The radio station in Tumu in the north of Ghana received a new battery in October 2023. An automatic switch now helps to increase self-consumption to 100%.

A solar system is a good thing, and with a battery we can now increase our self-consumption to over 80%. Unfortunately, the national grid still managed to throw a spanner in the works.

When the battery was full and the solar system was producing more electricity than the radio station needed, the electricity was fed back into the grid. But with the smart meters used in Ghana, the power flow is always added up, even when it is fed back. As a result, the radio station’s electricity bill skyrocketed.

We have now been able to install an automatic switch that switches the air conditioning to battery power when the battery is over 80% charged. Previously, the air conditioners were powered by the national grid. This ensures that we are using 100% of the electricity produced by the solar system and not feeding it back into the grid.

We were also able to activate the built-in monitoring tool so that we can now see from Switzerland at any time whether the system is working as we want it to.

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