Title: Powering West Africa: modelling sustainable long-term electricity planning

Authors: Mamadou Seck; Ange-Lionel Toba

Addresses: Old Dominion University, 2123C Systems Research and Academic Building, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA ' Old Dominion University, 2123C Systems Research and Academic Building, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA

Abstract: This paper presents a tree-like exploration method to analyse strategies for the development of grids of the future in West Africa. The approach helps generate plausible future grids, based on demand requirements and resource availability, by either building power plants or transmission lines. These grids are generated via a modelling framework, Spark!, which captures key components of the power system, as well as relationships between them. Spark! analyses financial, environmental and reliability performances, and also addresses concerns caused by high renewable penetration in large-scale power grids. Contrary to other models used to address long-term planning in African countries, Spark! performs long-term planning of energy resource use to satisfy the demands, but also simulates grid operations in real-time. It enables decision makers to examine long-term effects of decisions made, but also observe how the system responds to these decisions.

Keywords: energy; system modelling; electricity; grid simulation; power grid; African power sector; energy planning; sustainable development; energy planning model; Africa; West Africa.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2019.100430

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2019 Vol.15 No.3, pp.260 - 284

Received: 28 Aug 2018
Accepted: 27 Nov 2018
Published online: 28 Jun 2019 *

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