Project Scope and Duration

The iGRID Research Project is focused on different aspects that enable smart autonomous microgrids. Researchers at different levels, who are members of the team, are working on these challenges. The following is the summary of these research activities:

Agent-based Power Control

The main focus of this research work is to deploy a smart microgrid in a provided area with no sources of electricity. The context involves the autonomous distributed system where there should be a means of research innovation and IoT through provision of solar driven DC microgrid of up to 48V DC. The system will be able to serve the off-grid community of 10-100 households which later on can be integrated into a high voltage AC/DC main grid when available. Agent-based distributed control is a promising technology in the provision of autonomous systems when interconnecting with solar systems.

IoT-based Communication

Smart microgrids are one of the new potential solutions that have been proposed to solve the challenge of access to reliable electric power, especially for off-grid rural communities, in developing countries. In order to realize these microgrids, one of the main challenges is a robust and reliable communication infrastructure, to enable different components in the power system to communicate with each other, and allow for smart control and management algorithms to efficiently manage the power distribution process, securely and autonomously. Thus, the main focus of this research is to design and implement a secure and robust communication system based on IoT technologies, that will support a smart 48V DC solar-driven microgrid for an off-grid community.

The iGRID research team which consists of MSc, PhD and Post Doc researchers from The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden and The University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, focuses on developing solar-based power solutions that are more efficient, reliable and autonomous than existing solutions.

The iDRID Project s lead by Prof Nerrey Mvungi as the Project manager and Principal Investigator.