SOLAR POWER PLANT ON THE ROOF OF ENERGOPROJEKT OFFICE BUILDING PRODUCED MORE THAN MILLION kWh OF ELECTRIC ENERGY SO FAR
In the last couple of years, and particularly months, we are witnessing an intensive promotion of the importance of construction of solar power plants in the Republic of Serbia, particularly on the roofs of the buildings in urban environments where the available space constitutes a resource of crucial importance for all infrastructural projects. For this reason, it is necessary to remind ourselves that, more than ten years ago, Energoprojekt Entel, with understanding and support of other companies in Energoprojekt Group, proceeded with realisation of the project of construction of solar power plant on the roof of the shared office building in Belgrade.
Back in 2011, the management of Entel recognised the trend of increased share of renewable energy sources both on global and local level, as well as inevitability of their integration in electric power system. Since the legal and administrative procedures regulating the construction, installation and integration of small solar power plants were still insufficiently defined and developed in the above mentioned period, it was clear that Entel, as the investor on this project, would face challenges and difficulties customary for making pioneering steps aimed at defining a standard practice. However, these difficulties did not obstruct adopting the decision to boldly proceed with realisation of this project, with belief that expert knowledge and skills of Entel’s staff members would ensure ultimate success at the end of, what was, at the time, still an uncertain journey.
Entel as a company that generally consults their clients based on acquired knowledge and successful examples from the practice, was oriented towards independent conducting of the entire procedure of implementation of the project of construction of solar power plant on the roof of the office building from the initial idea, over preparation of technical documentation, implementation of financial analyses, gathering of all required approvals and permits of relevant authorities to obtainment of the status of privileged power producer which was then awarded to legal entities which generated electric energy from renewable energy sources. This complex role in the project of solar power plant on the roof of Energoprojekt office building was at the time entrusted to Jasna Grujic, now the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Energy in Entel.
The project was realised during 2012, and, in January 2013, Entel obtained guaranteed status of privileged power producer for a 12-year period. Another two companies from Energoprojekt Group participated in construction of solar power plant: Energoprojekt Oprema and Energoprojekt Visokogradnja. The works on assembly and installation of the equipment were completed within the record period of four weeks and the interest of the employees of Energoprojekt Group for this project was considerable. A large number of colleagues made calls, made inquiries of the colleagues, observed with curiosity the events happening in the office building. The atmosphere was positive and everyone anxiously awaited commissioning of the power plant. With considerable engagement of all participants, the entire realisation was carried out as planned. The solar power plant has been in continuous operation for nine years now. Apart from electric power generation and sale at agreed, privileged price, the power plant also enables education of young engineers. They can compare calculations obtained using software tools with actual production of the power plant in situ, while at the same time having the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the equipment installed and its technical characteristics.In these nine years of operation of the power plant, we had two failures on inverters, but owing to a 10-year guarantee, they were successfully replaced at the cost of their supplier.
The decision on the choice of inverter was not founded only upon its technical characteristics which are more or less similar, but also on the long-lasting guarantee, which, in the long run, proved to be a good decision. The practice showed that such producers survived on the market for a long time, so today, the standard of the leading producers of solar inverters is to offer a 10 to 12 year guarantee.
When it comes to securing unobstructed operation of the power plant, it must be noted that the colleagues from the Maintenance Service of Energoprojekt building have an important role and have always met Entel’s requirements for interventions on the system while selflessly sharing their knowledge with young engineers on the matters of characteristics of installed equipment and its proper use.
Entel’s solar power plant generated more than 1 million kWh until present day, which indicates that the designed parameters have been met and that the proper choice of equipment and works performed in high quality enabled the plant to meet the expectations. Of course, new knowledge and experience have also been acquired while showing by company’s own example that good ideas can always be realised, regardless of how difficult the attainment of the goal seems to be.
Entel points out that there are other interesting ideas and proposals which are being considered in terms of probability of their success and economic effect of their implementation and they hope to be able to make the news thereof public soon.