Integrated applications for microgrids in developing economies

Around 840 million people worldwide were living without access to electricity in 2019. ESA-backed Space4Microgrids uses EO and communication satellite capabilities to support micro-grids development in developing countries and contribute to achieving universal access to electricity.

Source: World Bank

The Space4Microgrids projects aims at implementing viable and sustainable operational services for the benefit of society and more specifically at achieving access to energy for all. The specific aims of the Space4Microgrid – India project are: (i) to assess the technical feasibility and commercial viability of satellite based services to support microgrids; (ii) to support the phases of strategic planning, operation and maintenance of microgrids; (iii) to engage and secure the buy-in and involvement of important paying customers and other relevant stakeholders of such services; and (iv) to establish the roadmap for service implementation through a potential follow-up demonstration project, with the goal of having a pre-operational demonstration project. The project mainly targets India and uses space assets in the form of satellite communication and Earth Observation. The effective use of earth observation is able to greatly reduce costs in the different stages of a microgrid life-cycle mainly due to reducing the number of visits required to microgrid sites and reducing the costs of these visits. The effective use of satellite communications is expected to improve microgrid performance and increase microgrid lifetime.