Talk:Mini-grid/Sandbox
Small scale electricity distribution grid / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A mini grid is a distribution grid that receives electricity from one or more small generators (often renewable) and supplies electricity to a localized target group of consumers, typically including households, businesses and public institutions. Generation in a mini grid is typically located near the loads that it serves. A mini grid can be fully isolated from the main grid (wide area synchronous grid) or interconnected to it. If it is interconnected to the main grid, it must also be able to isolate (“island”) from the main grid and continue to serve its customers while operating in an island or autonomous mode. Mini grids are often a cost-effective solution for electrifying rural communities of a hundred or more households that are 10 km or more from the main grid.[1] Remote households that are far from each other are generally best served by stand-alone solutions such as solar home systems, while areas that are close to the main grid are generally best served by a line extension from the main grid.
Mini grids and microgrids are similar, and the terms are sometimes used as synonyms. Both microgrids and mini grids include generation and distribution, and generally include electricity storage in the form of electrochemical batteries. Both can “island” in the event of a blackout or other disturbance or – common in mini grids – in the case that they were never connected to the main grid in the first place. In practice, the term “mini grid” is used more in a context common in low- and middle-income countries providing electricity to communities that were previously unelectrified, or sometimes used to provide reliable electricity in areas in which the national grid is present but where electricity is sporadic; across Sub-Saharan Africa, more than half of households connected to the main grid reported receiving electricity less than half of the time.[2] The African Mini Grid Developers Association (AMDA) reports that uptimes of mini grids of its members for which data was available averaged 99% across countries.[3] In contrast, the term “microgrid” is used more in higher income countries to refer to systems that provide very high levels of reliability (for example, “five nines” or 99.999%) for critical loads like data centers, hospitals, corporate campuses or military bases generally in service areas that already have high levels of reliability (e.g. “three nines” or 99.9% reliability) by global standards.[4]