An assessment of DC/AC renewable energy microgrids for electrification of the Peruvian Amazonia using cluster analysis and GIS

Peruvian Amazonia is one of the regions with the highest lack of access to electricity in the country. The inhabitants of this region either do not have access to electricity or are supplied by isolated thermal plants because the National Interconnected Electric System (SEIN) of Peru does not have coverage in this part of the country. Current rural electrification projects consist of expanding the grid, or implementing thermal plants or small PV systems. These systems are not economically feasible or do not provide reliable electricity to promote productive activities. Microgrids with high penetration of renewable energy are today technologically and operationally ready to provide these kinds of communities with electricity services. In this paper the economic feasibility of microgrids for electrification in the Peruvian Amazonia was studied by using the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) as indicator. To study the technical and economic feasibility, communities were identified using georeferenced information; then, communities were classified using a clustering algorithm based on energy demand. The microgrids were sized for each of the 12 clusters obtained considering the characteristics of the country. Finally, the LCOE calculations of the microgrids were performed and compared with the LCOE of current thermal plants and photovoltaic systems. The LCOE obtained for the microgrids was around 210-240 USD / MWh, lower than the LCOE of current thermal plants (-300 USD / MWh) and small photovoltaic systems (210-574 USD / MWh).