Farm in PR invests in installing a photovoltaic system

Granja São Pedro Colombari, located in São Miguel do Iguaçu (PR), announced its investment in solar energy with the construction of a distributed microgeneration system.

The project is a partnership between the distribution concessionaire Copel (Companhia Paranaense de Energia) and the Itaipu Hydroelectric Plant. Two weeks ago, a test of the islanding operation in the region was successfully carried out.

“It is a project that we are treating very carefully, as we believe it is a key point for making the most of distributed generation, especially in rural areas”, says Julio Omori, superintendent of Smart Grid and Special Projects at Copel.

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“It is the embryo of a system that can operate at various power levels, with various generating sources, and expand throughout Copel's entire concession area, and even throughout Brazil as a whole”, he adds.

According to the company, with the implementation of the microgrid, in the event of a possible failure in the concessionaire's distribution system, the generating unit will be automatically isolated from the system and will be able to supply the area during the contingency period.

For Luiz Felipe Carbonell, Coordination Director at Itaipu, the project meets two strategic objectives: the preservation of water resources in the region and the use of renewable energy sources, reducing environmental pollution.

“By using waste from the local protein chain for the production of bioenergy, and using this generation in a distributed way through a microgrid, nature is preserved and the availability of energy to the producer is ensured, in a complementary way to the grid. public”, highlights Carbonell.

Since 2016, Granja Colombari has generated energy from biogas. With the implementation of the photovoltaic system, the energy will be used to supply the property and three other neighboring consumer units. 

Image credits: Marcos Labanca/ SecComPR