Feasibility analysis design of a PV grid connected system for a rural electrification in Ba, Fiji

This paper presents a feasibility analysis done for a grid-connected PV system for a rural settlement in Ba. The settlement comprises of 8 houses that contribute to a peak load of 5.9kW. The idea is to explore the possibilities and obtain technical as well as economic results. HOMER 2.68 beta simulation software is used for this project to obtain the optimization results. The solar radiation data from NASA has been used. The project lifetime is 20 years with a 6% discount rate. The optimization result provided by HOMER was for a 6kW PV system along with 6kW Converter. The capital costs were substantial together with quite high LCOE. The LCOE has been found to be 48 cents / kWh for the above combination. There are high capital costs involved that lead to high LCOE. Various combinations of energy tariffs for both usage and sellback have been presented. The system would be feasible if the government along with the energy sector stand to derive policies and design rebate structures to bring down the capital costs to make it possible for rural environment to have a grid-connected PV system.