Head of the Energy and Climate Change Division (ECCD), Professor AbuBakr Bahaj was invited to give a keynote address on “Opportunities for smarting up energy access through optimised mini grid networks” at the 11th International Conference on Smart Grids in Paris, France from 4th – 7th June.
Prof. Bahaj’s keynote address took place on 5th June at 11:40 where he discussed how the Energy for Development (e4D) programme was created in 2010 to address the energy access challenge by initiating seminal studies in electricity access for hard-to-reach poor areas in Sub Shahara Africa and beyond. At its core is fundamental research coupled with implementation of exemplar rural electrification projects as learning entities to support energy (electricity) access. Prof. Bahaj recounted how the e4D research and development programme is underpinned by field studies on the implemented six mini grids with the main focus in Kenya and Uganda. Mini grids consist of a power plant linked to a local mainly isolated network to distribute power to consumers. His talk provided an update on the e4D work focusing on sustainable electrification and socio-economic studies covering electrical network operational performances and resilience, in single and clustered as well as connected mini grids to the national grid.
The purpose of the icSmartGrid is to bring together researchers, engineers, manufacturers, practitioners and customers from all over the world to share and discuss advances and developments in Smart Grid research and applications. For further details on the conference visit the conference homepage or read the conference booklet.