PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A GRIDCONNECTED PV SYSTEM IN A RURAL SITE IN THE NORTHWEST OF SPAIN

A. De Miguel, J. Bilbao, J.R.S. Cazorro, C. Martn Department of Applied Physics I. Faculty of Science. University of Valladolid (Spain)

ABSTRACT The performance of a small grid-connected photovoltaic system has been studied and evaluated, in real conditions of operation. The data for this study have been obtained from 4.3 kW grid-connected photovoltaic plant, located at the CIBA (Low Atmosphere Research Centre) in Castile and Leon region (Spain). During one year of operation, from December 2000 to November 2001, the system supplied 5099 kWh to the grid, this mean 1180 kWh/kWp. The annual performance ratio was 69.8 % and the value of the monthly average of daily final yield ranges from 1.38 kWh/kWp /day in August to 4.75 kWh/kWp /day in June. On monthly average, the system yield ranges are between 11.3 % in August to 13.9 % in January. On the other hand, one of the most important aspects in the study of photovoltaic solar energy systems is the analysis of energy loss sources. The aim of this work is to realize an exhaustive study of energy losses through normalized representation of PV system data, already allowing a detailed analysis. A fast recognition of some malfunctions has been possible from this study. This paper contributes to the development and implementation of small grid-connected PV systems at Castile and Leon region In this region exist high irradiation levels, approximately 4.4 kWh/m2 of daily average, then it would be possible to think about its advantage on superior scale power.

INTRODUCTION Within the application of the photovoltaic solar energy, the grid connected PV systems have known a considerable development in the last years, and everything seems to indicate that they will continue expanding with vigour in the future, under protection of the increasing taking of conscience on the environment problems that entails the present structure of the electricity production. These systems are characterized because all the energy that produce is sent to the grid. It can be considered as domestic installation those whose power tip is below 5 kW. these small domestic installations are designed to satisfy part of the power demand of the user. Thus, it himself consumes energy of the photovoltaic installation or the grid, depending on this level of power demand and hour of the day. These systems can be considered as mixed, since the power demand is covered partly by the grid and else where by the photovoltaic system. These mixed system of power saving, would allow, if its use were massive, to have decentralized electrical energy and renewable origin, thus contributing to diminish the use of other power sources. In order to be able to know the implementation real possibilities of these systems, it is precise to know with the greatest possible exactitude, how much energy will produce a certain system based on the climatic

conditions and of the used technology. The energy produced by a grid connected photovoltaic system depends on three factors: Climatic factor, mainly the incident radiation on the modules and the temperature of work of such, which is function mainly of the radiation and the ambient temperature. Technical characteristics of inverters, mainly its yield, that is function of its point of work, as well as its threshold of operation, defined as necessary power so that the inverter connects itself to the grid. Characteristics of the connection system-grid, that although it depends on the characteristics of the energy, when coming out of the inverter, waveform, harmonic distortion and frequency among others, also depend on the own grid, its stability and its availability.

The aim of this paper is to provide information on the operational performance of the PV system and to realize a continuous plant supervision through measurement of data in very short intervals. From measured data, the following characteristic parameters, array yield, final yield, reference yield and mean, inverter and overall efficiencies have been evaluated. Normalised values of power characteristics and system losses have been used for error detection. With this supervision, detection of malfunctions would be assured.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOTOVOLTAIC INSTALATION The data for this study have been obtained from 4.3 kW grid-connected photovoltaic plant located at the CIBA (Low Atmosphere Research Centre) in the Castile and Leon region (Spain). The location has ideal characteristics for our studies, including low pollution as a result of being away from any urban areas, a large celestial surface and high solar irradiation level. an exhaustive search was made in order to find a location fulfilling these criteria. The PV plant consists of two arrays of 120 W monocrystalline silicon modules, ATERSA type, each one of the arrays is connected to one inverter. The arrays are made up of 18 photovoltaic modules assembled in six parallel combinations, each of which contains three modules connected in series. Two TAURO PRM 2000/3 inverters provide DC/AC power conversion and the solar panels were installed with a tilt angle that it can be changed. It is single-phase photovoltaic solar installation, which is connected to the grid. This type of installation is characterized, as its name indicates, to be connected in parallel to a point of the mains of low voltage and working according to the circumstances like load or generator. The solar energy, when it is available, directly is transformed into electrical and is provided to the grid, not existing accumulating of energy. When the solar irradiation does not find an umbral value, for example during night, the system is disconnected of the grid and is in waiting state. The data acquisition system was designed to operate automatically. Meteorological and input-output inverter parameters are monitored, at one minute sampling intervals. Average values are computed over ten minutes and one hour. In addition to data acquisition, the monitoring system entails independent measuring to capture data on irradiance, the DC power in each array field and the 220 AC energy output. The data set covers November 2000 to December 2001.

OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE System performance indices A quality control test was make with the recorded variables: cell temperature, solar irradiation and the output power. For the performance evaluation, the data were analysed and the results are presented according to the guidelines defined by the Blaeser [1]. The following derived parameters were used as system performance indices:

Final system yield Yf [kWh/kWp/d] Reference yield Yr [kWh/kWp/d] Array yield Ya [kWh/kWp/d] Performance Ratio PR [ ] System losses LS [kWh/kWp/d] Array capture losses LC -Thermal capture losses Lct [kWh/kWp/d]

-Miscellaneous capture losses Solar cell temperature Mean array efficiency Inverter efficiency Overall plant efficiency

Lcm [kWh/kWp/d] Tc [C] A,mean [ ] Inv [ ] [ ] Tot

The Final system yield Yf is the energy delivered to the load per day and kWp. This yield presents the number of hours per day that the array would need to operate at its rated power Pmax to equal contribution to the load, Amarbayar [2]. The Reference yield Yr represents the theoretically available energy per day and kWp. The Array yield Ya is the daily array energy output per kW and it represents the number of hours per day that the array would need to operate at its rated output power Pmax to contribute the same daily array to the system as was monitored. The Performance ratio PR is the ratio of PV energy actually used to the energy theoretically available (Yf /Yr). It is independent of location and system size and indicates the overall losses on the arrays rated output due to the module temperature, incomplete utilization of irradiance and system component inefficiencies or failures, Jahn [3]. The System losses LS are referred to inverter conversion losses (DC-AC). The Array capture losses LC can be splitted into: Thermal capture losses Lct, are losses caused by cell temperatures higher than 25 C, and Miscellaneous capture losses Lcm, are losses caused by wiring, string diodes, low irradiance, partial shadowing, dirt accumulation, snow covering, inhomogeneous irradiance, mismatch, maximum power tracking errors, spectral losses and array power reduction caused by inverter failures, as it can be seen at Haeberlin [4]. If the storage interval of the data is less than one hour, average values for power and irradiance can also be normalized by dividing them by the PV generator power, Po , and Go = 1 kW/m2 at STC (Standard Test Conditions) respectively. Such normalized instantaneous quantities are very useful for on-line error detection by using data picked up very frequently. Results and discussion In a grid connected PV plant, a malfunction causes a remarkable rise of Lcm. These quantities are very good indicators for system problems. Well planned and realized plants normally show little Lcm values. In order to identify the malfunction of the plant along months, Figure 1 shows the final system yield Ya, the system losses LS, thermal capture losses Lct, miscellaneous capture losses Lcm and the performance ratio PR. From the results, it was observed that on August, the performance ratio is very low, Lct and Lcm are very high. These factors suggest a malfunction of PV plant during this month. In order to locate the exact circumstances of the malfunction, the normalized analysis on August month were performanced. From the results, is was observed that on 17 August a problem happen and continued until 20 August. During 17 August, a strong storm discharged over the zone where are located the panels. A ray fell over the array panels and the system was disconnected and it remained non operative until 20 August. From the hourly index performance values for August 17, 2001, it was observed that the system was working properly until half past nine and after that, when the ray fell near the array panels, the disconnection of the system took place. Using the normalized instantaneous quantities defined in previous section, very useful normalized daily

