Grid Interconnection of Micro Hydro Power Plants: Major Requirements, Key Issues and Challenges

The world is facing the challenge of effectively exploiting and utilizing renewable energy resources, not only to meet the increasing energy demand, but also to preserve and to reduce the depletion of fossil fuels and to lessen the amount of CO2 emissions in our atmosphere. Among the different forms of renewable energies, the micro hydro power plants (MHPPs) are intensifying as a major source of renewable energy today as they do not encounter the problems of population displacement and being extremely benign to the environment. But, they still operate in stand-alone mode to supply the electricity in the local rural loads. A growing interest on grid interconnection of MHPPs have emerged recently, majorly to get the financial benefits of no consumption of fuel by MHPPs turbines, power capacity improvement of local grids to meet up the rising demand and to keep the electric supply continue in the system. However, there still exist various issues related to the grid interconnection that should be examined. Therefore, this work investigates and presents the major requirements along with key issues and challenges encountered during the grid interconnection of MHPPs with some possible solutions by reviewing the available literature on a single place.