The Lavumisa 10 MW Solar PV Plant be located in the homonymous area in the southeastern part of Swaziland. The Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC) intends to develop the plant on two phases of 5 MW each.
Swaziland’s state-owned power utility Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC) has issued a tender for the construction of a 10 MW solar park in the country’s southeastern region of Lavumisa.
The SEC is procuring the services of an EPC contractor to design, construct and commission the facility together with all the required grid infrastructure to connect it to the grid. The plant will be developed in two stages with each having a capacity at the point of connection of 5 MW (AC). The solar park will connect to the existing Maloma Substation located approximately 11 km north of the site for the project.
The SEC also said in the document it has so far identified three potential sites in the Nhlalukane district for the project. The deadline for receipt of applications is Jun. 27, 2018.
The Swaziland Water Services Corporation (SWSC) had issued a tender to seek consultants for the feasibility study of the project in January.
The project will be developed in the frame of the Swaziland Independent Power Producers Policy (SIPPP), a new strategy developed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy (MNRE) to increase the share of renewables in the country’s energy mix to 50% by 2030.
In the meantime, the land-locked small African country remains heavily dependent on power imports from Mozambique and South Africa, via the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), as SEC is currently able to cover only 10% of its power demand with its power generation assets, which total around 60 MW.
Source: PV Magazine
