Inspexa was appointed by Chue Wing & Co to assess turnkey proposals from four vendors for the installation of a photovoltaic system. The company wanted to install a PV farm on the roof of its warehouse in Quatre Bornes, to produce its own electricity and reduce its electricity bills, as well as contributing to environmental preservation. As ABC Foods as they did not have the necessary expertise in-house they asked for quotations from four suppliers in Mauritius, based on a basic brief and scope of works, to engineer, supply, install and operate the system. The proposals received were different in technology, price and configuration and ABC foods called on Inspexa to assist them in selecting the right supplier.

Indeed, the four proposals differed greatly as each supplier had made his own assessment of the load demand to calculate the capacity required. Our objectives were first to determine the optimal installed capacity needed and then select the supplier who promised the shortest payback period, while complying with Central Electricity Board (CEB) standards.

This required an energy audit so we modelled the warehouse’s energy consumption based on our load profiling and determined the optimal PV capacity. We then compared the suppliers’ proposals and remodelled them to assess the deviation from the optimal capacity. We produced and compared life-cycle costs and return periods for each of the proposals and selected the best offer. We also checked compliance with CEB requirements and grid code.

Based on our recommendations, the client was able to select the best value-for-money offer and the system was successfully installed in 2016.