Technical Economic Study for the Implementation

of Autonomous Photovoltaic Systems in the

Residential Sector of Colombia
Ivan Enrique Zuniga, Student Member, IEEE, and Yenny Fernanda Botina

AbstractThis article is based on dimensioning of autonomous

photovoltaic systems in the residential sector of Colombia using
HOMER software.
The simulations were performed for each of the capitals
of Colombia, which were grouped according to their levels of
solar radiation, thus ensuring the distribution over the entire
geographic area of the country.
The system load was determined taking as a reference noninterconnected areas because they represent a large part of
national territory.
The selection of the devices comprising the system was
performed using a methodology that takes into account certain
criteria that improve the viability of implementing the system.
Finally, comparative results are presented in technical and
economic terms according to the radiation levels required to
implement the system. The results serve as an approach to
implement these systems in areas with similar characteristic.
Index TermsAutonomous photovoltaic systems, solar radiation, HOMER energy modeling software, non interconnected
zones of Colombia.

I. I NTRODUCTION
OLOMBIA is a tropical country that is located in one
zone with higher amount of solar radiation per year in
the world according to data taken by the colombian Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies
(IDEAM in Spanish), indicating that this is a favorable place
to implement new systems of power generation such as solar
photovoltaic systems.
Non Interconnected Zones (ZNI in spanish) are those places
where is not installed electric power system. In Colombia, the
ZNI represent 66% of the national territory with 5% of the total
population [1], a large percentage that is not supply by power
system. In gure 1 you can see the geographical distribution
of ZNI in Colombia.
The Autonomous Photovoltaic Systems (APVS) are an
excellent alternative of solution to provide electrical energy
for residential sector of the ZNI. The implementation of these
systems has made great progress in recent years, however, are
still expensive and difcult to recover the economic investment
in the short term.

Ivan Enrique Zuniga is a research assistant in the Grupo de Investigacion en

energas GIEN at the Universidad Autonoma de Occidente. www.uao.edu.co
Email: ivanenzu@ieee.org
Yenny Fernanda Botina is a research assistant in the Universidad Autonoma
de Occidente. www.uao.edu.co
Email: yenny fer.botina@uao.edu.co

Fig. 1.

Geographical distribution of Colombia ZNI.

Nowadays is easy to nd available solar resource information, for example, the UPME (Unidad de Planeacion Minero
Energetica de Colombia in spanish) [2] and NASA [3] provide
solar maps, however, are few studies that reveal how to
leverage this resource in Colombia.
This paper presents a comparative study using HOMER
(energy modeling software), taking as reference the ZNI to
determining the feasibility of implementing APVS in each of
the capital cities of Colombia. The results will be compared
in technical and economic terms by the average annual solar
radiation of each city, which serve as a approach to implement
APVS in places of the resindencial sector with similar levels
of solar radiation.
II. S OLAR R ESOURCE S TUDY IN C OLOMBIA
In Colombia there have been few studies of the solar resource available and have not conducted research to determine

978-1-4673-2673-5/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

TABLE I
L OADS OF R ESIDENTIAL C ONSUMPTION BASIC FOR ZNI
Equipment

Fig. 2. Classication of solar radiation levels.

Taken from: UPME and IDEAM. Atlas de radiacion solar de Colombia, 2005.
[2]

Qty

Power

Volt

Hours

[W]

[V]

[h/day]

Daily
load
[Wh/d]

Monthly
load
[kWh/m]

Efcient lamps

15

110

300

Refrigerator

80

110

12

960

28.8

Color TV

60

110

240

7.2

Radio

35

110

280

8.4

Blender

80

110

0.1

1.92

Other devices

100

110

10

1000

30

Total

370

2788

85.32

Source: R. Rengifo. Energias renovables en la electricacion rural

descentralizada. [5]

