A. Dh. Mandhoo PV System
Grid Connection of A. Dh. Mandhoo PV System
As part of a UNDP-EU funded program aimed at supporting the Maldives to formulate and implement a sustainable energy policy, a PV-diesel hybrid pilot project was installed on the Island of Mandhoo, located in the western part of the South Ari atoll, about 100 km South-West of Male’. The system was setup such that either the PV or the diesel generator system could be used at a time. The PV system was intended to be used during daytime while the diesel generator provided power during night time. The changing from the PV system to the Diesel generator system was handled manually and the islanders found this tedious. In addition, soon after installation, the PV system was not able to meet the full daytime demand of the island. Thus the 12kW of PV power remained unused for nearly 2 years.
REM involvement in the project was to convert the stand-alone PV system to a grid-connected PV system. REM expertise was used to connect the PV system directly to the electricity distribution network of the island. This allowed the system to use solar power whenever available and automatically use power from diesel generator to make up for the amount that the PV system could not produce. This allowed utilization of the PV system to the maximum and reduced the amount of diesel used in the island.
The 12kW PV system that was lying idle now provides around 50% of Mandhoo’s daytime electricity demand
