System Design and Performance Analysis of a Grid-Tied Solar PV Power System in Bhutan

Author

Dolkar, Yangchen ; Jamtsho, Dawa ; Adhikari, Rozal ; Wangdi, Tshering ; Dorji, Sonam ; Lhendup, Tshewang ; Lhamo, Pema

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Coll. of Sci. & Technol., Phuentsholing, Bhutan

fYear

2015

fDate

13-14 Feb. 2015

Firstpage

538

Lastpage

542

Abstract

This paper presents system design and performance analysis of a grid-tied solar photovoltaic power system with battery backup. The system was designed to supply 10.5 kW lighting load of a library building at the College of Science and Technology in Bhutan. The performance was simulated using HOMER model. From the simulation, it was found that the PV system is able to supply more than 31% of the load in a year. The cost of PV energy generation over 25 years project life term was found to be 0.13 US/kWh which is six times higher than the current average cost of hydropower generation. The proposed system is financially not viable at the current subsidized electricity tariff in Bhutan as the payback period is more than the project life term and the net cash flow is negative.

Keywords

photovoltaic power systems; power grids; solar power stations; College of Science and Technology; HOMER model; battery backup; energy generation; grid-tied solar PV power system; hydropower generation; library building; lighting load; net cash flow; performance analysis; photovoltaic power system; power 10.5 kW; project life term; system design; Batteries; Electricity; Load modeling; Meteorology; NASA; Photovoltaic systems; Renewable energy sources; Bhutan; Cost of energy; HOMER; Solar PV;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Computational Intelligence & Communication Technology (CICT), 2015 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Ghaziabad

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-6022-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CICT.2015.55

Filename

7078761