A second visit to the Ariaf Kissane cooperative located in Tounante, Morrocco took place on Thursday February 15th, 2024 as part of the SWITCH project. SWITCH aims at developing an innovative and holistic solution to stabilize weak grids and enhance security of supply in such rural ‘end-of-line’ communities in North Africa.
This visit was established in order to conduct the the SWITCH questionnaire developed by the WECF colleagues aiming to assess the training needs related to renewable energy technologies, business models and their potential applications in the current context.
The survey was printed and conducted for 27 participants from the local population of the village, and results were digitalized and shared with the partners. However, and based on the initial analysis of this survey, most of the people who took the survey are not eligible to attend the trainings afterwards. This is why partners thought of possibly including more young and educated participants in those training and maybe include people from other regions and villages to spread knowledge over multiple locations. Fig 1. Shows some of the participants with whom the survey was conducted.
Fig 1. Picture of the team with some participants to the questionnaire
In addition to conducting the survey, a visit to the local village took place to identify potential locations to install the smart meters developed by Dr. Ahouzi shown in Fig 2 & Fig 3 and gather daily consumption data. The discussion with local farmers allowed to surface a big issue they are facing, irrigation, as most of their wells are dry.
Fig 2. Smart Meter Prototype
Fig 3. Dr. Khallaayoun & Dr. Ahouzi setting up the smart meter configuration
As a consequence of the trip, 6 possible locations have been identified and their owners accepted to install the meters. The team also already installed two meters, one at the level of a guesthouse and another one at the cooperative. But this last one faced problems while gathering data because of the weak internet network at the cooperative. Finally, a local electrician received an initial training from Dr. Ahouzi during the visit and was hired to help the team when needed. Parners are currently collaborating with him to provide a topology of the radial grid they are working on.
