IFI エネルギーセミナー開催のお知らせ

TITLE : Microgrids: the Key Driver for Sustainable Energy Access

SPEAKER : Annette Werth (PhD) (SONY CSL Paris)

DATE : July 31 Fri 16:00-17:30 ZOOM Online

Abstract :
“Falling costs, new technologies, and favorable enabling environments have made mini-grids an option to connect 490 million people”, says a 2019 report by the World Bank group. While in developed nations microgrids’ key drivers are primarily their price-competitiveness or resilience, in many emerging countries, they have become a key means for electrification for the 789M people still having no access to electricity. Microgrids allow reverting the top-down system for grid-access to a bottom-up scheme where people become owners of the technology to produce and sell renewable energy. This seminar will explain the microgrid market and trends as well as the key drivers, with particular focus on off-grid microgrids. A review of topologies and business models with concrete examples as well as an ongoing research project on dynamic pricing in a rural market place in Bangladesh is presented.

As a result of our COVID-19 initiative, we present a few timely results on the lockdown impact on the European power grids – in particular of my home-country Italy.