Innovation in Europe: Research and Results

Energy Central and Eastern Europe

Clean, Reliable Electricity for Remote Villages

Pumped water is an attractive method of storing energy in remote areas. Unlike batteries, it has almost unlimited storage life and is clean, project coordinator, Prof. Spyros Kyritsis, of the Agricultural University of Athens, explains. Pumped water systems are easy to understand and supply extra drinking and irrigation water, making the technology popular with the inhabitants.

System components
The main components of a micro PV-hydro system are its PV panels, water pump (which also functions as a generator, running in reverse when stored water is released), water turbine, power regulating Photovoltaic (PV) power plants are an attractive option for supplying electrical power to remote areas, but require an energy storage system to cover nighttime, cloudy weather and peak time power demands. One storage system - micro PV-hydro technology - uses excess daytime-generated power to pump water uphill to reservoir tanks. Later requirements for electricity are met by piping the water back downhill through a turbinedriven generator. Pumped water represents a simpler and more reliable means of storing energy than lead-acid batteries and has associated benefits. A computer model has been developed to optimise the design and control of micro PV-hydro systems. equipment - to convert direct current (DC) from the PV panels and turbine to alternating current (AC) for the pump and village loads - water storage reservoirs and a system logic controller. Components were sourced from European companies. The PV array of 18kW peak is made up using 300 France PHOTON 60Wp PV panels. Siemens (Germany) supplied the 7.5kW DC generator for the water turbine, the power conditioning equipment and a programmable logic controller. In addition, two 150m3 water reservoirs, 100m apart in height, were constructed at each location.

In remote settlements, where connecting to a distant mains grid would be difficult and expensive, using sunshine to generate electricity - through the use of photovoltaic (PV) panels - is already an economic option. Several demonstration PV plants can be found around Europe. They meet daytime electricity demand, and are equipped with lead-acid batteries to store energy for nighttime requirements. Batteries, however, are expensive, heavy and contain corrosive materials. They also have a short life, particularly if not maintained. Some village PV plants have failed for this reason, even though the PV panels themselves remain good for 20 years or more with little attention. The focus of this project has been to develop a better way of storing energy in remote PV systems, using pumped water, by improving their design and power efficiency.

Energy management model

The system design and operation was optimised using a plant energy management model, which allows the simulation of the operation of all the constituent components and prediction of their combined performance. Input data for the model take the form of local solar radiation and temperature statistics. The village electrical load profiles for winter and summer were also estimated. The regulator action of distributing DC power between PV array,

Micro PV-hydro power

A computer model of a PV-hydro system has been developed and used in the design and testing of two pilot systems, located on remote European islands.

Above: The photovoltaic field at Donoussa Island (Cyclades islands, Greece).

Sheet No. 105E

INCO - INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Energy Central and Eastern Europe

Innovation in Europe: Research and Results

Full Title:
Development of a stand-alone PV power system for remote villages, making use of pumped water energy storage: an intelligent integration of a PV power system in a remote village with partial central and decentral PV power supply.

Information:
Prof. Spyros Kyritsis Agricultural University of Athens Agricultural Engineering Department 75 Iera Odos, 11855 Athens - Greece Tel.: +30 1 52 94001 Fax: +30 1 52 94023 e-mail: skir@auadec.aua. ariadne-t.gr

The water storage reservoir

batteries, and inverter was simulated, as was the performance of the inverter in converting DC to AC. The pump and turbine efficiency characteristics were allowed for in the energy management model, together with pipeline effects such as resistance to water flow. Use of this model at the design stage allowed the optimal sizing of components to ensure high system efficiency. Without the model, Says Prof. Kyritsis. The system could only have been designed to the best efficiency point of individual components. This would not give the best overall system efficiency. The model, coupled with system monitoring, ensures that the plant consistently operates at the highest overall efficiency possible. Modelling can be applied to any location, given appropriate local data.

concentrating on identifying suitable sites in their own countries and implementing the projects design methodology. A measure of the effectiveness of the collaboration is that partners have been awarded a further EC INCO-Copernicus grant to continue to work together on construction and long term monitoring of micro PV-hydro plants.

Partners:
Prime: Agricultural University of Athens (Greece) Higher Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (Bulgaria) Technical University, Brno (Czech Republic) Wirtschaft und Infrastruktur GmbH & Co Planungs KG (Germany) Godollo University of Agricultural Sciences (Hungary) Research and Design Institute for Electrical Engineering (Romania) Sistemas, Analisis y Aplicaciones Renovables S.L. (Spain) Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain)

Benefits
The pilot systems are in the process of being tested, but have already demonstrated their ability to meet the basic requirement of supplying electricity needs reliably, cleanly and at a realistic cost. In the longer term there will be further economic benefits. They will provide economic stimulus by enabling villages to support more tourists and increase agricultural activity with the extra water available for irrigation. Says Prof. Kyritsis. They are expected to reduce emigration from villages and encourage former residents to return, due to the improved quality of life. Looking even further into the future, Prof. Kyritsis sees the possibility of combining this technology with advanced sea water desalination techniques to the benefit of arid coastal settlements. s

Effective Collaboration
This project successfully brought together Universities and consultants in Greece and the Canary Islands (who supervised installation and monitoring) with renewable energy consultants from Germany (who specialised in site selection and system design). Eastern European partners are now

References:
CIPD CT93 0346; JOU20155

Programme:
PECO - 1993; JOULE II

INCO - INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

July 97