Ibrahim Matola, Minister of Energy emphasized the fast track testing of the Bess battery power Launched by Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) which is supposed to produce five Megawatts (MW) from the batteries.

The minister made the remarks after he toured the facility on Wednesday in Dedza district.

Matola said there is need to fast track the process of testing the power because the nation is in need of electricity and with the coming of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) will help the government to achieve production of 1000 megawatts by 2025.

“As a government, we are pleased with how fast the work is being done on this site. We are expecting to be getting 25 megawatts from the Golomoti project. Currently, we are only getting the 20 megawatts as the five megawatts are still on test and we want the process of testing these batteries to move with speed so that we can be able to bridge the gap that was created by Aggreko,” Matola said.

According to Jonas Sani, JCM power Country Relations Manager said Solar power plant is the power station that uses batteries to support its function and they have been challenged with frequency instability ever since the process of testing.

“As it stands we are only realizing the three megawatts from the five megawatts that the batteries are producing. This power is realized between six and eight pm to complement the 20 megawatts that we are producing but we are sure by the end of this month, we will be able to realise the whole five megawatts to the national grid,” explained Sani.

Rosemary Mkandawire, Chief Executive Officer for Power Market Limited (PML) expressed excitement with the little time JCM has taken to construct the power plant and with the absence of Agrekko generators the power is enough.

“The coming in of Golomoti solar power plant which has battery storage will help to improve power generation. You know solar power is weather-based and if the weather is cloudy there are problems in producing the power but with the batteries at the site they will act as a backup in times of bad weather thereby, bridging the gap that may be created with weather problems,” Mkandawire said.

JCM Power launched a project of 20MW Golomoti Solar PV+BESS in Dedza district which is expected to produce five megawatts from the batteries to make it 25 megawatts added to national grid.

 

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