Off-grid microgrid development for the village of Katumbi in Tanzania

Power Africa is an initiative launched by US President Barack Obama in July 2013 to bring power to unelectrified communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. We developed a power system model of the rural village of Katumbi, Tanzania. Utilizing RTDS, a cutting edge technology for power system simulation, we built and verified a microgrid based on real data from Katumbi. The microgrid is powered by distributed energy resources such as a solar panel farm, wind turbines, and thermal generation. The control capabilities of the microgrid are reactive power support, fault voltage ride through, load shedding, and voltage unbalance. Simulation shows the microgrid is able to withstand a variety of disturbances, and is built for a population and geographic expansion of Katumbi due to the numerous benefits that electrification provides rural communities. The microgrid allows for the addition of community resources such as a hospital, freezers to store the catch of fishermen, a school, and a tower for wireless communication within the community. These will bring economic, social, and health benefits to this rural, impoverished community.