Fig. 3. Distribution of the capital of Colombia, according to the average

annual solar radiation.
Fig. 4. Curve average of the demanded load in per unit.
Source: Document CREG-075 of 2007. [6]

to what extent can exploit this resource in the residential sector

through APVS. In the solar atlas published by the UPME in
2005 [2] are categorized levels of solar radiation into nine
groups as shown in Figure 2. In this work compares the
radiation data of UPME with data from NASA [3]. It was
determined that in 87% of the 32 capitals of Colombia solar
radiation values ranging between 4.5 and 5.5 kWh/m2, which
are sufcient to implement APVS.
Figure 3 shows how to distribute the number of capitals
of Colombia acording the annual average radiation data taken
from the NASA website, is observed that most cities has high
radiation levels.
III. S YSTEM D IMENSIONING USING H OMER
There are many methodologies for the dimensioning of
APVS, among which is the possibility of dimensioning
through simulation software, providing diverse advantages like
power to evaluate the prospective behavior of the system in
technical and economic terms during a lifetime useful of the
same one [4], and also take into account the variability of solar
resources during the months of the year among others.
This work is directed towards the ZNI of the residential
sector, therefore the simulations are carried out according to
the load that is displayed in the table I, which was determined
in [5], in which it describes the different energy options to

which you can access in isolated areas for supplying energy

needs.
Figure 4 shows the average curve of demand for the ZNI,
this curve was determined by CREG (Comision Reguladora de
Energa y Gas in Spanish) by resolution 075 of 2005, which
speaks of the regulatory framework for rural electrication[6].
Figure 5 shows the daily load prole for a residence located
in a ZNI, certain starting from the load in the table I and the
curve of behavior of the gure 4.
The architecture of the APVS is shown in gure 6, this is
formed basically of solar photovoltaic modules, battery bank,
inverter and load.
For the selection of the devices that compose the system,
was rst created a database with more than 50 alternatives
from solar panels, inverters and batteries, subsequently, was
applied the eigenvector method, which consists of a decision
process based weights associated with certain pre-established
criteria. In this method the weights associated with each
criterion are the components of eigenvector and they determine
the dominant value in a matrix of pairwise comparison among
criteria [7], as shown in Table II.
The selection criteria were established taking into account
the particular characteristics of Colombia, for example, was
considered important to those countries that have good busi-

TABLE III
C RITERIA FOR THE SELECTION OF DEVICES IN THE APVS
CRITERION

WEIGHT (%)

Cost

18,2%

Power

22,7%

Tension

9,1%

Current

13,6%

Weight

4,5%

Warranty

27,3%

country
Manufacturer

4,5%

TOTAL

100,0%

TABLE IV
S ELECTED COMPONENTS TO FORM THE APVS
Fig. 5.

Curve average of the demanded load in kW.

PARMETER

PV

INVESTOR

Manufacturer

Scott Solar

Salmex America

Vision

Perform Poly 245

PST-60S-12

6FM200D

Model
Power [kW]

0,245

600

Currient [A]

8,02

0,85

10

Capacity [Ah]

200

Tension DC [V]

30,6

12

12

Tensin AC [V]

115

Efciency [%]

14,6

85

Price [$]

330

260

839
10

Warranty [years]

Fig. 6.

BATTERY

10

Weight [kg]

41,5

2,5

65

Country
Manufacturer

USA

USA

USA

Basic architecture of the APVS.

TABLE II
W OMB OF VALUATION
w1

w2

wn

C1

C2

...

Cn

A1
A2

x11
x21

x12
x22

...
...

x1n
x2n

Am

xm1

xm2

...

xmn

C: Decision criteria
w: Weight associated with each criterion
A: Alternative of solution

ness relations or free trade agreements to reduce import costs.

The relevant criteria for selection of devices comprising APVS
and the weights associated with each are shown in Table III.
From the results obtained did determined devices that
comprise the APVS, which are shown in Table IV with their
technical data.
IV. RESULTS
The results are the product of the APVS in HOMER
simulations for each of the selected cities. The behavior of the
APVS was analyzed according to the average solar radiation
levels in each city, classied according to the conventions of
UPME.

Fig. 7. Quantity of panels required by the APVS for different levels of solar
radiation averages yearly.

