PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF 8 kW GRID-TIED SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER PLANT IN DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

Results obtained from monitoring an outdoor experimental 8 kW distribution gridtied solar photovoltaic (SPV) system installed at Energy Technology Station known as KwaZulu-Natal Industrial Energy Efficient Training and Resource Centre (IEETRC) of Durban University of Technology, South Africa is presented in this study. The study was carried out to investigate and compare the system performance with similar installations in a few selected countries. Data were collected between January 2018 and December 2018 and computational analysis was completed with the aid of Simulink and MS-Excel. The evaluated monthly average daily and annual performance parameters of the SPV systemarray yield, reference yield, final yield, system efficiency, inverter efficiency, capacity factor, and performance ratiowere discussed in term with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard. A comparison of this study to other studies conducted in Dublin, Morocco, India, and Spain shows that this study final yield and performance ratio of 4.93 kWh/kWp/day and 87.1% is greater than what is reported in the extant literature.

Modeling and experimental analysis of battery charge controllers for comparing three off-grid photovoltaic power plants

“…The average radiation for the typical year was 4.98 kWh/m 2 /day, and the average temperature was 16.88 °C. Similar values were reported in [ 17 ] in Durban, South Africa, where average daily irradiance varies from the least value of 110 kWh/m 2 in June to 190 kWh/m 2 in January, while the lowest monthly average daily temperatures being 15 and 16 °C were recorded in June and July respectively.…”

“…The average radiation for the typical year was 4.98 kWh/m 2 /day, and the average temperature was 16.88 C. Similar values were reported in [17] in Durban, South Africa, where average daily irradiance varies from…”

“…Still, these charge controllers are charged in the absence of MPPT, and its functional analysis lacks charger efficiency. In the same vein, there are many studies on solar PV MPPT charge controllers [ 16 , 17 ]. Yet, the existing model lacks modeling descriptions without any practical examination regarding efficiency and no yardstick with a commercial charge controller for model validation.…”

Comparative analysis of grid-connected bifacial and standard mono-facial photovoltaic solar systems

“…Where Ht and Go are the total irradiance on a horizontal plane and the global irradiance at STC, respectively. Array yield: the array field, Ya in (2) represents the DC energy generated from the PV array and can be demonstrated as [46], [47]:…”

Performance analysis of grid-tied photovoltaic system under varying weather condition and load

“…The generation of solar energy from solar irradiation, one of the many alternatives for generating power, has grown significantly owing to the ever-increasing demand for energy, providing a renewable as well as an environmentally friendly energy source. Its source is intermittent and is heavily dependent on climate conditions; also, the photovoltaic energy source is accessible only during the daytime [5,6]. integrating intermittent energy sources arises from the fact that the concept of the grid is around massive and controllable power generators.…”