ADB commissions off-grid renewable hybrid energy system in Altai, Mongolia
Economy
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