Electrical diversity in remote indigenous communities

Martin Cottrell

The Bushlight program can be considered an excellent example of a program that provides stand-alone genset/photovoltaic (PV) systems to Remote Indigenous communities. A reduction in system costs, by the application of Diversity Factors, would further Bushlight's ability to provide these energy supply solutions. Diversity is the concept that the Electricity Use for a group of similar Households will be less than the sum of the Electricity Use for each individual Household. Diversity Factors are the ratio of this diversity. Diversity Factors for commercial application have been developed through experience with urban Electricity Use. However, they are not applicable to Bushlight because of the smaller scale of the Bushlight installations and the differences in user behaviour. Some preliminary Diversity Factors applicable to Remote Indigenous communities, as well as trends in these Diversity Factors, were calculated through comparison of Electricity Use between sites. A process that outlined the steps required to calculate Diversity Factors from monitored data was also determined. The comparison was undertaken in a manner that incorporated external influences such as temperature and Household size. The Monitored Data used for the comparisons had a number of issues, which were believed to be common to Remote monitoring. An assessment of the limitations associated with these issues was also undertaken. A list of options for further work has been prepared. This list should be assessed by Bushlight staff to determine the most appropriate method of refining the calculated Diversity Factors.

Electrical diversity in remote indigenous communities

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