Transport Route Planning for Operation and Maintenance of Off-grid Photovoltaic Energy Systems in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso do Sul

Photovoltaic energy systems are sustainable options for residential off-grid electrification in remote areas. However, planning Operation and Maintenance (O&M) activities for this kind of system is a challenge in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso do Sul (Pantanal-MS), due to the environmental complexity of this region, marked by seasonality and access restrictions. In this paper the transport route planning for photovoltaic off grid O&M attendance was modelled as the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The inputs considered to obtain the graph of the problem were: the monthly schedule of O&M activities, according to the specification of the systems; flood periods of the region; and the available access routes to the studied area of the Pantanal-MS. Each of these routes was characterized in terms of the most adequate mode of transportation and the mean travel time spent, by the suggested transport mode, in the course of each route. The TSP problem was solved by an optimization method modelled to minimize total travel time and transport mode variation. The results obtained were compared to a solution method based only in logistic time minimization and achieved a significant impact in O&M total cost.