Mauritius inaugurates BESS | Global Energy

Attorney General, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Maneesh Gobin; Minister of Gender Equality and Family Welfare Kalpana Devi Koonjoo-Shah; Central Electricity Board (CEB) Director General Rajden Chowdharry and several other dignitaries were also present.

The main goal of BESS is to help stabilize grid frequencies in the perspective of integrating more and more renewable energy into the national grid. Renewable sources such as solar and wind energy are the two most suitable in the local context and are usually intermittent in nature. They can therefore cause instability in the network when connected to it in large numbers (MW). Hence the need for BESS to provide energy management, reduce energy waste and protect natural resources.

In his speech, Minister Lesjongard emphasized that the 20 MW BESS is part of the government’s policy encouraging the use of renewable energy and clean energy in order to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030. stated that green energy can become a new pillar of the economy because by 2030, 60% of the country’s energy demand will be covered from ecological sources. The use of coal will also be phased out by 2030, he added.

The minister indicated that with the advent of BESS, more green energy capacity will be stored and incorporated into the national grid to meet the rising demand during peak hours, especially in the evening. He said BESSs also help reduce our dependence on conventional generators because these batteries are charged with renewable energies such as photovoltaic power, helping to achieve the goal of including 60% renewable energies in the energy mix by 2030.

He recalled that CEB has launched several projects aimed at integrating more green energy into the network. The first phase of the project was commissioned in 2018 and included 2 MW of capacity installed at the Amaury substation and the Henrietta substation. The 14 MW power was distributed to CEB substations located in La Tour Koenig, Anahita, Wooton and Jin fei. All these initiatives are guided by the government’s determination to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the country and accelerate the phase-out of coal from electricity production, emphasized Minister Lesjongard.

For his part, Chowdharry noted that with the commissioning of the new 20 MW BESS plant, CEB will use a total of 38 MW BESS. He emphasized that the main goal of the organization is to ensure timely supplies of electricity sufficient to meet the needs of the population. In this way, he spoke about the need to place greater emphasis on the use of renewable energy sources, while encouraging the diversification of the energy mix and reducing dependence on coal.

“This deployment, he noted, is a key step towards a stable, resilient national power grid that acts as a buffer to minimize frequency and voltage. It also provides ‘peak shaving’ capability, which helps meet evening peak demand and reduce our dependence on conventional peaker generators,” Chowdharry pointed out.

The 20 MW R700-million BESS power plant was delivered, installed and commissioned by SIEMENS France, a world leader in industrial electrical and electronic systems, including battery storage for utility scales.

The 18 MW BESS uses the latest high-performance lithium-ion battery module technology with an extremely short response time of less than 20 ms. They adopt a “container” format, that is, they are enclosed in standard-sized containers, but adapted to individual needs (mainly in terms of wall construction, acoustic and weather insulation, and reinforcements).

More news and technical articles from the global renewable energy industry can be found in the latest issue of Energy Global magazine.

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