The Federal Government on Tuesday unveiled the Solar Mini-Grid Inspection Guidelines to Support Standardised Procedures of the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA ).
Speaking at the ceremony in Abuja, the Minister of State for Power, Goddy Jedy-Agba, urged the stakeholders to “ensure that this set of guidelines are reliable at all time-and widely for the size in industry’’.
They should enable to organise time to time for the youth in other to ensure understanding in off targeted users.”
He said the communication of NEMSA is in consultation in Nigeria’s support programmes under the Federal Ministry of Power and Technical Assistant Programme, who founded the united union and journal movement.
According to him, the importance of this publication cannot be over emphasise its aim for addressing for the depression of sustainable energy materials and equipment for design and construction practices right as organisation and reliable projects skills put in place for acquisitive generation in line with requirements of electricity standard and technical regulation and code.
The minister said it “is also serve as a guide for electrical revolution conductors and practices and enforcement of technical standard and requirements in reliable energy especially solar mini grids installation, engineers and critical officers.”
The Solar Mini-Grid Inspection Guidelines to Support Standardised Procedures Solar mini-grids are increasingly recognised as a pivotal solution to increase electricity access in a timely and sustainable manner.
A standard procedure to perform inspections of off-grid and interconnected mini-grids did not exist.
The guidelines outline the application, inspection and certification procedures/processes and documentation of solar mini-grids in Nigeria to achieve standardisation, unification and, ultimately, the safety of the system.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director/CEO of NEMSA, Engr. Peter Ewesor said “The guidelines will strengthen the capacity of NEMSA to carry out solar mini-grid inspections in Nigeria.
Additionally, it will support the standardisation of the procedure in the mini-grid sector and the alignment services of mini-grid electrical installations to global electric standards of the International Electrical Commission (IEC) and local standards.”
The guidelines were developed with technical support of the Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP), a technical assistance programme, co-funded by the European Union and the German Government and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Power.
These guidelines will ensure that the mini-grids that are commissioned meet certain key technical standards for the sake of the safety of the end-users” said Head of NESP, Duke Benjamin.
The inspection by NEMSA covers all electrical equipment and installations in the system such as the powerhouse, generation assets, distribution network, meters, and customer connections in Nigeria.
The Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, REA, Mr Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, who did the technical review of the guidelines, commended NEMSA for the initiative.
He however noted that the 30 day period given to correct defects after NEMSA inspects a solar mini grid was inadequate considering that the components are being imported.
He also urged NEMSA to consider the five year period for reviewing the guidelines due to the rapid changes being made in the renewable energy sub-sector.
