July 12 Newsletter
— SESDC Panel Session at the IEEE PES General Meeting
SESDC will be hosting a Panel Session at the IEEE PES General Meeting in Portland on Standards For Off-Grid Developing Community Applications. The panel will be held on Wed Aug. 9 at 13:00 – 15:00 in the OC-Portland Ballroom 256. We have confirmed an excellent list of speakers which should lead to some rousing discussion!
— IEEE SIGHT Grant Awarded for Solar Pumping Project in Filibaba, Zambia
SESDC has been awarded $10,290 to implement a solar pumping project in Filibaba, Zambia with our local partner LiChi Community Solutions Ltd. This will be a critical community resource which currently has a very limited water supply. SESDC will seek to strengthen the relationship with the Zambian IEEE Chapter to support these projects, ensure the solution is sustainable, and determine any additional needs in Filibaba. Interested IEEE Members should contact us to get involved with this project.
— Energy Use Repository Released
Over the last year SESDC has released version 1 of an Energy Use Repository. This is an open-source database of energy use data, generation data and weather data for off-grid systems located in Sub-Saharan Africa aimed at filling a gap in data for these projects. We are looking for researchers to use this data and project developers to contribute to expand the country and user type coverage.
— Micro-grids Task Force Pre-Feasibility Toolkit
Robert Nutter has taken up the lead of the development of a Micro-grid pre-feasibility toolkit. The toolkit is aimed at the midway point between basic pre-feasibility activities usually undertaken by a community, which may be too simplistic, and a professional consultation, which may be too expensive and requiring too much external support. The toolkit includes resource assessment, financial and technical modeling, sustainability planning, impact assessment and sustainability planning. This toolkit is meant to be accessible by non-engineers working with communities but sophisticated enough to be the means for initial grant applications.