The global community has defined energy access as one of the essential pillars for development, and has included it among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically in SDG7, which proposes achieving universal access to modern, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy by 2030.
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has reached 96.7% electricity coverage (OLADE, 2015 data). However, some countries are still far below average, such as Haiti (30%), while others are close to reaching universal access, as is the case in Uruguay, Brazil and Chile. Despite achieving a high level of coverage, which makes the region a likely candidate for achieving the SDG goals within the established deadline, 3.3% of the population that does not yet have electricity in their homes, which represents some 23 million people.
These people usually live in remote locations, far from interconnected electricity networks and populated areas, which often means that it is technically and economically unfeasible to provide electricity service by extending the networks. This is why isolated electrification systems have great potential, either via individual solutions such as solar systems or via mini-grids.
Given the remoteness and the high spatial dispersion of housing, the investment, operation and maintenance costs of these isolated systems are usually much higher than those in urban areas, since they do not contain economies of scale. Often these high costs, coupled with low rural residential consumption and the limited capacity to pay of this population, make it even more difficult to find solutions that are technically, economically and financially sustainable for families without electricity.
In this sense, it is necessary to have tools to optimize engineering design, minimizing costs and maximize profitability. There are several models that help in this task, such as RETScreen (developed by the government of Canada), iHOGA (developed by the University of Zaragoza), Hybrid2 and HOMER, initially developed by the US Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
One of the best known models is HOMER, which previously existed only in English, which made it difficult to use in Spanish-speaking countries. HOMER allows the optimization of hybrid electricity generation systems for rural electrification, based on a series of input data such as the demand profile, the profile of available renewable resources (solar, wind, hydro), unit costs of generation equipment (photovoltaic, wind, hydraulic, diesel generators), costs of energy storage systems, O & M costs, and technology and fuel costs, among others. The model uses optimization algorithms which result in the combination of elements that minimize the levelized cost of energy to supply the established demand, within the evaluation horizon of the project. The model also indicates the power to be installed for each type of generator that makes up the hybrid system, the annual hours of use of each, the optimal capacity of the energy storage system, the investment costs and O & M.
Due to HOMER’s practical applications, the IDB via the SE4All Americas initiative supported the Spanish version of the software, and which is now available. Countries in the region can use it to improve planning and make sustainable investments in rural electrification programs for the benefit of the neediest populations. As with HOMER, the IDB is willing to support the Spanish version of other models that have the potential to be useful tools for decision-making in LAC and to move towards achieving the goal SDG7 and improving the well-being of all its inhabitants.
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