diagrams were generated. These diagrams clearly indicate operational problems of a PV system, even if these problems are only sporadic, Haeberlin, [5]. A normalized daily diagram with instantaneous performance parameters values was evaluated for a clear and cold winter day without any problems and the results were compared with the corresponding to 20 August. In a normalized daily diagram without problems, lcm is very small and pr reaches high values. Nevertheless, in days in which miscellaneous losses are high, the pr decrease considerably and lcm increase very much. Energy production is reduced considerably. For example, on 2 of July 2001, solar panels were cleaned using a product that turned out to be detrimental for the production of the generator. This product was deposited on the panels forming a protective film that reflected the radiation. In the corresponding normalized daily diagram of the hourly performance parameters, the existence of problems could be observed, mainly by the considerable increase of lcm and decrease of pr.
8 7 6
kWh/kWp/day

0.80 0.75 0.70 0.65 0.60 0.55 0.50 DEC.00 JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV
Yf Lct Lcm LS

5 4 3 2 1 0

PR

Figure 1: Normalized yearly analysis for C.I.B.A. PV plant at Valladolid with monthly values of Yf, Lct, Lcm, LS and PR. Plant efficiency The monthly average values of the following variables, for the PV system, were evaluated: the performance ratio, cells module temperature Tc, the array efficiency A,mean , inverter efficiency Inv , as well as the overall plant efficiency Tot for the twelve months of operation. The picked up data include from December 2000 to November of 2001. Table I shows the following characteristics parameters: Array Yield, Final Yield, Reference Yield, total productivity, Performance Ratio and the system efficiencies, that represent the characteristics of one-year operation period from December 2000 to November 2001, TABLE I CHARACTERISTIC PARAMETERS AND SYSTEM EFFICIENCIES Ya (kWh/kWp) Yf (kWh/kWp) Yr(kWh/kWp) EGrid (kWh) 1352 1180 1699 5099 PR(%) 69.8 A,mean(%) 13.68 Inv(%) 89.45 Tot(%) 12.15

CONCLUSIONS In this work, an exhaustive study of energy losses has been realized through normalized representation of

PR

PV system data, already allowing a detailed analysis. With such diagrams, a fast recognition of some malfunctions has been possible. From the results, it was obtained that very low values of PR (performance ratio value) and very high values of Lct and Lcm suggest that the plant has not working in good conditions. If data measured in intervals shorter than one hour are available, instantaneous values of power and irradiance can be introduced, allowing a much more detailed analysis of system performance with the normalized daily diagram or even an on-line detection. These diagrams clearly indicate operational problems of a PV system, even if these problems are only sporadic. In a grid connected PV plant a malfunction causes a remarkable rise of miscellaneous capture losses. This parameter is very good indicator for system problems. It is easy to realize continuous plant supervision. With this supervision, detection of malfunctions is assured. It is our aim that these ideas will be useful for present and future experiences and will therefore contribute to the further expansion of the PV gridconnected system. Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support extended by the FEDER-CICYT programme. References 1. G.Blaeser, D.Munroe. Guideliness for Assesment of PV plants, Document B. Report EUR 16339 N.1995. 2. A.Amarbayar, K.Kurokawa. Performance analysis of portable photovoltaic power generation system based on measured data in Mongolia.Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. 2001. 3. U.Jahn, D.Mayer.Analysis of the operational performance of the IEA Database PV system.16th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition,Glasgow. May 2000. 4. H.Haeberlin, J.Graf. Gradual reduction of PV generator yield due to pollution. 2nd World conference on PV Solar Energy Conversion. Viena 1998. 5. H.Haeberlin, Ch.Beutler.Normalized representation of energy and power for analysis performance and on-line error detection in PV systems. 13th EU PV Conference, Nice, France.1995.