Off-grid pumping stations with photovoltaic (PV) generation, a battery and an elevated tank are usually dispatched by level and state-of-charge rules, and the induction motor drive is treated as a load of constant efficiency. This study formulates a supervisory thermally aware economic model predictive controller (TA-EMPC-S) that schedules battery power, PV curtailment and pump duty together with pump speed, rotor flux and a two-node motor thermal state, and that prices pump starts. A simulated 7.5 kW station was operated over four one-week scenarios by TA-EMPC-S, simpler EMPC variants, a level-control rule and a tuned PV-following variable-speed rule (RB-VFD). Against RB-VFD, TA-EMPC-S reduced unserved demand by 39.3% in a heat wave with an overcast spell and by 48.9% on average over 20 realizations with forecast errors, and it was the only strategy without thermal derating when motor cooling was degraded, even with an erroneous cooling model. In a sunny week it cut battery throughput by 14.2% but started the pump more often. Variable speed and anticipation produced most of the benefit, whereas flux optimization changed the specific energy by less than 1%.