IDEAS Insights Strengthening Energy Reliability | Page 7

Another added advantage of using micro-grids with battery storage is the ability of
such a system to be both scalable and adaptable for different geographical regions.
Countries situated along the Nile and Zambezi rivers are adapting micro-grids to
hydroelectric power. [13] These “micro-hydroelectric dams” don’t need to be a large as
conventional dams, reducing their potentially negative environmental and
sociopolitical impacts. Micro-grid technology enables access to electricity in remote
areas where connection to national grids is not possible.
With developing countries rapidly urbanising, power demand is set to dramatically
increase in the coming decades. This, coupled with increasingly extreme weather
induced by climate change, presents a growing threat to electricity supply. We already
see this threat manifesting most prominently in Bangladesh, a nation whose average
affliction by cyclones is once every three years. [14] With 25% of its landmass annually
inundated by floods, [15] the exposure of Bangladesh to climate-based risk is only
forecasted to intensify as we see more frequent repeats of the 1978 floods, which
covered almost 70% of its landmass. [16] As Bangladesh stands to lose up to an
estimated 20% of its landmass from a one metre rise in sea levels, [17] the technologies
discussed could help soften the worst consequences of such future flooding. Nations
regularly facing devastation by such natural disasters and hindered by poor
infrastructure disproportionately tend to be developing countries, for whom energy
reliability presents a fundamental challenge. However, with the recent boom in battery
and micro-grid technology, and further advancements and investment predicted, the
solution may lie closer to what we find in our smartphones than in power stations.
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