Solar Power Plants and High-Water Levels in Lagdo Help Achieve Balance between Demand and Supply in Grand North

Maroua

A mission from Eneo’s Top Management visited closing project sites hosting thermal and solar facilities built to make up for the generation deficit that has, in previous years, caused major power cuts in the northern regions of Cameroon.

The mission noticed that construction of these facilities will be soon be completed and that their progressive commissioning together with the power generated by the Lagdo hydroelectricity power plant, supplied with more water from the reserves created following high water levels in 2022, has for several months now made it possible to strike a balance between electricity demand and generation in the northern part of the country.

For the first time in over 3 years now, the first quarter did not experience any loading shedding related to generation deficit in the northern regions of the country. This balance between supply and demand has been going on since August 2022, a time synonymous with the end of the rainy season that was marked, unlike in the past, by highly intense rainfall in the drainage basin of the Benoue, filling properly the Lagdo dam.

Three factors have contributed to the regular power supply delivered to customers in the Adamawa, Far-North and North Regions:

• The high level of power generated in Lagdo, because high rainfalls in 2022 made it possible to reserve sufficient quantities of water;
• The injection of solar power (+15 to 23 MW) from the Guider and Maroua power plants built by Eneo in partnership with SCATEC;
• The injection into the network of power generated in the thermal power plants.

It is worth recalling that the construction of these solar power plants and new thermal power plants were one of the major areas for short-term resolution of the electricity generation crisis affecting the NIG. Furthermore, in addition to solar, the increase in the thermal power generation park with the installation of new power generation units in Ngaoundere, Garoua and Maroua was one of the other actions that helped increase supply.

During the field visit, which took place on 15 May, 2023, to inspect the thermal and solar facility, the mission head, Hamadou Bivoung, Central Director for Generation Operations at Eneo declared, “The Lagdo Power Plant, which delivers most of the power for the North Interconnected Grid (NIG) made up of the Adamawa, North and Far-North Regions, reached saturation point in 2015. The water crisis recorded severely disrupted power supply to residents. Together with government, early measures were taken with the transfer of thermal generation equipment from Ahala in Yaounde to Djambountou in Garoua. In 2018, Eneo strengthened infrastructure with the first park of 10MWs in Maroua known as Maroua 1. In 2020, we reinforced Djamboutou, increasing it to 32 MW capacity and built a power plant in Ngaoundere. The process developed including renewable.  Since 2022, we have deployed a solar park in Guider and another one in Maroua.  The Guider solar power plant already injects14 MWs into the network. The Maroua solar power plant has 9 MWs already installed. By the end of July 2023, all panels scheduled in Maroua will be installed, increasing to 15MWs the capacity installed there. We are also developing 5MWs of thermal capacity in Kousseri. The latter will be commissioned by ending May, early June 2023. It is worth stating that the decision to combine thermal and solar power was driven by the need to stabilise the energy generated. All these power plants inject their generated output into the wider network to supply all the three regions connected by the North Interconnected Grid.

Furthermore, these emergency investments are part of Eneo’s short -term contribution to resolve the energy crisis in these regions cognisant of the fact that lasting solutions will come from the large-scale infrastructure that the government is developing. They notably are interconnection of the Grand South, Grand North Networks and the Bini à Warak dam.”

On his part, Arouna Arouna, Regional Director for Eneo North, Far-North and Adamawa stated that “You will notice that since practically one year now, we have not carried out any power cuts. This makes it quite easy to connect more households to the electricity network and to uninterruptedly supply localities. Although customers can attest to a few outages, the latter are highly related to incidents that fall either under transmission or distribution. The latter has been reinforced by Eneo. Several lines have received reinforcements worthy of the name with concrete or metal poles. This improves on service quality.”

The visit also made it possible to discover that Maroua residents are already benefiting from the social initiatives Eneo has added to the generation structures it is installing. This is the case in Gayak and Djounde around solar in Maroua. “Under construction of the solar power plants in Maroua and Guider, Eneo through its corporate social responsibility unit decided to build, given the needs expressed by residents, 04 solar-powered boreholes with a potable water tower: 01 in Gayak, and 01 in Djounde, as concerns Maroua; 01 in Wouro Aladji and 01 in Djamboutou as concerns Guider. In addition to these projects, local youths were recruited as part of construction of these solar and thermal power plants,” underscored Djoulde Bouba, Eneo CSR Officer for the Northern Regions.

Media Contact:
Email: babette.sandjo@eneo.cm
Phone: 691 836 060
www.eneocameroon.cm