Geographical considerations in the design of an offgrid power system in remote South Australia

Remote communities suffer from geographical isolation in many regards which include logistics of supply of commodities and, particularly, supply of electricity. This is particularly serious in countries with vast expanses between settlements such as Australia. The time-honoured solution to supplying power to remote communities has been by means of generator sets with internal combustion engine prime movers, which is costly, both in financial and environmental terms. This paper addresses the power supply needs of a remote community in South Australia and proposes a hybrid system integrating renewable energy with existing internal combustion engine driven generators, taking into account the geographical peculiarities of the site.