Smart grid evolution through microgrid aggregation in Africa

e.g. diesel, wind, biomass, rooftop solar, etc. can increase power availability and enhance reliability. The integration of DERs obviously changes the traditional topology of the power grid and opens the door for two-way power flow, whereby the consumers can become producers and feed power to the grid, hence the notion of “prosumers”. However, some DERs may pose a big challenge for integration into the power grid; for example, solar and wind power generation are naturally intermittent, causing the DER generation output to be unpredictable and fluctuant; hence putting the system’s safety at higher risk [1]. Therefore, incorporation of big chunks of such resources requires advanced solutions to facilitate such integration. This change in power grid topology could not have been possible without the sophisticated smart grid solutions such as microgrid. What is a microgrid?