The Republic of Colombia is a country situated in the northwest of South America, with territories in Central America. In 2005, the interconnected electricity system served 87% of the population, a percentage that is below the 95% average for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Colombian government is making massive efforts to increase the electrification, especially at very remote and rural places. However, there are still several rural communities isolated from the main grid in Colombia. Also, although some communities have already been connected to the distribution system, the security and reliability are still an issue. One key element in the effort of electrification is the use of very small microgrids projects called “nanogrids.” A nanogrid is a small power system that uses a combination of renewable and conventional energy sources to supply power to small local loads. The total load in a nanogrid is typically less than 20 kW, as an industrial site, small rural village. or a household. The generators are primarily based on clean energy such as solar arrays, wind turbines, and fuel cells. In Colombia, the Caribbean coastline, Andes Mountains, and strong agriculture provide the country with abundant distributed renewable energy resources that might largely surpass the fast-growing electricity demand. In this framework, the nanogrids emerge as a solution to supply energy for some communities, located far away from the network, improving the inhabitant's quality of life. Moreover, the nanogrids might improve the security and reliability levels of the distribution system. This chapter discusses good practices and proposed some solutions to overcome challenges detected in nanogrid projects developed in Colombia. In essence, this chapter is a case study of nanogrid systems; it focuses on a full detailed explanation of 23 nanogrid projects developed in Colombia considering location, installed power, purpose, etc. Then the nanogrid projects are evaluated, and it gives the opportunity to identify some characteristics that hinder or benefit the operation of these systems. Some of them are the growth of the demand, the appropriate and inadequate use of energy and drinking water, the changes of habits in the users in the presence of energy or the increase in the reliability of the energy supply and how it affects the maintenance or lack this, the operation of the systems.

Chapter Contents:

• 16.1 Introduction
• 16.2 Literature review
• 16.3 Nanogrids projects in Colombia
• 16.3.1 On-grid system
• 16.3.2 Off-grid system
• 16.3.3 Hybrid system
• 16.3.4 Solar water pumping
• 16.3.5 Aqueducts
• 16.3.6 Household
• 16.3.7 Pumping water for irrigation
• 16.3.8 Banana sector
• 16.3.9 Others
• 16.4 Problematic situations
• 16.4.1 Growth of the demand
• 16.4.2 Rational use of energy/water
• 16.4.3 Changes in habits
• 16.4.4 Without current problems
• 16.4.5 Number of users
• 16.5 General methodology to overcome current issues
• 16.5.1 Identifying the problem
• 16.5.2 Propose a solution
• 16.5.3 Implementing the solution
• 16.5.4 Monitoring and review
• 16.6 Solutions for each type of issues
• 16.6.1 Monitoring and review
• 16.6.2 Limit the load
• 16.6.3 Load shifting
• 16.6.4 Increase generation and backup
• 16.6.5 Rational use of energy/water
• 16.6.6 Changes in habits
• 16.7 Conclusions, lessons learned, and perspectives
• References

Inspec keywords: distributed power generation; wind turbines; renewable energy sources; power generation economics; power grids

Other keywords: rural communities; Latin America; power 20.0 kW; Colombia; Central America; nanogrid projects; distribution system; interconnected electricity system; nanogrid systems; power system; rural places; conventional energy sources; electrification; microgrids projects; energy supply; South America; abundant distributed renewable energy resources; remote places

Subjects: Power system management, operation and economics; Wind power plants; Distributed power generation