Solshare, the world’s first peer-to-peer power exchange network, will work on energy innovation in a joint venture with the Shakti Foundation, Bangladesh to connect additional solar power to the national grid. For this, both the organizations will build a network of interconnected solar home systems.
Funded by the UK Government, Solshare and Shakti Foundation will connect the ‘P2P’ solar microgrid in a rural area of Bangladesh to the national grid through a Point of Common Coupling (PCC).
The project was inaugurated by the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Power, Energy and Minerals Dr. Tawfiq-i-Ilahi Chowdhury at the Solshare Office in Dhaka. Acting British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Javed Patel was present as the special guest at the inaugural function.
Dr. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury congratulated the Solshare and Shakti Foundation for this timely innovation in energy and power, and hoped that today’s event would help take the concept to a wider scale in the future, so that the benefits of peer-to-peer microgrid reach more customers.
At that time, he assured the cooperation of the government for this initiative.
Acting British High Commissioner Javed Patel said: “We are pleased to support this groundbreaking pilot program in line with Bangladesh’s global success in solar home systems and national grid expansion. Apart from bringing benefits to the rural communities, there is a possibility of increasing the contribution of renewable energy to the national power generation.
The PCC (Point of Common Coupling) will link Bangladesh’s two major electrification efforts, the expansion of the national grid and the expansion of the solar home system. On the one hand, the Rural Electrification Board (REB) grid will be connected, on the other hand, the interconnected solar home system will be connected through the local microgrid. This microgrid is self-contained and this grid infrastructure will also be used to maintain energy balance with the national grid. This will reduce load shedding and increase the stability of power services at the marginal level, the organizers said.
In addition, solar home system users will be able to earn by selling their surplus electricity to the national grid. At the same time, sustainable use of more than 6 million solar home systems will be ensured. This is the first step towards building a smart grid through the consolidation of existing storage resources that will ultimately help build a Virtual Power Plant (VPP).
In this regard, Imran Ahmed, Deputy Executive Director of Shakti Foundation, said that Shakti Foundation is very proud to be able to collaborate with Solshare in the feasibility study of feeding power from Solar Home Systems to the national grid. We believe it will act as a game-changer in mitigating climate change and help achieve the national goal of generating 40 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2041. We are particularly interested in the potential for this innovation to create potential opportunities for our small entrepreneurs and marginalized communities. This will enable them to sell their surplus electricity and collectively contribute to the economy and the environment.
And Solshare co-founder and managing director Dr. Sebastian Grow said the expansion and complete electrification of the national grid is a great achievement for Bangladesh. Now it is necessary to ensure that the resilience of the grid, the quality of electricity and the share of renewable energy increase. This piloting will creatively connect privately owned renewable energy resources to the national grid. It started with a solar home system, but will continue to run on local electric three-wheeler (B-Tesla) batteries in the future.
This information was given in a notification on Friday, June 24, 2022.
