| dc.description.abstract | The absence of electricity greatly affects the lives of many people globally. Like many third-world African countries, Uganda faces the challenge of providing reliable electricity to most of its population more especially the rural areas. Therefore, the electricity transmission and distribution utilities tend to concentrate on supplying the areas/consumers nearest to the main power stations. The cost of transmitting and distributing electricity to rural areas is high, this coupled with the difficulty of the terrain to most of the rural areas thus, making grid extension unfavorable to most utilities
The study is about optimization of distributed generation using solar PV on the existing Mitandi radial distribution network (30 node/buses) aimed at improving poor voltage profile and minimizing power losses on the network. Mitandi health Center relies on off-grid electrification for its operation in that, it is not connected on national grid which is 15km away. The existing radial network experiences poor voltage profiles and this has led to the failure of medical equipment hence resulting to poor service delivery.
Data was obtained (geographical, meteorological and line data), used back & forward sweep in MATLAB to find the best location of DG(s) on the network. Then designed network using DigSILENT power software and Microsoft Visual studio.
The best location of DGs was found to be bus 12 and 25 on Mitandi radial distribution network because it gives better results in terms of power loss reduction and bus voltage improvement. Optimizing distributed generation (DG) on a radial distribution network offers the best solution to improve voltage and reduce power losses on the network.
The use of DGs rather than changing line conductors from ACSR50 to AAAC100 (AAAC100 is used on 33kv lines but not on 415v networks) is recommended to obtain better results. | |
