Huawei calls for high-quality microgrid to light up greener Africa

Huawei Digital Power Sub-Saharan Africa is excited to announce the recent showcase of FusionSolar solutions at Nigeria Energy, which took place from October 15 to 17, 2024, in Lagos, Nigeria. This pivotal event brought together industry leaders, partners, and stakeholders to explore the future of solar energy and enhance collaboration in the photovoltaic energy sector.

During this energy exhibition event, Mr. Xia Hesheng, President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Digital Power Business, pointed out that “In the past two years, as the cost of photovoltaic modules and energy storage has been greatly reduced, the era of “low cost solar and storage” is approaching. Photovoltaics + energy storage solutions (ESS) will become the most economical and universal power source, accelerating the construction of a new energy system with renewable energy as the mainstay.”

Mr. Xia Hesheng, stated that “Microgrid is the best way to solve the problem of power consumption for enterprises and power supply in rural areas. Huawei is committed to building an end-to-end microgrid solution that features high reliability, safety, and easy operation & maintenance (O&M).”

Microgrid scenarios (in addition to being affordable) have extremely high requirements for safety and reliability. Choosing a supplier that offers both safety and reliability is the primary consideration for channels and EPCs.

Mr. Xia Hesheng expanded that, in the solar industry, safety should be the primary consideration in product design and project delivery. For inverter safety, Huawei uses technologies such as Smart String Level Disconnector, Smart Connector Temperature Detector, AFCI (arc-fault circuit interrupter), RSD (Rapid Shutdown) to improve operational safety, and uses technologies such as four-level safety protection for Energy Storage Solutions (ESS): Prewarning, Detection, Isolation, Fire suppression. Currently, more and more countries’ requirements are adopting corresponding safety standards, such as AFCI.

After all, “Safety is the ultimate luxury.”

During the last three years, Huawei has helped shopping malls, hotels, factories, bank branches, universities, and rural areas provide stable and reliable power supply, helping reduce power consumption costs. For example, Justrite, the largest superstore chain in Nigeria, has 14 sites using Huawei’s microgrid power supply. The average monthly generation fuel saving is over 70%, and the return on investment (ROI) period is less than four years. Additionally, some bank branches also use Huawei’s microgrid solution. The D.G. runtime is reduced from 12 hours/day to 5 hours/day, reducing energy costs by 46%. In Enugu and other States, rural microgrids have been built to provide a safe and reliable power supply for villagers.

Huawei calls on more enterprises to use safe and reliable microgrid solutions to support business success, empower industries and create more value for users.

Mr. Xia stated that over the past 25 years, Huawei had brought ubiquitous connectivity into Africa, and in the future, Huawei will continue to root itself in Africa, connect Africa, invest in Africa, and illuminate Africa, bringing ubiquitous green energy to the continent. He also pointed out that Huawei’s 30 years of accumulated advantages in digital technology and electronic power technology, continuous leadership in technological innovation, lifecycle safety guarantees, and long-term stable local operations, will bring unique value to customers and partners.
About Huawei and Huawei Digital Power Sub-Saharan Africa

Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. With integrated solutions across four key domains – telecom networks, IT, smart devices, and cloud services – we are committed to bringing digital to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world.

Huawei’s end-to-end portfolio of products, solutions and services are both competitive and secure. Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, we create lasting value for our customers, working to empower people, enrich home life, and inspire innovation in organisations of all shapes and sizes.

Huawei Digital Power Sub-Saharan Africa’s core mission in the region is to help customers go low-carbon. Huawei Digital Power manufactures pioneering electronic devices for a carbon-neutral future. Integrating smart technologies in its offering is central to its mission of driving a clean energy future through smart electronic products. It offers home and business PV solutions, electric vehicle chargers, data centres, and site power facilities that serve Huawei’s more than 3 billion customers
across over 170 countries. The Digital Power business operates 12 R&D centres in regions including China, Europe, and Asia Pacific and possesses more than 2 100 patents.

At Huawei, innovation focuses on customer needs. We invest heavily in basic research, concentrating on technological breakthroughs that drive the world forward. By December 31, 2023, Huawei had 207,000 employees, more than 114,000 of which were R&D employees (55%). In 2023, our total R&D spending reached CNY164.7 billion, representing 23.4% of our total revenue. We operate in more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people worldwide. In 2023, through the efforts of all employees, the company achieved an estimated annual sales revenue of CNY704.2 billion, aligned with forecasts. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees.