Aghia Roumeli Electricity Supply to an Isolated Village

Abstract

The aim of this project was to demonstrate photovoltaic generators as technically suitable, economically achievable and socially well-accepted solutions to meet today the energy requirements of remote villages out of reach of utility grids. In September 1982, an autonomous 50 kW photovoltaic generator has been installed for all electrical needs of Aghia Roumeli, a small village of 105 inhabitants located on the South West seashore of the Crete Island. Technological and system development has been devoted to each subsystem = array supporting structures, wiring features, power conditioning equipment, inverter and storage battery — Reliability, cost/efficiency ratio and automaticity were the key design criteria. As a result, this innovative photovoltaic power generator can be viewed as a prototype of future solar gensets that could replace conventional Diesel engine for stand-alone electricity supply of isolated communities: The Greek national utility “The Public Power Corporation” owns and operates the generator and its distribution network for their expected lifetime (20 years). The installation work was completed on October 15, 1982. Until now (July 83), the generator has been running quite satisfactorily. In June 83, mean AC production exceeded 200 KWh a day.