Performance and Yield Assessment for Renewable Dispersed Generation in Nigeria: Case Study on Grid-Tied Solar PV Systems

Abstract

The problem of Renewable Dispersed Generation (RDG) and renewable resource harnessing in most cases, is not the inadequacy of resource distribution at a particular location but rather, it is the perpetually deprived exploitation of these resources. The existing dread for the performance of distributed generation systems that utilize renewable sources for power generation has crippled sustainable power generation expansion for several years. Hence, this study performs a practical assessment of the productivity of solar PV systems in Nigeria. In this study, five states with diverse geographical or meteorological data are selected from the cardinal regions of the country. These include Sokoto State (North West), Borno State (North East), Ogun State (South West), Rivers State (South South) and Abuja, the federal capital territory at the center. The global horizontal radiations available from the National Aviation and Space Agency (NASA) for these cities were used in simulating the performance of a 1-MW grid-tied solar PV plant using the PVsyst software. The result shows that the performance parameters with respect to energy production are better in the northern region compared with the southern region with capacity factors decreasing from 20.46% to 16.21% for a 1 MW solar PV plant located at these regions. This was seen to reflect on the corresponding annual energy yield of similar systems sited at these locations. Also, the performance ratios of these systems, given their respective reference yields, were observed to be better in the southern region compared with the northern region of Nigeria. This can be attributed to external factors that can influence system efficiency. These factors tend to favor systems located at the southern region as opposed to those at the northern region. These findings validate this study as a decision tool for predicting the performance of any Renewable Dispersed Generation (RDG) systems utilizing solar energy as the source at other regions of the country.