Tesvolt’s intelligent control system to act as mini-grid during power cuts in Rwanda

German storage manufacturer Tesvolt has been awarded a project to power water pumps in Rwanda which will also act as mini-grid during power cuts with their intelligent control system.

Tesvolt has developed storage systems which use prismatic battery cells, which enable high charging speeds through their particular design and chemical composition. The intelligent control system ensures that each individual cell is charged and discharged at the optimal rate for a particularly long service life.

The company is set to deliver a lithium storage system with a total capacity of 2.68 MWh which will provide water pumps in an agricultural project in Rwanda’s Eastern Province with emergency power. The 3.3 MW solar power plant and the storage system are being engineered and constructed by the international system integrator IdeemaSun energy.

“In Rwanda, the power supply fails three or four times a day for between 5 and 45 minutes. For this reason, an important criterion in the call for tender was that the storage system is able to absorb electricity from the 3.3 MW PV power plant and release it again as quickly as possible. Only very powerful off-grid storage systems can supply the necessary emergency power several times per day, and there are only a few storage systems on the market which meet these requirements”, explained Simon Schandert, Director of Engineering at Tesvolt.

A Tesvolt spokeswoman confirmed to Energy-Storage.News that the project was awarded to the company through a tender.

“The PV plant and storage systems are financed by an international foundation and the government of Rwanda,” the spokeswoman said.

Tesvolt will be introducing its storage systems at Intersolar Europe in Munich from June 22–24, 2016.