Smart power management strategy controlling domestic solar solutions in sub-Saharan countries

Abstract Limitations such as maximum power consumption during peak hours, scheduled load shedding and unplanned brownouts are problems of weak and stressed electricity grids. To compensate for such shortage of energy, the usage of renewable energies is a solution delivering increased reliability for consumers. Although sub-Saharan African countries suffer from unreliable grids, they benefit from large amounts of solar radiation throughout the year. Therefore, domestic solar systems including photovoltaic panels, battery storage and solar water heating are attractive solutions to supply affordable and reliable energy and hot water for consumers. However, to deliver the best management of the electrical loads in the face of unplanned brownouts, a smart power management strategy is required. Consequently, the proposed strategy relies on the predicted values of power generation and power consumption to autonomously control the system in both on-grid and off-grid modes. This method is evaluated using a case study relying on the measured electrical load and the hot water consumption data of a low-income house in Botswana. Results show that in addition to delivering sustainable support for the utility grid by decreasing the power consumption in peak hours, the proposed method reduces annual consumer electricity bill by 64% and increases the reliability of electricity supply from 95.5 to 99.5%. Thereby providing affordable and reliable solution to unreliable power supply due to stressed grids.