EM-ONE’s West Africa office in Abuja, Nigeria is powered by an advanced solar microgrid system
Abuja, Nigeria — June 2, 2020
As part of a series of special projects to increase the sustainability and resilience of company operations, EM-ONE Energy Solutions has designed, built, and commissioned an advanced solar microgrid system that powers its regional West African office in Abuja, Nigeria. The solar microgrid has 31.68 kWp of PV and an energy storage capacity of 42 kWh. The system will generate 52 MWh of energy annually and result in 56 tonnes of reduced CO2 emissions per year.
EM-ONE’s Abuja office is situated in an urban and picturesque part of the capital city — Asokoro. Despite being connected to the national grid, EM -ONE’s employees previously experienced multiple hour blackouts and were used to realigning their day’s priorities with the availability of power at any given moment. This is a typical occurrence throughout Nigeria, where only 57% of the total population have access to electricity.
EM-ONE undertook the development and execution of this project using its in-house expertise in engineering, design, construction, and project management of renewable energy projects.
The resulting solution was a solar system equipped with tier-1 equipment components from the company’s technology partners — Schneider Electric, Tesla, SimpliPhi, SMA and Canadian Solar. The advanced microgrid controller is connected to a backup diesel generator to provide reliable energy supply to the office through cloudy days. The system was mounted on a red branded 40-foot container, which doubles as extra office space for its engineers who test equipment for other ongoing projects.
Adnan Rashid, EM-ONE’s Director, Sustainable Energy comments, “The office’s solar microgrid system not only improves our day-to-day operations by providing reliable and sustainable power, but it also benefits our engineering team to be more hands-on in their ability to test system components.”
Mir Islam, EM-ONE’s CEO comments “Being a mission-driven organization focused on the energy transition in Africa, this was a natural next step in EM-ONE’s history. We are proud to have a space for our team that reflects our values and showcases our expertise and industry leadership to the world.”
Editor’s Note:
Since the ease of the COVID-19 lockdown in Abuja on May 4, 2020, some essential members of EM-ONE’s staff have resumed working from the Asokoro office. These select team members are those who could otherwise not work comfortably and effectively from home. The addition of the containerized office space has enabled an easier transition to social distancing while at work, and allowed a more fluid transition to maintain business continuity through the uncertainty of the global pandemic.
