The impact of the SERC based solar PV outreach training program in Kenya

Paper presented at 39th World Energy Engineering Conference, WEEC 2016In this paper it is described how Strathmore Energy Research Centre developed an outreach project funded by USAID, National Science Foundation (NSF) to empower technical institutions to offer solar courses hence creating a pool of qualified technicians spread throughout the geography of the country. Presently the situation is that Kenya has around 1000 solar technicians working in the market with no formal solar PV training or accreditation. The National Industrial Training Authority ­ NITA, which regulates non­academic skills or craft based training, was helped by this project to develop a PV solar curriculum at three levels (T1/T2/T3) which empowers from craft level technicians to engineers to deal with design, installation and maintenance of PV systems from solar lantern up to utility size level. ERC, the Energy Regulatory Commission for Kenya has supported the initiative as technicians once trained can be accredited by and thus further strength the industry. By June 2016, which is the end of the program, Kenya is to have 1800 accredited technical personnel near almost every major town in the country. The paper describes the positive and negative aspects of this venture

Analysis of induction generator controller techniques for Pico hydropower a case study of A 3kW Pico hydropower scheme in Kasese, Western Uganda

Conference paperThis paper presents a comparative analysis of control techniques used on induction generators for stand-alone Pico hydropower schemes. The techniques were tested on a prototype Pico hydropower system modeled for the site developed in western Uganda by the Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation. The case study scheme to date is manually operated, a process that requires constant attention due to variations in load. This demonstrated the need for an automatic load controller. The site specifications were considered when designing models using Matlab simulink employing the automatic load control techniques. These model designs are simple so that it is affordable for local practical application. The proposed designed control techniques presented in this paper are composed of logic gates, IGBT switch, uncontrolled diode rectifier, the PID controller and other semiconductor devices supplying an electrical load and a ballast load. In addition, the response of the case study site and the Matlab model to load variations is presented