Mauritius’ Central Electricity Board (CEB) will issue an Expression of Interest (EoI) for the generation of energy from renewable sources namely wind, solar, biomass,and waste-to-energy. To that effect, the Board will be implementing measures to increase its capacity to integrate renewable energy into its electricity grid.
In reply to a question on electricity supply at the sitting of the National Assembly the Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Energy and Public Utilities Ivan Leslie Collendavelloo, informed the House of the initiatives being undertaken by the CEB to meet the required additional generation capacity of 50MW in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Collendavelloo said that the CEB needs to bring changes to its power grid since it has consistently stressed the low absorption capacity of renewable energy with its grid. In an effort to fix the situation CEB commissioned a study which was financed by the UNDP and the World Bank to assess the extent of integration possible of renewable energy into the existing grid.
The reportstated that the existing grid can accommodate up to 70MW, however it did recommend that CEB perform an upgrade to its existing power plants to enhance integration up to 100 MW. It also recommended the use of large battery storage to increase the penetration up to 150MW.
CEB will implement the recommendations in a bid to increase the absorption of renewable energy technology, according to Collendavelloo.
He also added that following several discussions with the Agence Française de Développement, the Syndicat des Energies Renouvelabes of France, and the International Renewable Energy Agency, he was confident that technical cooperation for the upgrading of the grid would be obtained.