Blog

Posted on

Technical Overview of the Fusion Grid Pilot System

Iurii Demidov, LUT University

Fusion Grid project focuses on the provision of electricity, connectivity, and digital services to the rural areas of developing countries. Namibia is a target site for the installation which has one of the higher potentials for PV power installation in the world. Therefore, the system is designed as a PV-based off-grid. The power system is scaled to provide consumers with initial electricity usage with an uninterrupted 24/7 power supply. In addition to the users’ load power system should supply control, and measuring devices, and 4G LTE base transceiver station (BTS), which is the connectivity source. All of these devices have the main priority as it is required for connectivity, digital services, and remote monitoring and support.

Figure 1. Technical structure of the Fusion Grid pilot system.

The system is designed to be modular and easily scalable. Figure 1 illustrates the structure of a system module. The module is a self-sufficient off-grid power unit, which can be operated as an independent system or be interconnected with the other systems. It consists of 12 panels  PV array that gives 3.66kW power production and used as sun time power supply; battery storage which includes 2 li-ion batteries with 8kWh energy in total and used and night time power supply, multifunctional device that includes a battery charger, MPPT, and inverter; BTS, and control and monitoring devices. The module installs at the high consumption user, which can be a big household or small business, and is sized to supply 5 consumers. In case when the consumers’ load increases and depending on the time of major consumption, PV array or battery storage can be also increased by adding a parallel string of panels or battery.

The control system introduced to the off-grid system manages energy balance and keeps an uninterrupted power supply. Estimation of batteries lifetime, a functionality allows to predict the time of its condition, replacement, by evaluating energy storage degradation.

Digital services are another great advantage of the Fusion Grid concept. It allows consumers to track and manage their energy consumption and system state, in addition, provision of connectivity ensures remote support and monitoring.

The designed technical concept brings a lot of benefits. The combination of electricity, connectivity, and digital services provides consumers with the possibility to use the Internet and contributes to society digitization. Scalability of the system allows to size the system according to the consumers’ need and modular structure gives the opportunity to gradually establish a power distribution system, moving from single off-grid to complex electricity distribution generation power system.

Posted on

Differences between the developing and industrial countries in building electricity supply infrastructure

Samuli Honkapuro
Samuli.honkapuro@lut.fi

Electrification in most of the western countries started at the end of the 19th century. Primary driver was electrification of the industry sites, and electrification of the whole society expanded from industrial sites towards cities, and during 20th century also to rural areas. Electrification by the expansion of the grid was driven by the economy of scale in centralized generation.

However, the cost of the distributed renewable generation has decreased drastically in 21st century. At the moment, solar power is the lowest cost generation type in the areas close to equator, while in the boreal area lowest cost is achieved by wind power. Hence, economy of the scale is no more evident in the power sector. As the cost of the battery energy storages have also decreased radically, offgrid micro- and nanogrids are feasible options for electricity supply, especially in the areas with abundant sunshine.

When seeking the solutions for electrification of the rural areas in Africa, it might not be the best option to follow the process taken place over 100 years ago in Europe and North America but consider decentralized solution. Wireless communication has replaced wired technologies in connectivity solutions, and a bit similar development is taking place in electrification. Although low voltage power lines are still needed as a last-mile solution, there are feasible alternatives for building high-voltage transmission lines.

Posted on

Keeping the spark and lights on in Oniipa

Antti Pinomaa, LUT University

Due to Corona virus and covid-19 crisis that reached Europe and Africa in March 2020, the very same week, when the plan was to travel to Namibia and go on site to upgrade the Fusion Grid pilot system to the configuration it should have been from the day one, since 7th December 2019 when the system was first time launched. All and rather long preparations were made in the first weeks of March, bags with goods and components for pilot upgrade were packed, but then just one day before, being 12th March, the departure day, that was Friday 13th, we got information that all the trips to abroad needs to be cancelled. This was a shock and at least I felt personally very empty as all the work basically was just wiped out. Our aim was to take the 4G LTE base station with us and carry it to Namibia to the pilot site, but it with other components reserved for the power system upgrade were left in the suitcases. After cancelling all the arranged flight tickets, car rentals etc. for the trip, I went home disappointed. We anyway had promised to the people in the community that we will come and upgrade the system to a form it should have been from day one.     

