Performance Evaluation and Assessment of 100 kW Grid-Tied SPV System in Subtropical Climatic Conditions

This study was conducted to see whether it would be feasible to install a PV system in a subtropical Indian region to meet the load requirement of any educational premise which is operational only in a day time. This system assesses the simulated effectiveness of a grid-tied 100 kW SPV plant in which total 400 solar modules are used to meet the requirements. Each PV module produces 320 Wp. The 20 strings of PV modules, each made up of 20 modules linked in series, represent how the modules are arranged. Four solar inverters, each rated at 25 kW power, are used to interface with the grid via smart meter. PVsyst V6.86 simulation tool is used for the simulation. For this study, average solar radiation 4.7 kWHr/m2 and average temperature of 25.7 °C are taken at the location 26.9585°N, 80.9981°E. Also datasets from the Metronome 7.1 database of PVsyst were employed. The simulation results were looked to analyze the PV system's behavior. Evaluations of the SPV array's actual energy output, performance ratios, and other power generation per installed kWp are part of this process and recorded through SCADA. This is a three-year operational study of 100 kW that is equal to 128 kWp grid-tied SPV system, which annually generates 178.5, 176.60, and 155.10 MWHr in the year 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively. The yearly performance ratio is recorded as 82.04, 81.70, and 80.69% for the year 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively. Finally for the year 2020 the recorded energy through SCADA is compared with the simulation software tool PVsyst and found that the performance of the installed system is up to the mark instead of a little array losses because of module degradation. The array loss and efficiency diagram for the entire year is also shown.