Rafina

A microgrid in ‘Meltemi’ – Rafina, Greece

The ‘Meltemi’ summer camp is a seaside camping in Rafina near the city of Athens, consisting of 170 cottages used mostly for summer holidays. Due to the small size of each cottage, its electrical consumption is lower than an ordinary house in Greece. The ecological awareness of its inhabitants and the electrical structure (all houses connected to the same MV/LV transformer) of the settlement make it ideal for use as a test bed, for functions related to emergency and critical grid situations. A number of Distributed Generators (DGs) are installed, including a 40kVA diesel generator, 4.5 kW photovoltaic panels and small residential wind turbines that can partially support the Meltemi camping load in islanded Microgrid operation.

The MAGIC (Multi-Agent Intelligent Control) system installed in a number of households allows the DGs and the loads to negotiate in order to decide next sequence of actions. This system is a Java based software that implements intelligent agents. A critical component of the MAGIC system is the intelligent load controller, based on an embedded processor that runs Linux and can be used to monitor the status of a power line providing voltage, current and frequency measurements. The controller is expandable with several serial and a USB port and has the ability not only to control but also to monitor several appliances. It is designed for indoor installation and is equipped with a display in order to present messages directly to the consumer. In addition, the consumers are informed online about the status of the system, their consumption and energy costs. This information is also available through a web portal. This information is critical, since consumers accept them easily when they visualize the potential for energy savings cost benefits.

The small wind turbine test site of the RurERG is also located in the ‘Meltemi’ summer and a 1.8mgrid-connected locally manufactured small wind turbine is in display in the camp’s main square.