Economic impact of integrating photovoltaics with conventional electric utility operation

The parameters which impact the value of photovoltaics (PV) to the electric utility is examined. High, medium, and low-load days in winter (January) and summer (July) are studied. The daily peak load is varied from 5838 MW to 9712 MW. These six days are studied for reference (no PV), high, medium, low, and intermittent-PV output cases. Results from these 30 case studies are summarized. In order to study the impact of operating PV systems on the electric utility production cost (fuel and variable operation and maintenance), the load profile of a southeastern utility and the PV output data from solar test facilities in Virginia and North Carolina are used. The performance analysis shows that, while the total production (fuel and variable O&M) cost savings are higher for higher solar days, the increase is not proportional to the amount of PV energy output. It is shown that the high solar day never produced the highest per-unit PV energy value. The highest per-unit PV energy values for both winter and summer days are found to be for the low solar days