Faulty solar system repaired at Low Wood Primary

The students and teachers of Low Wood Primary School, Demerara River, Region Four, have seen the end of their electricity woes after the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) intervened to upgrade their faulty solar photovoltaic (PV) system.

A Department of Public Information (DPI) release this week stated that the GEA on Wednesday conducted the installation of a new $3.5 million, 3.3kWp solar photovoltaic (PV) system at the Low Wood Primary School. The installation which took two days to complete, began on January 15 and ended on January 17.

According to the DPI, the school had complained that their system was not functioning and on January 10, a team of GEA engineers visited and carried out an assessment. They were able to identify a number of issues including depleted batteries that were unchangeable, a defective inverter, and other components requiring an upgrade to meet the existing load.

GEA energy engineer, Samuel Blackman, explained what was meant by ‘load’. He said it refers to any appliance or device that consumes electricity. He added that a load analysis was critical for accurately determining the size of the photovoltaic components of the school’s system and to determine the electrical requirements of the building.

“You do not want to oversize or undersize the components of a PV system. Proper sizing is important so the system can fulfill the load requirements of the building. It is the individual loads that add up to size a system appropriately”, he stated.

DPI said that from the load analysis assessment, the primary school was equipped with a 3.3kWp (kilowatt ‘peak’ power output) system, that includes a battery capacity of 19.2kWh (kilowatt hour) and inverter capacity of 5kW (kilowatts). This system now has the capacity to provide an adequate electricity supply and enable the use of all electrical appliances and equipment, including a fan, photocopier, water dispenser, six 4-foot LED tube lights, laptops, and network devices for internet connection.