Solar Powered System re-operationalised at the St. Cuthbert’s Mission Secondary School
The Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), on March 28th 2022, under its sustainable energy interventions at community/public buildings, installed a 48kWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) as a replacement for the depleted 47.04kWh BESS. This BESS is essential to the operation of the off-grid 6.2kWp Solar PV System which supplies electricity at the St. Cuthbert’s Mission Secondary School located in the community of Pakuri along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway.
The lack of a stable electricity supply at the school was brought to the attention of the GEA during an Energy Needs Assessment exercise in 2021. It was further discovered that the Battery Storage at the school’s off-grid Solar PV installation, installed in 2016, had become depleted and as a result was preventing the students and teachers from conducting many essential educational activities that required electricity.
The community of Pakuri has an electricity mini-grid network supplied by a 135kVA diesel-fueled generator. Owing to high fuel costs, electricity is only provided for four (4) hours daily during the early evening hours. While this meets the electricity needs of a section of the community’s residences and small businesses, the timing of the supply falls outside of the regular school hours and as such does not benefit the students or teachers. The GEA, in exercising its mandate, therefore provided support to the school for the procurement, transport and installation of the replacement battery bank.
The batteries were procured at a cost of one million, six hundred and sixty one thousand , one hundred and twenty Guyana dollars (G$1,661,120). The battery bank includes sixteen (16) batteries configured in a 48Vdc, 1000Ah arrangement. The installed hybrid PV system provides clean and renewable electricity supply to the school, dormitory and teacher’s quarters. Its operation will result in the avoidance of an estimated 5.07 tonnes CO2 emissions annually.
This initiative will provide a stable and reliable electricity supply for delivery of the school’s daily learning activities benefiting approximately one hundred and thirty-five (135) students and eleven (11) teachers.
The students and teachers on hand at the time of the battery replacement were effusive in gratitude for the initiative stating that, among other benefits, it will allow them use of their well-equipped computer laboratory to complete School Based Assessments (SBAs) and post essential study material as well as examination notifications and results online.