Grids, mini-grids and the maps behind them
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, national grids are stretching into rural areas that mini-grids and solar already serve. That meeting point can be a conflict, or it can make both systems stronger. We work on making it the second one, starting with good maps, good data and careful planning.
Three ways rural communities get power
For years they were treated as separate choices. Increasingly, they overlap in the same place.
What happens when they connect?
When the grid arrives at a community with a mini-grid, the mini-grid's investment can be stranded, and customers can end up with a grid connection that is less reliable than what they had. But it doesn't have to work that way.
A mini-grid connected to the grid, together with rooftop solar, batteries and other distributed energy resources (DERs), can become part of the grid. It can keep the lights on during outages, support voltage at the weak end of a long line, and sell energy both ways.
We study both directions: the impact of the grid on distributed renewable energy (DRE), and the impact of DREs on the grid.
What we look at
- Grid impact: how DERs change voltage, losses and loading on rural feeders, and how much they can host safely.
- Reliability: how a connected mini-grid can island during outages and keep critical loads like clinics and water pumps running.
- Protection and control: what changes when power flows both ways on lines that were built for one.
- Business and regulation: tariffs, interconnection rules and compensation that make it fair for the utility, the operator and the customer.
- Planning: where the grid, mini-grids and solar home systems each make most sense, using open map data and power-flow studies.
Plan it on the map first
Good electrification starts long before a pole goes in the ground. Where do people live? How much power will they use, and for what? Where does the grid reach today, and where is it weak? Which communities are better served by a mini-grid or solar, and which are worth the cost of new lines?
We answer those questions with geospatial analysis in QGIS and Python, open data such as satellite imagery and building footprints, and power system models. The result is a plan people can see on a map, check and build from.
From satellite image to bill of materials
Settlements and demand
Mapping buildings and settlements from open imagery, and estimating how much power homes, schools, clinics and businesses will use.
Least-cost planning
Comparing grid extension, mini-grids and solar home systems for every settlement, and choosing what costs least over the long run.
Grid and customer mapping
Turning utility records, feeders and customer lists into clean GIS layers that planners and operators can actually use.
Power system studies
Load analysis, power flow in OpenDSS, transformer and line sizing, and connection studies for rural feeders and large customers.
Productive use of energy
Finding where electricity can drive income, such as milling, irrigation, cold storage and agro-processing, and planning supply around it.
Climate and land
Layering drought, land cover and tree loss data onto energy and community plans, so projects build resilience instead of adding pressure.
Recent planning and GIS projects
Mapping a province's customers
Structured and mapped more than 50,000 rural electricity customers across seven districts of North-Western Zambia, so feeders and grid expansion can be planned from real data.
Prioritizing wards for a community program
Combined tree cover loss with ward and chiefdom boundaries in Eastern Province, Zambia, to rank where a community beekeeping program could do the most good next.
Grid and connection studies
Load analysis and connection studies for rural feeders and industrial customers, and reviews of distribution planning studies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Open tools. Aloe Energy is also building electrification-pathways, an open-source model that takes a country from open map data to a least-cost electrification plan, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo as its first test case. It is in development and will be published openly.
Need a map, a model or a second opinion?
We work with utilities, mini-grid developers, governments, NGOs and funders on planning questions like these. Projects can be as small as a data pack or as large as a provincial electrification plan.
- Geospatial electrification plans and least-cost options
- Demand estimates and productive-use mapping
- Grid, feeder and customer GIS layers
- Power flow and connection studies
- Climate, land and community prioritization maps
- Reviews of terms of reference and planning studies