Soegijapranata Catholic University (SCU) – Don Bosco Job Training Centre (BLK) Collaboration on Off-Grid Photovoltaics and Residential Electricity Installation Vocational Courses
While running the eACCESS program which is supported by Erasmus+, Soegijapranata Catholic University Semarang always promotes the use of environmentally friendly energy and its technology to society, includes professional staffs, engineers, technicians, lectures, and students.
In collaboration with Don Bosco Job Training Centre, Department of Electrical Engineering Soegijapranata Catholic University Semarang organized Vocational Course on Off-Grid Photovoltaics and Residential Electricity from November 30th until December 2nd 2022. The Vocational Course was held at Don Bosco Job Training Centre, Weepangali Village, Tambolaka District, Southwest Sumba Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province. The participants of the course were instructors and solar power plant operators in Sumba. This course was held with the intention of providing knowledge to instructors and solar power plant operators regarding the types of solar panels on the market, the working principles of solar panels to get their maximum power, how to make their installation, knowledge of protection, operation, and maintenance of Off-Grid Photovoltaics, also included their economic value. In addition, Residential Electricity Installation training was also conducted. The speaker of the Vocational Course were Dr Leonardus Heru and Arifin Wibisono, M.Eng from Department of Electrical Engineering Soegijapranata Catholic University Semarang.
Following aspects were covered in this workshop:
Understand sunlight to electric conversion via photovoltaic.
Understand how to use photovoltaic (series and parallel).
Need MPPT for Maximized the power output.
Check battery health condition.
Installation and protection
Street light lamp operation mode.
OFF Grid Solar Power Plant Installation and operation
Electricity Installation on Residential
Residential electrical installation competency test
Impact of the event on awareness rising, sustainability
Participants are able to fully understand how photovoltaic technology works to convert sunlight into power and how to use it in both series and parallel configurations, when MPPT is required. In addition, learners are taught how to check the health of batteries as a kind of energy storage.
One of the introduced applications is the actual electrical system for street lighting and its protection system. Additionally, practice was done for off-grid installation using an MPPT and an inverter separately. Finally, practice was done for off-grid installation using a hybrid system with a variety of operational modes. According to the evaluation, they comprehend and are competent to practice everything. They are able to practice according to predefined safety requirements because they have a solid understanding of the circuit in relation to the practice of installing domestic power.
At the Don Bosco training job, they will create a learning module for solar power generation as a follow-up, and if it’s feasible, similar training, specifically on the grid, will be conducted.