Ghana has begun the training of technical staff of its two power distribution companies – Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) – for the installation and commissioning of net metering Solar PV systems in the West African nation.
The country is looking at building the capacity of at least 180 technical staff of ECG and NEDCo for the net metering Solar PV project.
The capacity building programme is expected to be in batches, with the first batch of the training commencing next Monday, February 12, 2024, at the Don Bosco Technical Training School at Ashaiman, a suburb of Greater Accra.
Speaking at the launch of the training, the deputy Director for Power at the Ministry of Energy and deputy Co-ordinator for the Scaling-up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP), Ing. Seth Mahu, on behalf of the Minister of Energy, said the training programme was the third component of SREP.
According to him, the training aims to equip the technical staff of ECG and NEDCo with the requisite skills to support Ghana’s efforts to achieve the target of universal electrification by 2024 and also increase renewable energy penetration to 10% in the generation mix by 2030.
He said the Government, through the Ministry of Energy, had done a lot in the renewable energy space.
“We have developed net metering tariff methodology to encourage prospective renewable energy investors,” he added.
He stated that the country aims to use the net metering project to create market for the renewable industry.
“With the net metering project, if anybody invests in solar systems, you will be able to know how much power you are allowed to export to the grid and how much of energy you can take from the grid,” he explained.
He urged the staffs of ECG and NEDCo who are undergoing the training to pay attention and learn to ensure the success of the net metering project.
The Director for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the Energy Commission, Kofi Agyarko, noted that the net metering would give Ghanaians an opportunity to sell power to ECG and NEDCo and buy it back when they need it.
“If you have solar PV systems without storage batteries, it means that after 5 p.m. when the sun is set you will not have power generated from your solar system and that would be a good time to buy back what you pushed to ECG or NEDCo,” Mr Agyarko said.
He said PURC had developed a billing system that takes into consideration how much you sold to ECG or NEDCo and how much power you bought from either ECG or NEDCo.
Mr Agyarko said the aim of the net metering Solar PV project is to help Ghanaians to reduce their electricity consumption.
He said Ghana was looking at reducing the load on the national grid by 64 megawatts so as to minimise transformer overloads.
The deputy Head of Mission and Head of Cooperation, Embassy of Switzerland in Ghana, Dr. Haeberli Simone, said that the Ghana Solar Photovoltaic-based net-metering project has real potential to positively support the economy and the people of Ghana, as Switzerland’s support under the SREP is meant to encourage SMEs and households to invest in solar installations on their premises.
Also, the project would contribute to lower emissions and make a positive contribution towards reliable energy provision in Ghana.
The Government of Ghana, on 25th May 2022, signed a grant agreement of $69.88 million.
The project is funded by African Development Bank (AfDB), the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
Source:https://energynewsafrica.com