An official website of the United States government
With increasing energy prices, low income households are known to forego or minimize the use of electricity to save on energy costs. If a household is on a prepaid electricity program, it can be automatically and immediately disconnected from service if there is no balance in its prepaid account. Such households need to actively ration the amount of energy they use by deciding which appliances to use and for how long. We present a tool that helps households extend the availability of their critical appliances by limiting the use of discretionary ones, and prevent disconnections. The proposed method is based on a linear optimization problem that only uses average power demand as an input and can be solved to optimality using a simple greedy approach. We compare the model with two mixed-integer linear programming models that require more detailed demand forecasts and optimization solvers for implementation. In a numerical case study based on real household data, we assess the performance of the different models under different accuracy and granularity of demand forecasts. Our results show that our proposed linear model is much simpler to implement, while providing similar performance under realistic circumstances
more »
« less
Opportunities for Productive Uses of Electricity in the Off-Grid Market
Increased demand for productive uses of energy is a driver of energy consumption. Low-income households in the off-grid market have a budget constraint. By understanding the energy priorities of low-income households in the off-grid market, utilities can develop innovative solutions for servicing the market. This paper builds on recent literature on productive uses of electricity for increased investment and pay back for micro-grid investment across the eight productive user categories that were developed in Rwanda. We ask: how can the range, success, and benefits of productive uses of energy be expanded in resource-constrained settings? To answer the research question, we address the need for supporting infrastructure of business development services, energy services bundling, and utility policy instruments that support productive use of energy. We created metrics for prioritizing productive uses of energy in the off-grid market. In the face of a budget constraint, low-income households that prioritize domestic over business and services uses of energy need integrated services that support the consumptive-productive-service link. Realistic cost-benefit analyses are needed. Solar irrigation as a small industry case in Rwanda can achieve at best a 3-year payback period if it can increase productivity by 54%. We offer recommendations to increase energy demand from productive uses of energy in the off-grid market: work with local cultural norms to support business development; develop realistic cost-benefit analyses based on local data, and partner with business training service providers.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2330437
- PAR ID:
- 10625234
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 979-8-3503-8938-8
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 5
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- productive use off-grid market utility policy micro-grid investment pay-back
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Johannesburg, South Africa
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
null (Ed.)Existing network planning models for electric vehicle (EV) services usually treat the battery swap and the on-board supercharging as two independent processes. This study makes an early attempt to design an EV charging network where battery swap and supercharging are jointly coordinated. The swap and supercharge processes are characterized by Erlang B and Erlang C priority queues, respectively. A strategic location-allocation model is formulated to optimize the station sites, battery stock level, and the number of superchargers at chosen sites. Three design criteria, namely, battery state-of-charge, maximum service time, and power grid constraint, are simultaneously taken into account. Meta-heuristics algorithms incorporating Tabu search are developed to tackle the proposed non-linear mixed integer optimization model. Computational results on randomly generated instances show that the priority battery service scheme outperforms the pure battery swap station in terms of spare battery investment cost and charging flexibility. The case study on a real-world traffic network comprised of 0.714 million households further shows the efficacy and advantage of the dual battery charging process for ensuring state-of-charge, service time commitment, and network-wide grid stability.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Existing network planning models for electric vehicle (EV) services usually treat the battery swap and the on-board supercharging as two independent processes. This study makes an early attempt to design an EV charging network where battery swap and supercharging are jointly coordinated. The swap and supercharge processes are characterized by Erlang B and Erlang C priority queues, respectively. A strategic location-allocation model is formulated to optimize the station sites, battery stock level, and the number of superchargers at chosen sites. Three design criteria, namely, battery state-of-charge, maximum service time, and power grid constraint, are simultaneously taken into account. Meta-heuristics algorithms incorporating Tabu search are developed to tackle the proposed non-linear mixed integer optimization model. Computational results on randomly generated instances show that the priority battery service scheme outperforms the pure battery swap station in terms of spare battery investment cost and charging flexibility. The case study on a real-world traffic network comprised of 0.714 million households further shows the efficacy and advantage of the dual battery charging process for ensuring state-of-charge, service time commitment, and network-wide grid stability.more » « less
-
ABSTRACT The cost of basic drinking water services has implications for affordability, investment capacity, and public health. The fragmentation of drinking water services in the United States makes it difficult to reliably track and compare what customers pay for basic drinking water services. This paper uses a new, national dataset to examine the social, political, environmental, and institutional drivers of the cost of basic drinking water services, measured as the cost to households of 6000 gal of water per month. We find basic drinking water service costs vary widely across the United States. Costs are generally higher in smaller and more liberal cities and lower in places that rely on groundwater sources. Our findings provide a unique national perspective on variation in, and drivers of, the cost of basic water services and can inform efforts to improve the affordability, accessibility, and quality of drinking water services in the United States.more » « less
-
Low-income households (LIH), exposed to the uncertain modern grid, bear greater energy burdens and face inequitable access to reliable power compared to high-income households (HIH). This paper proposes a two-stage stochastic community-based microgrid planning (CMP) framework to boost energy justice within the system. To reduce the negative impact of income levels, a weighted energy cost model for households within the microgrid (MG) is designed. To address the multisource uncertainty during the operation period, a two-stage stochastic framework is developed. Moreover, to assess the proposed method, the unbalanced IEEE 123 node system is employed and modified as an isolated MG. The analysis reveals the proposed model can achieve a risk-averse solution while economic optimality is guaranteed. Additionally, the designed weighted method improves the LIH’s impact rate to 67.95% and decreases the total planning cost by 22.43%.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/PowerAfrica61624.2024.10759476
