Designing an Energy Management System for Microgrids in Off-Grid Nigerian Communities

Isolated mini-grid deployments powering off-grid communities in states such as Taraba, Borno, and Kebbi provide electricity to underserved populations but suffer from unstable supply, suboptimal battery management, and unsustainable tariff collection mechanisms without intelligent energy management oversight. This study designed an energy management system for solar-battery mini-grid deployments in off-grid Nigerian communities. A professional microgrid engineering methodology combining load profiling, energy dispatch algorithm design, and hardware-software architecture was employed. A six-month electricity consumption dataset from a USAID-supported 30 kW mini-grid in Taraba State was used to develop demand forecasting models. The energy management system designed operates on a Raspberry Pi 4 server interfacing with Sunny Island battery inverters and Sunny Boy solar inverters via RS-485 Modbus. The dispatch algorithm prioritised solar generation, managed battery state-of-charge between 20 and 90 percent to maximise cycle life, implemented load shedding in six priority tiers during deficit conditions, and generated daily energy balance reports. A mobile money-integrated prepaid metering module (Payscale API) enabled automated tariff collection. Simulation results using the historical load profile showed a 16.3 percent improvement in battery cycle lifespan compared to existing control logic, and a projected 22 percent reduction in diesel generator top-up fuel cost. Revenue collection efficiency in the prepaid simulation was 98.7 percent, compared to 73 percent for manual collection. The study recommends deploying the system at three USAID-partner mini-grids in Taraba for field evaluation.

Keywords: microgrid energy management, off-grid electrification, solar battery system, Nigeria mini-grid, energy dispatch