Two firms have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to power
25 communities in Bayelsa, Ondo, Ogun and Osun states with solar energy.
A Nigerian firm, Community Energy Social Enterprises
Limited, on Tuesday, signed a $767,512 MoU with Renewvia Energy Corporation, an
American company, to provide solar energy for some communities on a
‘pay-as-you-go’ basis.
The CESEL Managing Director, Dr. Patrick Tolani, signed the
agreement on behalf of his company with Mr. Clay Taber, Managing Director,
Renewvia in Abuja.
Tolani said the MoU was for the development of solar
microgrids in 25 communities, stating that communities to benefit from the
projects were those that had no access to electricity for more than 10 years,
including Brass in Bayelsa and Magboro
in Ogun State.
Others, he said, included Ilaje and Igbokoda in Ondo State,
and a community, which was completely cut off from the grid because of
isolation in Osun State.
Taber, in his remarks, explained that Renewvia would install
and operate microgrid systems with solar photovoltaic generation capacity and
battery storage in the 25 benefiting communities.
According to him, the design of the microgrids for the
project will include PV panels, string inverters, aluminium racking and energy
storage backup power.
He said, “It is expected that the majority of the power off
takers for the project would be residential and commercial end-users located
within one kilometre of the microgrid generation units that would be connected
at the time of project construction.
“Renewvia and CESEL would sell microgrid customers
electricity by Kilowatts through a ‘pay-as-you-go’ structure.
“The competitiveness of the system helps to ensure payment
as the project will provide consistent and reliable power at a less-expensive
price than current rural power generation by diesel.”
He said Renewvia and CESEL also planned to facilitate the
transaction through mobile payments, noting that the project would employ local
and remote resources to support the needs of the power plant for each
microgrid.
The project is supported by Power Africa, a US energy
project initiated in 2013 to assist African countries in accessing energy.
The US Trade and Development Agency will provide grant to
CESEL for the feasibility study that will access the rollout of 25 solar microgrids
in rural and peri-urban communities across Nigeria.
It is expected that the project will provide up to 10
megawatts and connect over 10, 000 households, according to a study by
Renewvia.
The MoU signing was witnessed by Power Africa Coordinator,
Andrew Herscowitz, and the US Agency for International Development mission
director in Nigeria, Michael Harvey.
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