{"532391":{"#nid":"532391","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Power to the People: Georgia Tech Student Group Brings Electric Power to Remote Haitian Health Center","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAccess to reliable, cost-effective energy service is essential for supporting quality of life and economic development in communities worldwide. Without electric power even fundamental needs, such as safe\u0026nbsp;drinking water, sanitation, and\u0026nbsp;basic\u0026nbsp;health\u0026nbsp;care cannot be met. But in much of the developing world, electricity generation is non-existent, or at best unreliable. A group of Georgia Tech students aim to improve access to clean, reliable power at a remote health center in one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, using a solar-based microgrid.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMicrogrids are self-contained power systems that can draw electricity from the traditional grid when available, but can also disconnect and operate as an independent energy source for single businesses or a home. The systems are gaining popularity in the developing world as a means of providing power to areas that do not have stable access to the conventional electric power grid. Georgia Tech\u2019s IEEE Power \u0026amp; Energy Society (PES) Student Chapter, led by electrical engineering graduate students Jeremiah Deboever, Felipe Larrain, Szilard Liptak, and Ashley Stone, plans to install the microgrid system to support a newly-constructed health center in the remote mountain village of Thoman, Haiti. The health clinic, located about 50 miles east of the country\u2019s capital and largest city, Port-au-Prince, provides health and dental care for the more than 4,000 people living in Thoman and surrounding villages.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEven before the 2010 earthquake, Haiti\u2019s power infrastructure and maximum generating capacity of 200 MW was insufficient to meet the country\u2019s peak power demand, said IEEE-PES Faculty Advisor Frank Lambert, a principal research engineer with Georgia Tech\u2019s National Electric Energy Testing Research and Applications Center (NEETRAC).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSome seven million people in Haiti are without power; only an estimated 25 percent of the population have access to electricity services,\u201d said Lambert. \u201cAnd in rural communities like Thoman where the majority of Haitians live, the problem is even more challenging because it can be difficult and expensive to reach grid power.\u201d \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPower distribution lines were extended last year to connect Thoman to Haiti\u2019s main power grid, but service is so erratic that the health clinic must operate almost exclusively from a diesel generator. Given the high cost and limited access to diesel fuel, the students wanted to develop a more affordable, reliable power solution to meet the health clinic\u2019s needs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team evaluated several power generating units, including a standalone diesel generator (DG), photovoltaic (PV) panels with batteries, and the combination of PV panels with batteries and a DG to determine which options would provide the most power at the lowest cost. Each option was evaluated by several technical and economic criteria, such as daily energy production, maximum annual capacity shortage, and net present value. The team also incorporated other factors into their assessment: the system had to be easy to use, big enough to meet the clinic\u2019s future needs, and contain only off the shelf components that could be replaced. The team developed a hybrid microgrid system that included a 7.2 kW PV array and a battery bank to eliminate the need for the diesel generator in day-to-day operations. The diesel generator would only be used to provide backup power when needed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cA standalone diesel generator would have been cheaper to install than a solar system,\u201d said Liptak, one of the project\u2019s system designers. \u201cBut it consumes an incredible amount of fuel, and over the entire lifetime of the project, would have ended up being twice as expensive as the solar solution. An additional benefit of the solar-based system is that it\u2019s clean and maintenance is minimal.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter nearly a year of design, basic and detailed engineering that included a site visit to Thoman to test and validate the solar design, the team will install the microgrid in Thoman in May. Students secured donations from corporate sponsors to fund 100 percent of the project. The microgrid\u2019s PV solar panels were provided by the Georgia Tech Research Institute; local companies Trojan Battery Company and Schneider Electronics provided the battery pack and the power electronics, respectively. The costs of shipping the microgrid components to Haiti were provided by But God Ministries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor system designer Larrain, a Ph.D. student specializing in organic solar technologies in Georgia Tech\u2019s Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics, the project provided a real-world context for the work he does every day.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAs a Ph.D. student, my mind is typically focused on understanding the science behind the operation of these devices,\u201d said Larrain. \u201cI rarely see the customer side of solar energy-based solutions or get into the details of practical applications. This project provides a great complement to what I do by exposing me to a direct application of the technology I want to improve, and really highlights how, in the end, any technology that we develop is intended for a customer, to solve a very specific need.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELiptak, who recently returned to Georgia Tech from an internship with a microgrid company in Kenya, said that microgrids have great potential in the electrification of the developing world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWith the growing penetration of renewable technologies and distributed generation with storage, these local microgrids could one day form a national grid similar to what we have in the developed world,\u201d said Liptak.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe IEEE PES Student Chapter hopes to build upon the experience gained from the Thoman microgrid project to develop a similar power generation and distribution system for another health center of Galette Chambon, Haiti next year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EStory written by Allison Caughey, formerly of the Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA group of Georgia Tech students from the IEEE Power \u0026amp; Energy Society aim to improve access to clean, reliable power at a remote health center in one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, using a solar-based microgrid.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A group of Georgia Tech students from the IEEE Power \u0026 Energy Society aim to improve access to clean, reliable power at a remote health center in one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, using a solar-based microgrid."}],"uid":"27241","created_gmt":"2016-05-04 10:20:23","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:21:35","author":"Jackie Nemeth","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-05-04T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-05-04T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"532401":{"id":"532401","type":"image","title":"IEEE PES students working with the Haitian microgrid project","body":null,"created":"1462453200","gmt_created":"2016-05-05 13:00:00","changed":"1475895314","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:14","alt":"IEEE PES students working with the Haitian microgrid project","file":{"fid":"89399","name":"microgrid1_1.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/microgrid1_1.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/microgrid1_1.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":386819,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/microgrid1_1.jpg?itok=R789YMDw"}}},"media_ids":["532401"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.ece.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/","title":"Georgia Tech"},{"url":"http:\/\/pwp.gatech.edu\/ece-haiti-sun\/","title":"Thoman Microgrid Project"}],"groups":[{"id":"1255","name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"154","name":"Environment"},{"id":"149","name":"Nanotechnology and Nanoscience"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"109","name":"Georgia Tech"},{"id":"366","name":"Graduate"},{"id":"24181","name":"IEEE Power and Energy Society"},{"id":"172002","name":"National Electric Energy Testing Research and Applications Center"},{"id":"166855","name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39451","name":"Electronics and Nanotechnology"},{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"},{"id":"39491","name":"Renewable Bioproducts"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJackie Nemeth\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E404-894-2906\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jackie.nemeth@ece.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejackie.nemeth@ece.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jackie.nemeth@ece.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}