Blanco drive-through vehicle licence office goes solar

GEORGE NEWS - George Mayor Leon van Wyk visited the drive-through MVR offices in Blanco last week after a solar system was installed to power the building and keep it online during Eskom load shedding.

According to Director of Electrotechnical Services Bongani Mandla, the municipality has embarked on a drive to reduce their bulk purchase and carbon footprint through the installation of PV solar systems and battery energy storage systems.

The mayor visited two of the sites that have now been commissioned as part of this programme.

Van Wyk said over the next couple of years, the municipality wants to provide both electricity and storage, to not only support municipal infrastructure, but also to reduce own consumption of energy so that we are ultimately able to apply to be relieved from stage 1 and 2 load shedding. The goal is to achieve this relief of stage 2 by the end of 2024.

A solar system of three kilowatts peak (kWp) with a 5kVA hybrid inverter and a 10-kilowatt hour (kWh) battery storage has been installed and commissioned at the Blanco drive-through vehicle licence renewal office.

This system comprises six panels, each with a rating of 500W. The panels are set to prioritise charging the battery first, and when these are charged, to supply electricity to the building.

When load shedding occurs, the battery kicks in and supplies the building. The battery will last for at most six hours of load shedding, before it must be recharged. In the absence of the sun, the batteries can charge from the grid at off peak times when the cost of electricity is cheaper.

At the Electrotechnical Services building, a solar system of 20kWp with a 30kVA hybrid inverter and a 60kWh battery energy storage has been installed and commissioned. The system comprises 38 solar panels.

The system's priority is set at charging the battery first through the solar, and when it is full, the solar panels supply power to the building, and are supplemented by the grid if necessary. When load shedding occurs, the battery kicks in and supplies the building with power.

The battery is expected to last for a period of four hours during load shedding before it must be recharged. In the absence of the sun, the batteries can charge from the grid at off-peak times when the cost of electricity is cheaper.

The Electrotechnical Services building houses the critical control centre that handles the load management for the town, as well as the remote switching of the network. This system is further integrated to a diesel generator, which is required as further back-up to ensure that the control centre remains fully powered 24/7.

The battery technology for both sites is lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) with an average lifespan of 15 years. The projects are co-funded by the Department of Mineral Resources & Energy and the George Municipality.

The service provider is Hamsa Consulting Engineers. There are two more projects which the municipality plans to commission over the next few weeks, as well as a 1 000kWp system by the end of this year.

Mayor Leon van Wyk, project manager of the solar plants at Electrotechnical Services Thabo Yiga and Municipal Manager Michele Gratz at the solar batteries at the Electrotechnical Services offices.