Fish and Chips

Abstract

Though electricity access remains out of reach for roughly one billion primarily rural and low-income people, crucial strides have been made in developing new pathways for connecting households and businesses to electricity supplies. Among these, decentralized minigrids - typically comprised of generation, storage, and a medium- and low-voltage distribution network - have considerable technical promise for balancing recent advances in decentralized generation as well as grid sensing and communication systems with the overwhelming economies-of-scale enjoyed by electricity grids. However, low revenues and, in response, high tariffs necessary for cost recovery stifle the widespread development of this promising pathway for electrification.