Hello everyone and welcome to this episode in the series of the Afrinu podcast here
live in Coptun7 at Sam El-Shiaq, Egypt.
In today's episode or this episode I bring you Professor Weijen Li who is a professor of power and energy engineering
at the University of Texas in Arlington. He is also the president of the IEEE Applications Society.
So in this episode, Professor talked about the very interesting and touching aspect of SMRs and also its interface with microgrids.
He talked about the security, safety and also regulations that are bothers around this technology.
He talked about the microgrids and then he quite understands and expresses the limitation of the available and emerging grid technologies.
But later he emphasized that any technology that must drive and it must be in an egalitarian society and also the people, the local people must be the ones that drive and own this technology or the economy around it so that it can remain sustainable.
I'm very sure that you'll be very much inspired when you listen to this episode as it brings you a lot of very unique and useful information for new builds in Africa and also especially in Nigeria.
I'm following my few questions to him and the discussion also organically grew with Lokhande Makhratik who talked about different aspects of the reactor technology we are having
and which are coming up as well. Listen and get inspired. Thank you very much.
The local workforce development, how you establish local and then people have the ownership.
It's not like coming to here, give this one here, I think you need it. Okay, you can charge cell phone.
Not enough.
That act of charity is not...
No, charity doesn't last long. If you make themselves sufficient.
And then basically they don't feel proud of themselves. They are the receiving end.
So they don't proud themselves. They produce it, they own it, they make it work.
And this model really works well because there is this culture of aid for Africa.
A lot of people say, oh, we need to help Africa.
But if they adopt this model of making people own whatever you give them and they earn it to some extent.
You need ownership. This is also the attitude. A lot of time people say, okay, we help Africa.
It's more like a charity. I don't like that kind of feeling.
It's just giving the money and...
This is not right. If you try to look at the equity, you mean we are equal.
Okay, so I will help you as long as you help yourself.
That's an elegant, egalitarian kind of thought which many people in traditional societies don't have.
They need to be reoriented on how to think in an egalitarian way.
It's not a mercy. It's not a mercy. We are only one planet. We try to make it work.
And... yeah.
That's a big point.
This is an attitude. This is a lot of time.
This is an attitude. It's a big country, a developing country.
Developed country, okay, add 100 billion or whatever.
They just talk after and then nothing happens.
Like on Friday, President Biden was here.
They made...
250 million.
Yeah, basically, they have earned a number.
They have earned a number but they are basically... be careful because a lot of time it's...
$250 million. They are going to get their dumb payment. They are going to get money back.
Of course. There is no free money.
There is no free money.
They are going to get it. Okay, well...
The companies and everything...
They are around them. They are equipped. Okay, well, what's the interest? Do you mean the maintenance?
Sure.
Which is more business for them, you know?
On direct all goes to their companies.
Yeah, the country goes through their company and they charge more compared to the local.
So, my vision, my idea is local. Establish local...
What's the problem?
An industrial, sir.
Yeah, yes.
That's what we are thinking with the SMRs at the I-12 actress.
Yeah.
The SMR will be very good. But the SMR you have to be very careful because from the village point of view,
they are not going to take the 300... 30 megawatt. It's a smaller one.
Yes.
Okay? So, ideally, okay, we draw a kind of structure. We call it Olympic Green.
Okay.
Okay? You have a village here, village here, village here, village here, village here.
Yeah.
Okay? And it's a real structure. So, because the real structure give you the reliability.
Okay.
You can supply on both sides.
Okay.
Okay? And then, now, establish, okay, establish, establish, establish, we know.
The unit need to require a maintenance.
So, I'm going to have a shortage. So, in other words, if I don't connect with others, then I will be out of power during the period of time.
So, can we connect together?
Yeah, that's...
Okay?
That's connect together so everybody share.
And then, once we share the capacity increase, the SMR here.
Yeah.
Okay? So, because SMR require monitoring, require a lot of other...
Yeah.
Okay? So, you need the people now.
Because in the small village, you cannot afford to hire so many full-time people to work on this.
Yes.
So, once you connect a community with the SMR in, then you can do the monitoring, local regional, local control.
Good.
Because SMR, I don't know how fast, they can change.
Yeah.
Okay? The output, they can change because you're going to turn on the light.
Yes.
I cannot ask a villageer, say, okay, everybody turn on the light at 5 p.m.
So, no.
No, no, no, no.
And then, turn off at the same time.
No, you cannot do that.
You cannot do that.
Okay? So, they do randomly how the SMR respond or how other load.
That's the load following, right?
The load following part.
The load following part, that is basically in the couple bit system may fail.
Okay? You have a social security, you have something.
Yeah.
So, what is the, what kind of protection is required?
What kind of protection is required?
What kind of backup do you need?
Okay, so this is the, once you have a big community, then you clearly come in, then you can connect.
Yeah.
The load following is nowadays in traditional big nuclear reactor, they are following the load.
No, traditional nuclear reactor, only France.
Yeah, only France.
Only France.
Okay, in US, we don't.
No.
In France and in some part of the UK.
But not everywhere.
Not everywhere.
That is one of the key points that is also talked about.
Yeah.
SMR.
Yeah, for new builds, yes.
Yeah.
So, that's, yeah.
Now, we are trying to.
Yeah, get into, get into the operation is another issue.
Yeah.
Yes.
I mean, in Sweden, we are trying to put SMR in North Sweden.
Okay.
Yeah, because there are, as you said, I mean, there is a lot of hydro, but there are many
industries want to move to North.
Okay.
So, then they need something as well.
So, that's why there will be hydro.
So, you can use now on SMR as a base load and use hydro to do the adjustment.
Yes.
And that.
Yes.
So, you need something that you can adjust.
Reliable.
Yes.
Because it's same with the hydro, hydro runs on some days.
In summer, it's really nice, but in winter, things are a little bit.
No, no, no.
So, then you need something as a backup as well.
And industries always energy intensive things.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is the, this is engineer.
I mean, you are an engineer.
Yeah, me too.
So, yeah, that's it.
Only one, you can't rely on only one energy source or one system.
This is a unique solution.
And Africa has Africa problems.
Sweden, Sweden problems.
Yes, the US has the US problem.
Everyone has that one.
We have a different solution.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, nice to talk to you guys.
Yeah, nice to talk to you.
Me too.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
This is our art.
Okay.
Thank you.