Design for localisation parameters for sustainable energy access

Energy sustainability in remote areas have different aspects that need addressing, including community development and social sustainability. Engineering solutions in power systems and power electronics deployed in remote areas often have black-box, complicated designs requiring specialist maintenance and uninterrupted supply chain. Hence, equipment is often abandoned when broken down. To ensure better energy access, this paper proposes how Design for Localisation (DfL) can be used to design electrical equipment for local manufacture and repair, accounting for local resources. This paper proposes a DfL buck converter used in conjunction with 6 parameters defining the methodology to create a more holistic and sustainable solution. These parameters are reliability, complexity, cost, performance, repairability, and manufacturability. The paper shows a simulation of the converter in a DC microgrid in Ilha das Onças in the Brazilian Amazon, and its dynamics in passive and active regulated grids. It also shows the trade-offs that need to be considered for implementing DfL and suggests that further work can be done through Real-Time Hardware-in-Loop (RT-HIL) and field testing to create a framework for the 6 parameters.