UNICEF and the Ministry of Education of Jordan have established school complexes providing access for Syrian children to formal education and alternative forms of learning in Za’atari and Azraq refugee camps. The scope of this project, was to design the most reliable, flexible and sustainable energy supply systems able to provide 17 school facilities and 25 “MAKANI” centers with electric power and heating and ventilation systems. The first phase consisted in the assessment of the existing conditions for each facility, including the electric, heating and ventilating loads, energy consumption, energy supply systems locations and grid distribution as well as an analysis of the local market conditions. The main objective was to provide the best solution with clear cost benefits, efficiency improvements and reduced environmental impact to suit the specific needs of each facility.

Further to the assessment, four possible options were identified:

1 – connect facilities to power public network,

2 – standalone diesel generator system;

3 -off-grid photovoltaic system;

4 – off grid hybrid system.

Once the best solution for each school facility was defined with the client, the second phase consisted in the further development of all the power calculations both off grid and on grid options, detailed design, BoQ, tender documentation and technical specifications of the systems for the first 18 educational facilities, in preparation for the construction phase.