A new approach aims to reconnect commercial and industrial (C&I) energy users to the grid, supplying daytime power from solar and batteries through grid infrastructure funded by PV installers, with diesel as a backup when needed.

As renewables represent a larger share in a region’s energy mix, managing the grid can become a challenge. With the right approach, though, solar and batteries can actually serve to support resilient electricity networks. That is the premise of a project led by US-based think tank the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).

With utilities in many sub-Saharan African nations crippled by debt and unable to fund vital infrastructure upgrades, conventional wisdom has it that cheap, on-site solar energy will sound the death knell for the big, centralized, often state-owned model of electricity generation and distribution.

The RMI and Lagos, Nigeria-based C&I solar installer Daystar Power, however, have formulated an approach they say can enable solar and electric companies to work together to deploy more PV while upgrading electricity networks.

The idea is solar installers, including Daystar pay for modest grid upgrades to bring C&I energy users onto the network and to benefit from more reliable electricity supply.

The soaring cost of diesel in Nigeria, where the project is being piloted, will enable utilities to charge a sufficient premium to fund repayment of the solar company for those grid upgrades while still offering savings – and much more reliable supply – to customers. Solar energy will be generated and consumed by C&I clients on site, with the grid stepping in as supplier outside of solar generating hours, backed up by battery storage and diesel.