Electricity and Control August 2021

ENERGY MANAGEMENT + THE INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT : PRODUCTS + SERVICES

Solar power and microgrid intelligence for Berbera, Somaliland

Since April this year, the citywide power grid supplying the city and port of Berbera in Somaliland, the largest port in the region, is being monitored and controlled us­ ing DHYBRID microgrid technology. Two solar plants with a total capacity of 8 MW, a containerised lithium-ion pow­ er storage system with a capacity of 2 MWh, and three modern diesel generators were combined in the Berbera Electricity Company’s (BEC’s) grid. This has enabled BEC to reduce the electricity tariff in Berbera, making it now the lowest in Somaliland and the Somali Peninsula overall. With the help of its international partners’ teams and remote commissioning, DHYBRID was able to complete this large-scale expansion in just six weeks, despite the ongoing pandemic and extensive global logistics chal­ lenges. Somalia and the Republic of Somaliland are among the countries with the highest energy prices in the world. The electrical power generation system consists primar­ ily of isolated city grids powered by diesel generators. Nonetheless, demand for electrical energy only contin­ ues to grow as infrastructure is being expanded rapidly. The port of Berbera, for example, is intended to improve the flow of goods to Ethiopia with its more than 100 mil­ lion inhabitants, and is currently being expanded at a cost of almost half a billion dollars. Additionally, Berbera has its own airports to which BEC also supplies power. In order to improve the energy supply, and alongside other measures, more photovoltaic power plants are be­ ing built in Somaliland to supplement the existing gener­ ators. This development poses major challenges for the power grids, as Benedikt Böhm from DHYBRID explains. “Various generators within the grid must be coordinated continuously, especially when renewable energies are in­ volved. Otherwise, problems with the grid frequency and voltage will become unavoidable, making it impossible to use all the available power. It is not enough to consider just the solar capacity available. Effective grid manage­ ment is essential.” Ibrahim Yaqub, CEO of BEC says, “The requirement was clear: Berbera needed a scalable energy supply that could be monitored and managed centrally, within the shortest timeframe possible. The DHYBRID Universal Power Platform has succeeded in both; power quality and grid performance increased considerably as soon as everything was up and running.” The power factor of the city grid overall has increased by 20%. This has significantly improved the grid’s distri­ bution, load bearing capacity and power generation effi­ ciency. Discontinuing the use of large quantities of diesel fuel has made Berbera the largest city in Somaliland to be powered by renewable energy. It also now operates the largest battery energy storage system in the country. BEC uses DHYBRID’s open-technology Universal Power Platform (UPP) as a process control system and monitors its energy grid with the same microgrid special­

Solar power, containerised lithium-ion battery energy storage, and diesel generators have been combined to secure power supply in Berbera. [Source: DHYBRID].

DHYBRID’s lithium-ion storage system can be operated in parallel with the grid or as an integrated part of it. [Source: DHYBRID] ist’s SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system.

DHYBRID’s lithium-ion storage system can be oper­ ated either alongside the grid or as an integrated part of it. In this operating mode and in conjunction with the UPP, it almost completely eliminates grid instability and disturbances arising from the multiple effects of growing electrical demand profiles. This project in Somaliland is one of the first in the world to use DHYBRID’s patented Maximum Inverter Power Tracking (MIPT) technology which enables an in­ creased solar power share in microgrids. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, DHYBRID is a specialist international solutions provider of renewable and hybrid energy systems for islands, industry and utilities. The company offers turnkey solutions and indi­ vidualised control systems for hybrid energy projects. It combines conventional energy supplies such as diesel generators or utility grids with renewable energy systems and storage technology, comprehensively visualised and optimally controlled.

For more information visit: www.dhybrid.de/en

Electricity + Control AUGUST 2021

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