Intermediate Low Voltage Direct Current based Decentralized Grid Extension

Electricity is a key factor for creating conditions for economic growth. As such electrification is among African governments' priorities. The electrification rate in Africa compared to the other continents is still low. In addition to that, in electrified areas reliability is a challenge and power black outs are still common and regular in many African urban and rural areas. Grid extension is one of the solutions for increasing Africa's low electrification rate. However, with current approaches that are used for grid extension by utilities, it has been observed that there are challenges likely to slow if not inhibiting completely the process. Finding a new approach that overcomes the shortage of the current ones is important both for the utilities and the users. This paper will introduce a new grid extension approach, which starts from the users' side back to grid through interconnection of sparse generating point using intermediate low voltage direct current (IL VDC) distribution system.