Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. On August 1, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Mongolia inaugurated a new hybrid energy system in Altai soum, in the western Gobi-Altai aimag. The project provides power in the remote soum, which is 400 kilometers away from the Altai-Uliastai energy system, with the Altai Mountains lying in between.

“This new hybrid energy system will supply over 1,500 local residents, 350 households, and 25 organizations in one of Mongolia’s most isolated soums with high-quality renewable energy using inexhaustible solar energy,” said Deputy Minister of Energy M. Bayarmagnai. “This project is an example of how the government is working to provide the most essential services by bringing innovative technologies to the benefit of the people.”

The Altai soum hybrid project is one of the renewable energy projects supported under ADB’s Upscaling Renewable Energy Sector Project, which will support 41 megawatts of distributed renewable energy systems. These subprojects will use a range of renewable energy technologies to supply clean electricity and heat in geographically scattered load centers in the less-developed region of Western Mongolia. The project was approved in September 2018 with ADB loan financing and grant cofinancing from the Strategic Climate Fund and Japan Fund for the Joint Crediting Mechanism.

The project features the latest innovative technologies of off-grid solar power plants such as BMS (battery management system) and EMS (energy management system), a first-of-its kind application in the country, and advances Mongolia’s efforts to expand renewable energy capacity.

“The new hybrid system is a demonstration of the government’s commitment to shift to use of more modern and cleaner technologies in the country,” said ADB Principal Energy Specialist Shannon Cowlin. “Not only will the system provide secure power supply to the people, it will do so without contributing to localized air pollution, which can affect even isolated regions of Mongolia during winter months.”

The Ministry of Energy of Mongolia signed the engineering, procurement, and construction contract with the winning bidder, a joint venture of Shuangdeng Group from the People’s Republic of China and ESPM International from Mongolia, for the hybrid system in the third quarter of 2021 and construction spanned October 2021­­–July 2022. The contract award of $1.1 million covered expansion and upgrade of the previous hybrid system serving the community.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

Source: ADB Mongolia