Development of a Smart Grid system for unreliable grids in emerging markets

Purpose and goal

Unreliable power supply is a major barrier to economic development in emerging markets, especially in remote locations. This project has developed a smart grid solution that increases the reliability and monitoring capabilities for grid operators, and that is tailor made to emerging markets. LuminGo has developed a prototype of the hardware and software to monitor and quickly detect and locate power outages on the low voltage lines. The prototype has been upgraded to a commercial product and will be tested on a real grid through a partnership with an electricity company.

Expected results and effects

The project has developed a cost effective solution enabling simple monitoring and control of low voltage power grids. The developed solution was tested for measurement accuracy and protection response time. The system was found having a good accuracy and having a better response time than existing fuses. The effects on operating costs for the grid operator and on power quality for the end-user side are being measured in a pilot project with an electricity company.

Planned approach and implementation

First a detailed need assessment for East Africa and India was conducted with grid operators. The hardware was then redesigned and the functionalities of the software were defined. A first prototype including 3 LMUs and integrated with the software was built and tested in a smart grid laboratory in Sweden. The system was then upgraded to be installed on 3-phase electricity lines. A partnership was finally created with an electricity company in Uganda for a pilot project where 20 LMUs will be installed on a microgrid for first commercial evaluation of the system.