Accord signed for major renewable energy study |06 May 2014

The Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) in partnership with the Seychelles Energy Commission has signed a contract agreement with consultancy firm Energynautics for the Small Islands Developing States (Sids) Dock Project.

This project consists of assessing grid absorption capacity, grid code, feed-in tariffs and model power purchase agreements for renewable energy systems.
The agreement was signed yesterday between PUC’s chief executive Philippe Morin and Thomas Ackermann, chief executive of Energynautics in the presence of the chief executive of the Seychelles Energy Commission Tony Imaduwa and researcher from Energynautics Tom Brown.  

In a first component of the project, Energynautics will carry out a study to analyse the potential impact of variable renewable generation, including centralised and distributed systems in the electricity system of the island under several scenarios, to evaluate what would be the maximum absorption capacity under current circumstances.

After a prior analysis of the renewable energy potential in the islands, the study will assume a realistic energy mix including PV (utility scale and rooftop PV connected to the grid), wind (small, and large turbines) and the current diesel generation, and will provide recommendations in order to achieve higher levels of renewable energy penetration.

The second component of the project comprises the development of a grid code for small scale, medium and utility scale wind turbines and PV systems. This component will include definition of a grid code for the interconnection of renewable systems to PUC electricity grid and determine the immediate needs with regard to systems control and operations that PUC would need to implement to ensure 5% of variable renewable energy is reliable integrated into the electricity grid by 2020.

The third component will include definition of the criteria of eligibility to benefit from the feed-in tariff; evaluation of the most suitable factors that should be taken into account when defining tariff levels (differentiated by technology type, project size, resource quality, project location or a combination of all these factors); definition of the tariff levels: the premiums will be defined according to Seychelles annual targets for renewable share and the capacity of the grid to absorb variability in generation. The premiums will have to attract the interest of the private sector but also take into consideration affordability for consumers and tax payers, and establish the necessary control mechanisms to avoid the installation of a capacity higher than the affordable; definition of the degression of the tariffs over the years (if required).

In the fourth component templates and models will be prepared for all the necessary renewable energy systems, including wind, PV, biomass, hydro, waste-to energy systems and hybrid systems.
Under the agreement signed Energynautics has 12 weeks to undertake the study.