Interview with Dr. Emmanuel Ramde from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. He explains the many areas he is involved in for the EnerSHelF project
As an associated partner to the EnerSHelF project, the Brew-Hammond Energy Centre (TBHEC) at KNUST is involved in WP3.1, which aims to provide a power demand model for Ghanaian hospitals. What is your specific role within this work package?
My specific role within this work package is manifold and diverse. First of all, I use my knowledge and understanding of the energy landscape in Ghana to get the right input parameters for the expected outputs of the developed model. Furthermore, I liaise with the utilities to get data for some selected hospitals. That also included locating a health facility in Kumasi which is now a part of the EnerSHelF project as a pilot site. During this process, I initiated a collaboration agreement with the management of the facility and coordinated the recent installation of the weather station and of the load measurement devices.
Now, I am involved in monitoring the measurement and contribute to the analysis of the data and to the development of the model. Lastly, I help disseminate the key findings of the research by contributing to joint publications.
What activities have you already implemented and what are your preliminary results?
The COVID pandemic has had a negative impact on the initial schedule of activities. Nonetheless, we have been able to secure the approval of the management of a health facility near Kumasi for the installation of the automatic weather station and for the load measuring devices. The facility is about 45-minute drive from our main campus and satisfies our selection criteria. The automatic weather station has already been installed and we are about to install the devices for the load measurement.
In addition, we have gotten blackout data for some selected hospitals for the Northern Sector of Ghana and we are still looking forward to receiving same for the Southern sector. Lastly, together with our partners at the University of Cologne, we have co-developed a manuscript which is yet to be submitted for publication.
Dr. Emmanuel Ramde is a mechanical engineer, energy specialist, and project management, monitoring and evaluation expert. He is presently a senior lecturer and the immediate past director of The Brew-Hammond Energy Centre, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. From 2012 to 2019, Dr. Ramde has served as the Ghana National Representative of the African Network for Solar Energy (ANSOLE) and is its Vice Regional Representative in West Africa since 2012. Dr. Ramde has about sixteen years of experience in designing, implementing, managing, monitoring, and evaluating energy projects and is a reviewer for several academic journals.