However, it was not that easily over. Luckily Professor Marko Nieminen from Aalto University was already on his way to Africa, not Namibia, but Tanzania, and he was carrying one of the bags full of system upgrade components. And he, as being there “close” already, kept going to opposite direction, not back to North but South. There were new batteries and power converter connecting all the components, panels, batteries, loads, waiting in Windhoek, Namibia at the warehouse of our local partner who finally had got the components, again which were told to be there already in December. After some struggle with money and funds bank transfers, communication and trust issues etc. Prof. Nieminen was able to get the components to his rental car and he started heading to Oniipa, 700 km up north from Windhoek Tuesday 17th March.

Meanwhile myself together with PhD student Iurii Demidov at LUT had started imaging could the system swap be done jointly remotely and locally, we providing step-by-step instructions to our local maintenance person living in the community electrified by the pilot system, and he discussing and following the steps with local electrician. The work was planned to be done via Skype video connection. Ambitious plan, but we would not want to give up, as Prof. Nieminen was there driving to Oniipa jeopardizing his own health. But what if something goes wrong etc. and then the people there to whom we gave electricity three months earlier for the first time of their lives would be taken away. All these questions and poor risk analysis we decided to go for it.

We got some version of instructions ready Tuesday 17th March and Prof. Nieminen was then that evening arriving to Oniipa. The plan was to do the swap 18th March, and Prof. Nieminen would be there to follow and report the installation progress locally there to us. However, while driving to Oniipa, he as everyone else being abroad got message from Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland to leave the country as soon as possible, as the borders will be closed within next few days. So Prof. Nieminen booked a return flight and was able to got the very last seat of the very last flight departure next evening . We heard this in the evening while remotely guided Prof. Nieminen to update the firmware to the battery according to the instructions we were given, and that was a mistake, we were given wrong info and the battery went to locked mode and during the same Skype call we heard that he could not stay there to follow the system swap, but needed to leave early in the morning driving back another 700 km to catch the last flight. So another set backs but what you do. At least we cancelled the electrician coming to the site at that early next morning as planned, and maybe not at all.

Anyway, next morning 18th March we started at five in the morning before the sunrise, Prof. Nieminen dropped the stuff to site, and told what battery button to button while we from LUT having Skype call to South Africa to the battery manufacturer support person giving him remote access to the PC at LUT, which again was chained via remote access to the PC at site and running the firmware update remotely from South Africa via LUT lab to the site to the battery management system, while telling us and local people at site which button to press, how long and in which order. Somehow that was successful and new firmware was updated to both batteries after few hours. Then we were able to go towards the actual system swap. But had to call the electrician back to the site, as the game was again on!

Elctrician came after one hour, and we started the system swap following the instructions we sent there but perhaps due to the form of instruction, 4-5 pages in pdf and the working aspects of local electrician they did not follow those, basically at all. We had Skype calls between us sitting in LUT lab and our contact person at site via the phone and Sim card we left there every now and then with random interval once per hour and once per few hours. After few errors and wrong moves at site, very long day sitting and waiting at LUT lab waiting for a next call and steps to take the system components were swapped, and somehow we were able to take remote control of the system after new system startup just before the sunset. So lights supplied form the old system, which were switched off in the morning were switched back on in the evening with the new system.

So in the end of the day, the boarders of Namibia were closed, Prof. Nieminen after his second power stage was safely in a plane, and most importantly, even was a risky move, and after a long day filled with full of events, surprises, delays and problems, the spark we lighted up in Oniipa in December2019 , a day after Finnish independence day was still on then few days before Namibian 30th Anniversary independence day, and keeps on going strong still. It was nice to send Prof. Nieminen a message to airplane in that evening that his journey to Namibia was not futile, but was the key thing us being successful in this thread. Obviously, we did our part remotely from LUT, and that was essential action as well to pull it through completely.

Now as an outcome of these efforts, we have even more stable and reliable smart off-grid system pilot environment in use for research and development of new concepts for years to come.

