IEC TS 62257-1:2003

IEC/TS 62257-1 ®
Edition 1.0 2003-08
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
colour
inside
Recommendations for small renewable energy and hybrid systems for rural
electrification –
Part 1: General introduction to rural electrification

IEC/TS 62257-1:2003(E)
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IEC/TS 62257-1 ®
Edition 1.0 2003-08
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
colour
inside
Recommendations for small renewable energy and hybrid systems for rural
electrification –
Part 1: General introduction to rural electrification

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
PRICE CODE
L
ICS 27.160; 27.180 ISBN 2-8318-7162-X

– 2 – TS 62257-1  IEC:2003(E)
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
INTRODUCTION .5
1 Scope and overview . 6
2 Normative references. 6
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviations . 7
4 Rural electrification: which solution to choose?. 8
5 Decentralized electrification requires a range of systems . 9
Figure 1 – Example of electrification progress following a master plan methodology. 9
Table 1 – Some advantages and disadvantages of the proposed single and multiple
user systems.10

TS 62257-1  IEC:2003(E) – 3 –
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
___________
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SMALL RENEWABLE ENERGY
AND HYBRID SYSTEMS FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION –
Part 1: General introduction to rural electrification
FOREWORD
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The main task of IEC technical committees is to prepare International Standards. In
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• the required support cannot be obtained for the publication of an International Standard,
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• the subject is still under technical development or where, for any other reason, there is the
future but no immediate possibility of an agreement on an International Standard.
Technical specifications are subject to review within three years of publication to decide
whether they can be transformed into International Standards.
IEC 62257-1, which is a technical specification, has been prepared by IEC technical committee
82: Solar photovoltaic energy systems. It was developed in cooperation with other IEC
technical committees and subcommittees dealing with renewable energies and related matters,
namely technical committee 21 ("Secondary cells and batteries"), subcommittee 21A
("Secondary cells and batteries containing alkaline or other non-acid electrolytes"), technical
committee 64 ("Electrical installations and protection against electric shock"), technical
committee 88 ("Wind turbines"), and others.

– 4 – TS 62257-1 © IEC:2003(E)
This document is based on IEC/PAS 62111; it cancels and replaces the relevant parts of
IEC/PAS 62111.
This technical specification shall be used in conjunction with the other documents of the
IEC 62257 series.
The text of this technical specification is based on the following documents:
Enquiry draft Report on voting
82/300/DTS 82/318/RVC
Full information on the voting for the approval of this technical specification can be found in
the report on voting indicated in the above table.
This publication has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The committee has decided that the contents of this publication will remain unchanged until 2006.
At this date, the publication will be
• reconfirmed;
• withdrawn;
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
A bilingual edition of this publication may be issued at a later date.

IMPORTANT – The “colour inside” logo on the cover page of this publication indicates
that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct
understanding of its contents. Users should therefore print this publication using a
colour printer.
TS 62257-1  IEC:2003(E) – 5 –
INTRODUCTION
Rural electrification is one of the predominant policy actions designed to increase the well-
being of rural populations together with improved healthcare, education, personal advancement
and economical development.
The present document introduces general considerations on rural electrification and the
IEC 62257 series. This series intends to provide to different players involved in rural
electrification projects documents for the setting up of low voltage renewable energy and
hybrid systems.
– 6 – TS 62257-1  IEC:2003(E)
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SMALL RENEWABLE ENERGY
AND HYBRID SYSTEMS FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION –
Part 1: General introduction to rural electrification
1 Scope and overview
Rural electrification is one of the predominant policy actions designed to increase the well
being of rural populations together with improved healthcare, education, personal advancement
and economical development. Rural electrification can be completed through connection to a
national or regional electrification grid. This document applies to cases where the grid is too far
away (too costly) or the individual demand centres are too small to make grid access
economic, where autonomous power systems may be used to supply these services.
This series of documents intends to provide to different players involved in rural electrification
projects (such as project developers, project implementers, installers, etc.) documents for the
setting up of renewable energy and hybrid systems with AC voltage below 500 V, DC voltage
below 50 V and power below 50 kVA.
These documents are recommendations:
a) to choose the right system for the right place,
b) to design the system,
c) to operate and maintain the system.
These documents are focused only on rural electrification concentrating on but not specific to
developing countries. They must not be considered as all inclusive to rural electrification. The
documents try to promote the use of renewable energies in rural electrification; they do not
deal with clean mechanisms development at this time (CO emission, carbon credit, etc.)
Fu
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