Regulators and Distributed Energy Resources stakeholders in the power sector have been equipped with the latest technology transfer and skills under the supervision of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE SA).
The workshop which was organized by the Energy Commission among others aims at introducing the stakeholders to the IEEE 1547 standard and the IEEE 1547 Conformity Assessment Programme in relation to Ghana’s Renewable Energy (RE) Drive.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Director for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the Energy Commission, Mr. Kofi Agyarko affirmed the importance of the workshop to Ghana’s (RE) Projects.
“The IEEE 1547 Conformity Assessment Programme for Interconnection and Interoperability of Distributed Energy Resources will be very crucial to Ghana’s ongoing adopting of the Distributed Energy Resources”.
“It is extremely challenging for the world’s policy makers to simultaneously to keep on top of today’s’ dramatically changing technological landscape anticipating tomorrows innovation and wisely evolving policies and regulations,” he emphasized.
Deputy Director for Renewable Energy and Alternative Energy at the Ministry of Energy, Ing. Seth Mahu outlined some of the energy resources currently available in the country.
“Ghana is endowed in renewable energy resources including hydro, solar, wind, biomass, tidal waves etc. As a country in order to secure the future energy supply of our selves, it is important that we begin to explore and develop these energy resources we have. The ministry is therefore taking steps to access theses resources develop road maps and blue prints that we can make available to investors to direct investments to those specific areas.”
“Currently we have started the development of a number of solar parks across the country. We are also looking at hydro as are source beyond Akosombo, Bui and Kpong. Going forward, all other hydro resources that will be developing in this country will have to be hybridized with these variable energy resources such as solar and wind such that as the wind and sun is available we can conserve water use energy from these other resources and if they are not available we will fall back on the hydro. That is the only way we can it sustainable and competitive,” he stressed.
For his part, Senior Director at IEEE SA, Adam Newman said “our team of engineers earlier this week worked with the Energy Commission and the Electricity Company of Ghana to do commission pilot of a 20 megawatt solar facility here in Ghana so that our engineers can work with utilities engineers to review that facility compliant with the IEEE 1547 standards”.
‘And so that we can learn from Ghana utilities and that resource from IEEE perspective how the standard can be used in real life and what we can do to improve the commissioning in terms of the assessment programme and the pilot itself how itb will work in real life real usage here in Africa,’ he noted.
Story By: Henry George Martinson/radiogoldlive.com
