Enough energy for everyone. Where to start?

 

The main consumer of electricity in a country is its residential sector. He requires at least 50% of power output.

At present, there are two complex technical circumstances that require a fair assessment: the large electricity generators, such as hydroelectric plants, and the distribution network, due to the fact that they are highly sensitive and fragile, as a result of their age. Their regular or major maintenance is becoming more frequent and costly. And perform them necessarily include power outages.

What to do to maintain a reliable supply of electricity over time?

Where do we start?

The usual thing has been to dedicate efforts to carry out maintenance or repairs at all levels, both in electricity generators and in the distribution network. Exponentially multiplying power outages.

Faced with a new reality, a new strategy.

The population grew and demand grew. Hydroelectric plants and their distribution network, at the time, were designed and built in a country totally different from the present. New strategies are required to achieve a reliable supply of energy.

One of them is not the only one. Focus on progressively making the residential sector independent of the national electricity grid. It has been the most successful strategy of the countries that lead the world in the use of alternative energies. Where photovoltaic technology is the most adapted in the residential sector.

Having the components or parts of a photovoltaic system on the site to be installed. Communities of 150 dwellings can become independent from the network, within a period not exceeding one month. And if we repeat this exercise in 3 or 4 communities or neighborhoods of each municipality in the same period, at the end of a year we would already have at least 40% of the residential sector outside the network, or using it only eventually.

Lubio Lenin Cardozo, Venezuelan engineer and environmentalist.

Author's Note: I am not selling solar panels, inverters or batteries. I only share a strategy that I see daily, in my work as an installer of photovoltaic projects