Solar energy capacity assessment and performance evaluation of a standalone PV system using PVSYST

Abstract

In today’s time, photovoltaic systems are continuously gaining popularity and emerging due to their high sustainability, autonomy, and viability. It is necessary to assess the performance of these systems to understand various aspects related to their operation. The study analyses the usefulness of a PV system installation that supplies electricity to an academic institution. This paper aims to evaluate the performance of a grid-connected silicon-poly PV system with a peak power of 20.0 kW and voltage of 17v. The software used for analysis is PVsyst (7.1.7 version). PVsyst is a widely used simulation software for estimating the energy yield and for optimizing the system design. The PVsyst software has been used to design a grid-connected PV system for the Karunya Institute of technology. The simulated system has silicon-poly PV modules assembled in it. Each module consists of numerous photovoltaic cells interconnected. Each module has a power rating of 180wP and voltage sizing of Vmpp (60-degree Celsius) 17.5v Voc (−10degree) 28.9v. The photovoltaic modules are assembled in a total of 13 strings. Modules in a string are series-connected. Each string in the system consists of 10 PV modules connected in series with a power rating of 20.8 kW. The arrangement is grid-connected with a utility meter. The weather dataset used for evaluation is extracted from PVsyst’s database and has the attributes, solar radiation, and ambient temperature.