BY MBONGENI NDLELA
MBABANE – The Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) took a moment to show the public the inner workings of the 10MW solar power plant at Qomintaba, Lavumisa. The company’s Managing Director and engineers explained how the solar plant works to during a media tour of the station, and also answered questions about EEC’s plans going forward.
The Lavumisa Power Station is the country’s first utility scale Solar Photovoltaic Plant in the country. It is positioned to respond to Eswatini’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative that aims at increasing renewable energy generation in the national energy mix to 50% by the year 2030. The project’s objective is to increase sovereignty security of supply to reduce reliance on electricity imports to meet the country’s energy needs. The life-expectancy of the project is about 30 years, and it is currently at test-performance phase.
The Power Station makes use of the latest innovations to make sure that it produces at highest capacity as efficiently as possible. As demonstrated during the tour, the solar panels at the station actually track sunlight throughout the day – such that they are always directly facing the sun for maximum light to enter the panels. This is controlled by a system called SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition).
“The SCADA system also enables the plant to be visible to the EEC network such that the plant can be monitored and partly controlled in Mbabane. Things that are monitored digitally in the Power Plant include how much power is being produced, how much sunlight is available, variance (to determine how when to clean solar panels), and weather patterns amongst key things.” said the engineer. He added that these signals are all detected through the two on-site weather stations, as well as the bifacial solar panels.
This power plant is expected to produce 22GWH a year, and it sometimes goes on to generate 24GWH a year. It also includes a 22/66kV substation at Lavumisa, and a 66kV steel monopole transmission line from Lavumisa to the point of connection at Maloma Substation. Improvements of the configuration at Maloma Substation were done to accomodate the project, which includes a busbar and the modification of the Sithobela line bay and the addition of the Lavumisa to Maloma line bay.
Consolidated Power Projects Energy Solutions was awarded the contract to build the power station based on technical and financial evaluation that yielded the lowest tariff, after a long process of tendering. The station was completed and commissioned in December 2020 and thereafter underwent tests which included grid code compliance tests and performance tests. The solar PV plant complied to all contractual obligations at the issuing of COD.
During a sunny day and the diurnal generation cycle, it delivers a maximum of 10MW at the point of connection in Maloma as per contractual obligations with the EPC Contractor. The plant can deliver 12.5MW. Excess power generated will be used to power the first of its kind utility scale 1MWh Battery Energy Storage System, which is currently at the advanced stage of integration into the solar PV plant.
The project has also brought opportunities to the people of Matsanjeni where it is located. “We are grateful that there are now way less electricity outages in the area, and that the electricity is quickly restored when it goes out.” said Matsanjeni MP Bomber Mamba.
“We are also grateful that the project has seen close to 200 people employed during its course to completion,” added the MP. It was also revealed that EEC has donated farming equipment of over E700,000 to the community as part of their corporate social responsibility.
In total the project cost EEC about E260 million Emalangeni. “As you see EEC posting profits throughout the years, we hope you are reminded that this is what we do with these profits,” said EEC Managing Director Ernest Mkhonta, referring to the investment in the country’s energy security.
