Decentralized demand–supply matching using community microgrids and consumer demand response: A scenario analysis

Developing countries constantly face the challenge of reliably matching electricity supply to increasing consumer demand. The traditional policy decisions of increasing supply and reducing demand centrally, by building new power plants and/or load shedding, have been insufficient. Locally installed microgrids along with consumer demand response can be suitable decentralized options to augment the centralized grid based systems and plug the demand–supply gap. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) develop a framework to identify the appropriate decentralized energy options for demand–supply matching within a community, and, (2) determine which of these options can suitably plug the existing demand–supply gap at varying levels of grid unavailability.