EnerCollege

As one of the largest country in Africa, Mali’s electricity system encompasses a national grid that is owned and operated by Energie du Mali SA (EDM SA) which supplies 35 towns, including its capital city Bamako.
Hydropower and thermal power stations are the main energy generation sources at the national level in Mali. Although hybrid (solar/diesel) and small-scale decentralized solar PV systems have been increasingly installed since 2011, the share of renewable energy still remains low in the country. The average consumption is also characterized by a strong disparity between rural and urban areas. Urban population has around 80% higher access to electricity than rural population. People in the rural areas are still suffering from poor power supply.

When designing an energy storage system, the motor load is always a headache due to its large starting current. Sometimes it could be up to 8 times the rated current. To ensure the system's normal operation, The only solution is to choose a bigger power of inverter , and the system cost thus increases.

In certain areas with the TN-SC power grid, such as the UK, Earthing for EV chargers has always been a pain due to the high cost. The neutral line and the system grounding protection line are combined into a PEN line. The PEN line applies a multi-point grounding method in the transmission line. If the PEN line is disconnected, it will produce a voltage between the PEN break point and the earth. When an EV charger is connected at the end, equivalently there is a voltage difference between its metal shell and the earth. When the voltage difference exceeds the safety voltage to the human body, the user is at high risk of a shock hazard when touching the shell.

Years of war has severely damaged Cambodia’s power sector, the inducing high electricity price and low energy access has closely impacted local factories’ production capacity, profit etc. One garment factory there used to rely on a 400KVA power grid transformer, yet the whole factory peak load was 600KW, so the diesel generator had to be turned on when load capacity exceeded 400KW. Extra high expense and pollution caused by the generator are also headaches. To resolve such problem and maximize production profit, owner of the factory opted to utilize their abundant light resources, to retrofit his existing power system to an ATESS integrated solar energy storage system.