Electricity + Control January 2019

ENERGY MANAGEMENT + ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

He adds that the technology is relatively new on the market and, at the time B2Gold was evaluating proposals, had not yet been used in a commercial application, the only installation being at Caterpil-

Windhoek, with several major players in the solar energy industry being invited to submit proposals. Ultimately, the contract was awarded to Barloworld Namibia, in partnership with Barloworld Power in South Africa, the Caterpillar dealer in Southern Af- rica, and Caterpillar Microgrid Solutions in the US. “Barloworld and Caterpillar offered us the most advanced solution based on their Cat® Microgrid Solutions technology,” says Roos. “This offered a total and seamless integration between our exist- ing HFO plant and the proposed solar farm, with the integration being managed by Caterpillar’s Master Controller (MMC). Also influencing our de- cision was the fact that our HFO plant is a Caterpil- lar installation. None of the other potential vendors were able to match the state-of-the-art capabilities of the Cat ® Microgrid technology.”

Electricity + Control

JANUARY 2019

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