Caledonian’s Blanket gold mine near Gwanda, in southern Zimbabwe, has an 18.4MWa standby diesel generating station that can power the whole mine in the event of a grid supply outage. It also has an uninterrupted power supply agreement with national utility ZESA.
Caledonian has now invited bids for a Solar Plant with Integrated Storage Project for the Blanket gold mine, according to pv magazine.
“Given the escalating cost of diesel and the problems related with obtaining a secured supply, a solar PV plant with integrated storage is proposed to mitigate the impact of Grid instability as well as to reduce the reliance on diesel power generation,” the company says in its RFQ.
The Plant will have a total PV capacity of 19.6MWp/17.5 MVA to be constructed in three phases. Additionally, an Energy Storage System (ESS) will complement the solar production and meet the loads when the solar resource is not sufficient. The estimated capacity of the ESS shall range from 0 – 5MVA subject to final optimization.
Caledonian wants the successful bidder to devise an integrated energy solution for the mine that could, if necessary, draw on all three of its components of solar, ESS, and standby diesel. This system should function seamlessly both during grid operation and grid blackouts.
Read the pv magazine article HERE.
Image Source: Caledonian Mining Corporation