Figure 7 shows that although the data distribution is random

due to the variability of the resource, this tendency has a
negative slope, which means that the required number of solar
panels decreases as the solar radiation increases, and may
require on average between 2 and 5 modules in cities with
less radiation levels ranging between 5.0 and 5.5 kW/m2.
In a same way it is observed in the gure 8 that the quantity
of required batteries diminishes with the increment of the
radiation solar average. In this case they are required two less
batteries on the average in the cities that have the biggest

Fig. 8. Quantity of batteries required by the system for different levels of

annual average solar radiation.

Fig. 10.

Cost average for each component of the system.

on electricity generation based on fossil fuels.

Although the APVS is expensive, these they represent a
long term good option due to the readiness of the resource.
Applying a good process of selection of the devices that you
conform the system can decrease the cost of the system in a
considerable way, it is also of to be expected that the prices
of this technology diminish with the development of the same
one.
In ranking the cities according to levels of radiation, the
results can serve as a rst approach to study implementation
of APVS in areas with similar characteristics of resource.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Fig. 9. Initial capital required by the system for different levels of solar
radiation averages yearly.

radiation levels.
In the gure 9 are shown like it diminishes the required
cost of the system as the radiation is increased, here the slope
of the trend line is greater because this represents the rate of
change of the cost for each component, that which represents
an important reduction of around US$2.000 for system for the
cities with the biggest radiation levels.
In gure 10 the cost average of each component of the
system is presented in function of the solar radiation, shows
that for cities with the lowest levels of solar radiation the
cost of batteries is higher than that of solar panels, and this
it diminishes the same as the cost of the panels as the solar
radiation is increased.
V. C ONCLUSION
Due to their geographical location, Colombia is a country
with the enough resource to implement APVS for residential
loads located in the ZNI.
In view of the ZNI represents 66% of the territory in
Colombia, the APVS are a good option for reducing reliance

The Authors wish to tank for the nancial support to

Universidad Autonoma de Occidente and to the GIEN (Grupo
de Investigacion en Energas in spanish).
Also give thanks to Paul Andres Manrique and to Yuri
Ulianov Lopez for the academic advices.
R EFERENCES
[1] J.A. Benavides, Foro de Normalizacion y Contexto Nacional en Energa
Solar y Eolica. Instituto de Planicacion y Promocion de Soluciones
Energeticas para las Zonas no Interconectadas, 2008.
[2] UPME and IDEAM, Atlas de radiacion solar de Colombia.
Bogota, Colombia: Unidad de Planeacion Minero Energetica; Instituto de
Hidrologa, Metereologa y Estudios Ambientales. Ministerio de Minas y
Energa, 2006.
[3] NASA, Surface meteorology and Solar Energy.
Available at:
http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/sse/.
[4] Rodriguez-Borges, G. Ciaddy and A. Sarmiento-Sera, Dimensionado
mediante simulacion de sistemas de energa solar fotovoltaica aplicados
a la electricacion rural. Ingeniera Mecanica (online), vol 14, no 1,
pp 13-21, 2011. Available at: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?
[5] R. Rengifo, Energas renovables en la electricacion rural descentralizada. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medelln. Available at:
http://www.censat.org.
[6] CREG, Documento CREG-075: Marco regulatorio para la prestacion del
servicio de energa electrica en las zonas no interconectadas. Comision
de Regulacion de Energa y Gas, 2007.
[7] M. Cascales, Metodos para la comparacion de alternativas mediante un
Sistema de Ayuda a la Decision (S.A.D.) y Soft Computing. Doctoral
thesis, Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena, 2009.


Ivan Enrique Zuniga
was born in Cali Colombia,
in 1986. He is a student of electrical engineering in
the Universidad Autonoma de Occidente and he is
student member of IEEE.
From 2009 is a member of Grupo de Investigacion
en Energas GIEN, where he has participated in various projects as a research assistant, mainly, projects
related with energy efciency in the industry sector.
His current research interests include electrical
machines, energy management, renewable energies
and articial intelligence applied to energy systems.

Yenny Fernanda Botina was born in Cali Colombia, she is a student of electrical engineering in
the Universidad Autonoma de Occidente and she is
currently a Research assistant in this university.
Their elds of interest are energy management,
renewable energies and cost analysis in hybrid systems.