Maybe the main lesson learned from all this, is that never give up, or do not underestimate the potential and abilities of local community, or yourself, and the tools and new ways of working utilizing and through existing digital and technology platforms we have in use every day. This gives good prospects to the future work and how to approach things differently in these new normal times. You can do things differently, develop new methods, and you should question and evaluate your standard ways of working, frequently. Transition is always present. Don’t stop, but adapt.

Posted on

Fusion Grid as an accelerator for entrepreneurship

Pietari Keskinen, Aalto University

Unemployment is a big problem in Namibia. One of the ways that has been proposed to alleviate it is to support entrepreneurship [1]. However, becoming a successful entrepreneur is also difficult when the resources are scarce, as they might be in many areas of Namibia. One of the issues the potential entrepreneurs face is the lack of access to needed technologies [2].

One of the Fusion Grid work packages is directly linked to promotion of entrepreneurship. Gaining electricity and access to mobile services gives the project beneficiaries resources to start new business activities, or to enhance already existing ones. We have examples of this coming directly from our test houses. One of the residents have used the electricity to power tools. He has started a small scale business of building and selling furniture, and hopes to hire employees to help him in the future. Another resident from another house creates flower arrangements needed in weddings, and also her work has become more efficient when she got lightning to her house.

However, the connection to Internet allows even more possibilities for budding entrepreneurs. Having access to trainings and better business opportunities might be even more important and efficient support for entrepreneurs than direct from government [3]. Mobile connections allow the entrepreneurs to access training materials in Internet, as well as other relevant services such as crowdfunding [4].

During the Fusion Grid project we have tried to found ways to ease the entrepreneurs access to the free services that would be available for them. We have curated a list of resources that can be easily found when the Fusion Grid WiFis are used to access Internet. We have also attempted to define the help that the potential entrepreneurs would need to access the digital services into a concrete role that could be taught to some members of the community [4].

Our research during this project have indicated that the digital services indeed have a promise for creating better livelihoods in Global South [5], and that there are business models that could efficiently use the developing connections [6]. We hope that the resources that Fusion Grid project has brought can be used productive manner to create jobs and prosperity to both the residents of our test houses but also wider into their communities.

[1] Government of the Republic of Namibia: Office of the President: Harambee Prosperity Plan. (2016).

[2] Warnecke, T.: Social Innovation, Gender, and Technology: Bridging the Resource Gap. J. Econ. Issues. 51, 305–314 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2017.1320508.

[3] Brixiová, Z., Ncube, M., Bicaba, Z.: Skills and Youth Entrepreneurship in Africa: Analysis with Evidence from Swaziland. World Dev. 67, 11–26 (2015).

[4] Arvila, N., Winschiers-Theophilus, H., Keskinen, P., Laurikainen, R., Nieminen, M.: Enabling successful crowdfunding for entrepreneurs in marginalized communities. In: Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Academic Mindtrek. pp. 45–54. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2020).

[5] Keskinen, P., Winschiers-Theophilus, H.: Worker Empowerment in the Era of Sharing Economy Platforms in Global South. In: Proceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference on Exploratory Papers, Interactive Exhibitions, Workshops – PDC ’20 (2020).

[6] Keskinen, P., Arvila, N., Winschiers-Theophilus, H., Nieminen, M.: The Effect of Digital Community-Based Tourism Platform to Hosts’ Livelihood. In: Evolving Perspectives on ICTs in Global Souths – 11th International Development Informatics Association Conference, IDIA 2020, Macau, China, March 25–27, 2020, Proceedings. pp. 3–16. Springer International Publishing, Macau, China (2020).

Posted on

Bridging the digital divide with user friendly off-grid power and private LTE

The covid restrictions brutally showed that in 2020 access to digital services is a prerequisite for some of the most basic human rights – and even the richer countries experienced severe issues. According to NFER in the UK around one quarter of pupils experienced IT challenges when trying to participate in remote education. Imagine what the figure is in Africa, e.g. in Namibia, where schools were also closed and all of a sudden messaging applications served as link to the teachers.

Read the complete post by Heikki Almay via the web pages of Poutanet that carries the Nokia Kuha concept even further.