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...Isle of Eigg |
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T: 01568 760671 F: 01568 760484 info@windandsun.co.uk Humber Marsh, Stoke Prior, Leominster, Herefordshire, HR6 0NR |
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About the Island
The Isle of Eigg, at 8km by 6km, is the second largest of The Small Isles 10 miles off the Western Coast of Scotland south of the Isle of Skye. With 87 inhabitants, it is also the most populous. Eigg boasts a wide variety of coastal scenery, ranging from beaches and spectacular cliffs, to historic caves. Eigg is best known as the island which became an emblem of the land reform movement when it was the first successful community buy-out. In 1997, after decades of mismanagement by absentee landlords, the island was bought by the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust, a partnership between the residents of Eigg, the Highland Council, and the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Visit www.isleofeigg.org for more information.
The Project
The Isle of Eigg was not served by mains electricity, with most properties relying on ageing diesel generators for power. The Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust and Eigg Residents chose to pursue the installation of a mains type system to supply reliable and affordable electricity to all properties on the island.
Click here for a BBC audio link which describes the background to the electrification project. (RealPlayer required).
The Isle of Eigg Electrification project is an attempt to develop a electricity supply for the island which is sustainable both environmentally and economically. The Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust formed a company, Eigg Electric Ltd, to procure and operate a mains-type electrical network system for the islanders, to provide an electrical supply similar to that enjoyed by people living on the mainland with the aims of the generation of predominantly renewable electricity and the supply of a reliable 24 hour electricity supply for all islanders. This scheme will provide encouragement for operators of other isolated off-grid systems to adopt these technologies, both in the UK and overseas. It will also demonstrate that high proportions of renewable energy can be accommodated within distribution networks, encouraging attempts to integrate increasing proportions of renewable energy into existing networks to help the UK achieve its CO2 reduction targets.
Scottish Hydro also installed the new 100kW
water turbine, pipeline and weir.
The integration of the hydro generation, the wind turbine installation
and the monitoring followed shortly after. Power was switched onto
the island on 1st February 2008.
The main battery inverters are the heart of
the system and provide a reference grid to which all loads and
generation is connected. They control the system voltage and frequency,
and manage the balance between loads and generation by controlling the
power into and out of the batteries. Additional system control will be
provided by load management at times of high renewable generation.
These were installed by Energy Renewed Ltd a local Proven installer
based in Aberdeen who were well placed to deal with the logistics of
getting the equipment to the island and the construction there.
Monitoring
Graph showing power output of PV array, diesel generator power and power of each Sunny Island master inverter.
NB This was for days with little hydro and wind power.
Graph showing battery state of charge for each of the clusters for the same days as above.
Work on monitoring is on-going and we will have a live link to the Sunny Portal webpage soon!
Electricity supply for each property
The new grid electricity supply connects every property on the island. Households are limited to 5kW and businesses 10kW. Electricity is purchased using pre-payment cards and every property has a wireless Electrisave type meter so people can see how much electricity they are using. Nearly every light bulb on the island is low energy and the islanders are well used to energy conservation and understand much more about energy than on the mainland.
Some properties used to have their own small power system (generator and inverter etc...) and have a change-over switch so they can switch over from Eigg Electric to their own private supply if required.
In the community buildings (Tea Room, Community Hall and Churches) plug-in load controllers (DILC's) are used to switch on background heaters to utilise surplus renewable energy in times when the battery store is full.
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| UK Distributors for: |
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T: 01568 760671 F: 01568 760484 Email: info@windandsun.co.uk Humber Marsh, Stoke Prior, Leominster, Herefordshire, HR6 0NR |
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Copyright of Wind & Sun Ltd - no reproduction without express written permission unless for personal use |
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Registered in England & Wales, Company No.3403803 VAT Number GB 448 5458 14 Registered Office: Humber Marsh, Stoke Prior, Leominster, Herefordshire, HR6 0NR |
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Various
renewable sources distributed around the island have been incorporated
to allow diversity of energy supply, - a 9.9kWp PV system, three hydro
generation systems (6 kW, 6 kW & 100 kW) and a 24 kW wind farm
supported by standby diesel generation and batteries to guarantee
continuous availability of power. There are currently 37 permanently
occupied residential properties and 5 commercial properties on the
island which will be connected using a high voltage three-phase
distribution system. Load management will be used to ensure optimal use
of the renewables. 
The
main benefit of the PV array will occur during the summer months when
its output is high, complementing the lower output that is expected from
the hydro generation and the wind turbines (due to low summer rainfall
and low summer windspeeds). Because of the uncertainty regarding the
load profile and the intermittency of the renewable sources, diesel
generation will provide backup power to ensure a reliable supply for the
island is maintained.
