and supply of electricity, has led to recurrent power shortcuts. Thus, the heavy reliance on gas, limited technical/technological know-how, lack of energy efficiency practices and infrastructure maintenance, inadequate regulations and attacks on energy infrastructure contribute to the challenges the sector faces will be of forgone issue. Table 3: Nigeria RE Sources (Energy Commission of Nigeria, 2005) S/No. 1.
Plant Type Small Hydro Power Large Hydro Power
Capacity 3,500
Unit MW
Period Daily
11,250
MW
Daily
3.
Wind Potential
4.
Area(m2), Class=2-4 wind @ 10m 3.5 – 7.0 kWh/m2
Solar Radiation Biomass 13,071,4 (Fuel Wood) 64 Biomass 61 (Animal million Waste) Biomass 83 (Crop millions Residue)
2.
5.
6. 7.
2–4
Yearly
Daily
Hectares
Yearly
Tons
Yearly
Tons
Yearly
5. Benefits of smart grids The EU’s Smart Grids technology platform summarizes the benefits of smart grids as follows: · Better facilitate the connection and operation of generators of all sizes and technologies; · Allow consumers to play a part in optimizing the operation of the system; · Provide consumers with greater information and options for choice of supply;
· · · ·
Significantly reduce the environmental impact of the whole electricity supply system; Maintain or even improve the existing high levels of system reliability, quality and security of supply; Maintain and improve the existing services efficiently; Foster market integration.
6. Merits and Demerits of RE Frankly speaking, each process of power generation has its merits and demerits. RE of course is limitless and environmental friendly. Another important advantage is that small individual power generators that are incorporated into the grid reduce the effect of blackouts caused by a failure of centralized equipment or distribution lines. The distributed power technologies in general improve the overall system security. Although their clear benefits, all forms of RE have their disadvantages too. Renewable resources are not constantly available where and when they are needed. For example, hydropower resources are limited by geography and are often located in remote areas. They require installation of expensive electric lines to the cities. Solar and wind power are intermittent by nature. Which brings us to another major technical issue with RE: the storage. One of the problems of electricity is that it cannot be efficiently stored in large quantities for later use. It is impractical for example to have a battery backup in a gigawatt-scale power plant. Also, while RE systems generally do not produce as much air pollution as fossil fuels, they too have a certain negative impact on the environment. Finally, RE is still more expensive than traditional one. All the above factors are limiting the growth of RE. Currently, the share of renewable energy sources in net energy production is only about 10% worldwide and 8% in the United States. Table 5 shows comparison of cost of traditional power plant with RE.
Table 5: Comparison Cost of Power Plant Type (Adapted from US DOE) S/N 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Power Plant Type Coal Nuclear Wind Solar Pv Solar Thermal Geothermal Biomass Hydro
Cost $Kw-hr. $0.10 – 0.14 $0.07 – 0.13 $0.10 $0.08 – 0.20 $0.24 $0.05 $0.10 $0.08
security by providing a steady, diverse, domestic energy supply. Clean energy is a global and urgent necessity. Renewable generation, especially from wind and solar, and smart grid concepts are critical technologies needed to address global warming and related issues. The major challenge is how to reduce the costs of renewable energies to make them easily affordable. The issues of Monitoring, Control and related technologies will be essential for solving these complex problems. Further, there is need for the stakeholders, government and private organisation to aside to financial need for proper and maximum execution of the technology involved.
7. Experimental Work Table 4: % Proportion of Population with Access to Electricity (International Energy Statistic, 2015) 2005 2010 2013 2009 2012 2014 Botswana 22.0 43.1 53.2 Ghana 45.0 72.0 64.1 Nigeria 36.0 48.0 55.6 Information was sourced from World development indicator 2005 to 2014 which shows that the three different countries namely: Botswana, Ghana and Nigeria on their electricity production not merged with consumption of the populace. It was observed that of the years all the countries under study are unable to meet the demand of their customers. Botswana access to electricity for this period of 2005 to 2010 varies from 22% to 43.1% while an improved access recorded between 2010 to 2013 which ranges from 43.1% to 53.2%. On the other hand Ghana varies from 45% to 72% in the year 2005 to 2010 while dropped to 64.1% between 2010 and 2013 as a result of challenges discussed earlier. Moreover, Nigeria varied from 36% to 48% access of population to electricity in 2005 to 2010 with an improvement from 48% to 55.6% between 2010 and 2013.Henceforth there is need to explore the natural resource within reach by embracing smart technology with integrating of renewable energy sources. As earlier discussed in Tables 1, 2 and 3 for each respective country. The need to maximize this resources is imperative and will greatly enhance the production of energy. It will remove problem of environmental pollution.
8.
Conclusion
Most of the energy policies worldwide focus at assuring there is availability of energy portfolio that supports a cleaner environment and stronger economy that will automatically strengthen national
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