Technicians attend PV installation
courses:
Electrical technicians from Mwanza region have
attended a series of PV installation courses organized and conducted
by the Transformation of the Rural Photovoltaic (PV) Market project
to facilitate an effective installation and use of solar technology
in their respective districts.
The main objective for training PV installation
technicians is to provide services and aims at removing the major
barrier for wide utilizations of PV systems in rural areas.
The project has realized that there is limited
technical knowledge of proper sizing, installation, operation
and maintenance of PV systems and has organized and conducted
three week-long courses to train the much needed technicians.
The project also has discovered that most
of the installed PV systems in rural areas do not give the money
value to the system users because of improper sizes of components,
poor installation and maintenance of the same leading to failures
of some of the systems.
This is attributed to the absence of trained
technicians who can provide proper advises on the proper sizes
of systems and provide installation and maintenance services.
The end result is lack of confidence in the technology among the
systems users.
Training:
All courses were conducted
at Vocational Education Training Authority –VETA- at different
intervals in Mwanza. The courses covered working principles of
PV systems components, systems configurations, sizing and selection
of PV components, installation and maintenance.
The training targeted electrical
technicians who have attained at least grade III level certificate
in electrical installation or equivalent qualifications from VETA.
They were also required to
be practicing technicians in Mwanza region through self employment
or working with contracting firms and PV dealers.
These were considered to be
the best candidates who could easily merge their current carriers
with PV installations. Selection of practicing technicians is
meant to produce technicians who are likely to work in PV industry.
The 49 course participants
came from all districts of Mwanza region. The trained technicians
got an opportunity to participate in the installation of PV systems
at dispensaries, health centers and secondary schools in their
respective districts.
The PV-System technician checking
the solar battery after installation of solar system
The following table indicates the course series
and participant distribution from each district of Mwanza region
District |
1st Course |
2nd Course |
3rd Course |
4th course |
5th Course |
| Mwanza City |
7 |
6 |
10 |
7 |
|
| Geita |
1 |
|
2 |
2 |
3 |
| Sengerema |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
| Missungwi |
2 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
| Kwimba |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
|
| Magu |
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
| Ukerewe |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
|
| Total |
16 |
17 |
16 |
16* |
|
(* 4th course:
3 were from Shinyanga,1 from Kagera and 1 from Mara)
Challenges:
There are very few qualified electrical technicians
in districts. Even for conventional electrical technicians very
few were qualified and most the practicing technician had acquired
experience through on-job training without any formal educations.
Most of qualified technicians were found in Mwanza city.
It was difficult to get candidates for the
course from Ukerewe and Kwimba districts. Ukerewe district is
now connected to the grid but in the past technicians did not
have ample opportunities to justify their living in the district.
The situation is likely to change with extension of grid to the
district, early September 2005.
Lessons:
Despite of their technical role in PV dissemination,
technicians are good marketing agents for PV dealers. Some of
the trained technicians have started marketing PV systems. What
they need is products availability in their districts.
There is a need of training of technicians
who do not possess electrical installation certificates as they
constitute the biggest proportion of practicing technicians even
for solar industry. However their training should be limited to
PV system installation, operation and maintenance but not sizing.
The next future courses will take care of such type of technicians.
