Busia County 132kW Solar Grid Connect Power Generation
Mundika Water Supply operates Mundika Treatment Plant which serves over 65,000 people, an equivalent of 7,500 households, in Matayos and Teso South Sub Counties.
The Water Supply Plant operates on electricity from the utility power supplier with some of the major loads consisting of 90kW induction motors, 30kW induction motors, 22kW induction motor for the blower, and 0.75kW synchronous motors for chemical stirrer. The County decided to undertake a Grid Tie Solar system to develop a reliable and efficient system that will use mostly solar energy during the day and electricity at night hence helping in reducing the power bills.
Davis & Shirtliff provided a 132kWp Solar Grid Tie System to power the Water Treatment plant. This was based on the available mounting space provided by the County. The system consists of
- 400 No. Yingli 330 Polycrystalline Solar panels,
- 5 No. SMA STP 25000TL-30 PV inverters
- Galvanished Steel 1m Ground Mount Solar Module Support Structure and
- An Energy Meter and SMA Data Manager for remote monitoring the system.
- Accessories, including Energy Meter, Combiner Boxes, Router and Modem and DC and AC Cabling
The system is expected to generate about 200MWh of solar energy annually hence will help in reducing the power bills significantly. The system generates power during the day which is directly consumed and any deficit is covered by the power from the utility power supplier. If solar is generating more than what is consumed, the monitoring device used is able to limit feeding back to the grid.
