Demand for electricity from small industries and businesses (productive use of energy - PUE), is a key success factor for micro-grids. This is because productive customers tend to use larger volumes of electricity than residential customers, thereby enabling micro-grids to reach the critical revenue needed for their financial viability. This is according to a new report, Productive Use of Energy in African Micro-Grids: Technical and Business Considerations.

The report is part of a series of studies being developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Energy 4 Impact, in support of the Power Africa’s Beyond the Grid Programme. Focusing on small agricultural processing, and small industrial and commercial loads, the report is a useful resource for entrepreneurs and developers designing micro-grids to inform their technical and business decisions and to improve system design, reduce risk, and increase success with adding PU loads to both new and existing micro-grids.

The report is also intended to help entrepreneurs, governments, and non-governmental organisations to design programmes that can meet the individual goals of PUE in micro-grids and economic development in rural Africa.

Download the full report here.