Lumen was selected by the Royal Norwegian Embassy to conduct the procurement and project management of this microgrid solar electrification. The scope of support was diverse including a global tender to select a capable solar construction company, coordination of ZECO (Zanzibar Electricity Corporation) to carry out community awareness and mud village house wiring, and supply chain management to deal with global and local supply chain challenges. Due to the remote location, much ‘creativity’ had to be used to manage the water and land transportation of the equipment.
The solar micro-grid powered will provide electricity more than 700 islanders of the Zanzibari islets Kokota and Njau. This will bring light to the people’s homes and provide refrigeration to the fishermen to keep their daily catch fresh for trade. The ‘First Light’ on Kokota happened on April 18th and full electrification will take place by end of May.
The project was funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy and had extensive involvement and leadership of ZECO, the Ministry of Energy, the local community Shehas. The local community will play a critical role going forward in managing their consumption in line with the capacity of the solar power plant.
