Uninterrupted power for a monastery with no grid

Simonopetra is a historic monastery on Mount Athos, Greece. It was built many centuries ago and was recently renovated. It is home to dozens of monks and hosts around one hundred pilgrims a day.

Like every monastery on Mount Athos, Simonopetra has to produce its own energy. There is no public grid on the peninsula and none is planned, for financial, cultural and engineering reasons.

Daily life follows the schedule of prayers, so the demand for energy varies over a very wide range. The first power sources were two diesel generators. A hydro generator was added later, but it could not cover the demand on its own.

The power was interrupted several times a day, and its quality was at the edge of what is acceptable.

elpra took part in the design of the final solution about 20 years ago and proposed a DC UPS. A battery bank feeds the monastery continuously through an inverter, with uninterrupted AC power of high quality.

All the available energy sources simply charge the batteries at full capacity, alone or in pairs, depending on the time of day, the season and the monastery’s needs. This made it possible to add two photovoltaic fields recently as a further source.

elpra designed and built all the chargers and converters.

Since the system was installed, the monastery has practically never had a power interruption.