IEEE Electrification Magazine - June 2017 - 14

The UCC offers a
technical solution
to reduce cost
and provide
interoperability of
community-driven
and entrepreneurdriven distributed
power solutions in
remote areas of
the world.

hygiene (WASH), and ongoing women's empowerment programs.
Schools and community centers
will be electrified through solar
systems ranging from 0.5 to 5 kW.
Microgrids at each of the 35 schools
power LED lights and digital classroom tools including a computer,
projector, intranet router, and printer, thereby allowing teachers to
show interactive media, participate
in learning forums between schools,
and create their own WordPress
websites with content accessible by
the entire community. Teachers also
can attend recurrence training and
virtual classes hosted by Rotary
community centers to improve their
proficiency in English, science, technology, engineering, mathematics,
and motivation/mentoring of students. All schools
have access to the digital content library hosted on the
local intranet.
The curricula and supplementary materials are delivered in the form of digital toolboxes that would contain
all resources needed by a community center to hold
workshops, seminars, and community empowerment
classes. The WASH, health, educators, and empowerment
toolboxes and virtual instructor content are being written
as html websites that can be loaded onto any server and
delivered over a local intranet. Virtual instructor and toolbox contents are released under a Creative Commons
license and are translated into the languages of other
IEEE Smart Village communities.
Meanwhile, community center microgrids provide
similar services and prepaid cellular phone-charging services and power for android tablets containing content to
support ongoing women's empowerment, adult literacy,
and domestic violence prevention programs. The community centers also act as hubs for digital capture and
sharing of community knowledge and entrepreneurial
and vocational training in a broad array of disciplines
and job areas. Entrepreneurial mentors, virtual instructors, and community center facilitators help train new
entrepreneurs in creating businesses that are not only
financially and ecologically sustainable, but they also
help the community achieve United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals.

Tying It all Together: Interoperability
and Standardization
Off-grid electrification solutions require a charge controller for managing the energy-storage system. However, currently available commercial designs are often too
expensive, fail to provide desired functionality, or are not
sufficiently modular to permit integration with other

I E E E E l e c t r i f i c ati o n M agaz ine / j un e 2017

off-grid solutions or the national grid
when it arrives.
The Universal Charge Controller
(UCC) under development by Arizona
State University researchers in collaboration with IEEE Smart Village aims
to eliminate the need for separate
charge controllers for solar home
systems, battery charging stations,
and ac or dc microgrids. The single
piece of equipment also provides
interoperability so that consumers
and developers can easily integrate
one con ﬁguration with another.
From a technical perspective, integrating technologies between traditional grid extension, standalone
systems, and microgrid systems is
difficult due to the high cost and
lack of interoperability in available
proprietary designs. An open-source design provides a
better solution, offering local village entrepreneurs a less
expensive design with more flexibility to modify the
product to suit local requirements.
The involvement of the IEEE Smart Village network in
the design and testing also improves technology innovation
and adoption. This is particularly important when noting
that the device may need to adapt, because power-system
conﬁgurations might evolve over time, e.g., multiple solar
home systems can be wired together to create a villagescale microgrid. Advanced metering and electricity billing
agreements are additional requirements to recover expenses needed for installation, operation, and maintenance.
Four power-system conﬁgurations were selected for
this work to facilitate widespread adoption in use cases
that vary based on local, environmental, ﬁnancial, social,
and other factors (Figure 11):
xx
Configuration 1: Solar Home: Stand-alone systems
assembled from individual components, typically
comprising a PV panel, battery, charge controller, and
dc appliances and lights, which are optimally sized for
the system.
xx
Configuration 2: Sunblazer: Charging stations for small
villages or neighborhoods equipped with dc-dc converters that charge the lower capacity batteries from
the 24-V station battery bank, charged by a portable
array of solar panels.
xx
Configuration 3: ac Microgrid: Conventional off-grid or
grid-connected ac microgrids powering common
household loads with centralized battery storage and
diesel or gasoline generator. These systems are not
capable of decentralized battery charging.
xx
Configuration 4: dc Microgrid: Smaller systems with
only dc components often result in higher efficiency,
lower capital costs, lack of conversion losses, and
better power quality.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - June 2017