The training programme focuses on the technical, regulatory, and financial aspects related to the rising penetration of renewable energy sources into the transmission and distribution grid. The training is addressed to 35 ONEE representatives and the first session was carried out in Morocco, at the ONEE Centre des Sciences et Techniques de l'Electricité (CSTE), from the 28th of February to the 2nd of March.
Grids & Storage Labs is a new initiative within the Foundation’s Grids4Africa programme. It was born following stakeholder consultations in a variety of African countries, which highlighted the necessity of capacity building programme dedicated to planning, development and management of grids in this period of energy transformation. Grids & Storage Labs are based on the needs of local entities and consist in ad-hoc courses focused on the integration of variable renewable energy sources in to the grid by means of state-of-art solutions, such as grid upgrades and management, battery energy storage systems, policy and regulation updates. Morocco was a natural candidate for this first edition: the country is leading the way in the regional energy transition efforts and capacity building is essential to the success of such an endeavour, especially when it comes to institutional environments and public utilities. Moreover, in 2022 RES4Africa strengthened its collaboration with Moroccan institutional partners by organising several activities, such as bilateral meetings with key Moroccan stakeholders and a RES4Med Day Conference in October. These initiatives aimed to bolster the collaboration with Moroccan partners, present RES4Africa's MED initiatives, and gain insights on current energy sector challenges and opportunities in Morocco.
The training programme with ONEE is structured in one three-day session and one two-day session, spread a month apart. The lectures for the first session were delivered by experts from RES4Africa, CESI, Enel Grids, Enel Green Power and Gridspertise, and they covered key technical topics of Morocco's renewable energy landscape: solar and wind technologies, key differences between conventional fuels and renewables, grid planning, management and maintenance, modelling of solar and wind power plants, solutions to manage and modernise the transmission and distribution grid, and energy storage solutions.
“We are very proud of our partnership with ONEE in this endeavour,” said Roberto Vigotti, Secretary General of RES4Africa. “Supporting Morocco's institutional efforts towards a full development of renewables is one of our top priorities, and this training programme has taken us one step closer to achieving that goal.
