Siting and installation of PV systems in Greece and their contribution in the reliability of the distribution network

A statement of the status quo of the PV power systems in Greece, as well as their possible contribution towards the enhancement of power distribution reliability, is the scope of the present paper. Siting and installation of PV systems is performed according to a recent Greek law and by considering environmental and geographical constraints. Meteorological data about solar radiation and temperature are computed, formulated and imported to appropriate software in order to simulate the PV units and generate their power output. The above estimated power production is compared to data concerning load shedding. Assuming that a specific proportion of the eventually unsupplied power could be provided by the accessed power generation of the PV units, the reliability of the distribution system is improved. This improvement is quantified using the distribution system reliability indices SAIDI, SAIFI and CAIDI. The resulting improvement is finally expressed in financial terms through the reduction of interruption costs.