A comprehensive methodological approach on the development potential of microgrids and the integration of renewable energies in North Africa. – MiDiNA

Electricity coverage in North African countries is among the most advanced in Africa. However, in recent years energy demand has been increasing with the growing economic development as well as the increasing use of high energy-consuming loads like Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning loads to handle extreme weather conditions. To cope with this increase in energy needs, grid operators resort to load shedding by switching of non-essential load equipment’s. Load shedding reduces consumers comfort and impacts the economic development of these countries. Besides, there is a strong political commitment to exploit the abundant Renewable Energy Sources (RESs). This willingness is motivated by the need to meet the increasing energy demand and to reduce fossil fuel utilization. As in Europe, the integration of RESs faces strong constraints due to their intermittency as well as to the limited capacity of the existing grid infrastructures. In this context, the recent development of energy and digital communication technologies enabled the development of new grid paradigms. Among these paradigms, the development of MicroGrid (MG) systems appears as a suitable solution to encourage the integration of RESs while addressing the increasing load demand. The development of MGs in urban areas can represent a solution to improve power supply and to avoid frequent load shedding. Furthermore, MGs can promote the creation of off-grid communities with self-consumption. The development of this concept represents a huge challenge as it gathers multiple considerations with technical and socio-economical aspects.

Therefore, the MiDiNA project aims to elaborate a multidisciplinary study to sustain the implementation of MGs to improve power supply and RESs integration in the context of African countries. Beginning with a building-scale MG, the study will first focus on the optimal techno-economic sizing with the objective to secure off-grid operation and the on-site meteorological and consumer specificities. The objective is then to demonstrate that resilient control solutions will ensure the effectiveness of this concept under critical conditions. The study will explore the deployment of these solutions at a neighborhood scale using a cooperative energy management between off-grid MGs. In addition, this project also has a social dimension as it aims to assess the social acceptance aspect. It includes also a projection study on the economic growth of MGs and a number of policy guidelines. The project activities are structured in 4 work packages:
WP1. Making technological choices and optimal techno-economic dimensioning for a building scale MG considering meteorological and consumers specificities.
WP2. Development of resilient control techniques to demonstrate that MGs solutions can ensure service continuity under critical conditions.
WP3. Design of cooperative energy management strategies for a district-scale off-grid MGs cluster.
WP4. Evaluating societal acceptance of MGs and their role in economic development of targeted countries. Guidelines measures will be prepared in collaboration with a local grid operator.
Another WP0 will be dedicated to the coordination and dissemination activities. Besides, the project objectives deal with multi-disciplinary aspects related to the techno-economic and societal development of MGs. This study represents a great opportunity to gather several experts in different fields. The consortium is formed in a complementary way to address all project objectives with a special attention to gender dimension. The transfer of knowledge can be achieved at different levels: (i) knowledge transfer between senior and junior researchers, (ii) knowledge transfer in both methodological and experimentation aspects, and (iii) students training as well as awareness-raising actions for the civil society on the role of MGs. The methodological developments will be disseminated in conferences and renowned journals.