Sosimple Energy specialises in energy-cost-savings services using solar power to South Africa businesses.
This project, captured by ESI Africa onsite, is one of the company’s most recent initiatives, aiming to offer solar power and improve the world “one roof at a time.”
Liana Braxton, Sosimple Energy Managing Director told ESI Africa that the project agreement was reached in December 2023, and in April 2024, the power was switched on at the lodge.
This agreement consists of two parts; it consists of the PPA for the solar, specifically the PPA term, which extends to 15 years, after which the customer gets full ownership of the asset.
“It’s important to know that during the 15 years we take care of all the maintenance, insurance, and operating of the asset, so if anything needs to be replaced during this time, we take care of that as Sosimple Energy.
“When it comes to battery energy storage, we work on cycles, so we have 6 to 10,000 cycles in the last span of the system. Our battery solutions are done on a rent-to-own basis, which is also done over a contract term of 10 years, after which the customer gets full ownership,” explained Braxton.
She added that Sosimple Energy also takes care of all the insurance requirements through the contract term. The system is covered against theft and malicious damage for the full duration, taking away the hassle of the insurance requirements from customers.
Braxton explained that the solar system is designed to match the lodge’s daytime energy needs. The team sized the batteries to provide 4 hours of backup power during loadshedding or power outages.
When there’s no loadshedding, the batteries will be used for peak shaving or arbitrage, which further reduces the Eskom costs.
The total capacity of the 32 batteries is a 457kWh battery and that will carry them through 4 hours of loadshedding.
During ESI Africa‘s filming of the launch, Sarel Roos, electrician for Sosimple Energy, explained that there’s two main battery banks: a master and a slave bank. “So, if ever one bank fails, immediately your slave will take over as the next master, so it doesn’t matter how big your battery bank is; it will always assign a new master, always ensuring that the inverter gets the correct messages each time from your main master bank.”
He said the panels charge the battery through the inverter and described them as “the heartbeat of the whole system. If this is down, everything is down.”
Roos went on to say that they selected these batteries due to their exceptional support, warranty, and high quality.
“These batteries power the 500kWh inverters, which then, in return, power the whole lodge, making sure there’s no uninterrupted power during loadshedding or any power outage.”
Touching on the safety measures, Roos explained that this system is located entirely in its own inverted room outside of the normal distribution board (DB) room to prepare for any emergencies.
They have installed special fire-rated doors. There is also a fire system with alarms that can alert the client or the installers about any incidents or emergencies that may occur.
“The safety measure is already built into the inverters; if there’s ever overvoltage on the batteries, the batteries will kick out, or the inverter will immediately shut down, and the bypass cabinet will kick in and direct the power through the bypass cabinet still to the lodge, so even if there’s anything wrong on the system, you will still have power,” he said.
Click here to watch the video and see the Sosimple process in action and what it takes to get a clean energy project off the ground for your C&I business.
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