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On-Grid Solar Photovoltaic System: Components, Design Considerations, and

Case Study

Conference Paper · February 2018

DOI: 10.1109/ICEES.2018.8442403

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 On-Grid Solar Photovoltaic System: Components,
Design Considerations, and Case Study
Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar 1, M. S. P Subathra 2, J. Edwin Moses 2
1
Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia.
2
Department of Electrical Sciences, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore-641 114, Tamil Nadu, India.
Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—This paper involves the study on various were emerged. Literature review of related works is given in
components of grid connected PV system, and their operation, section-II. In section-III, working and various components of
along with the design considerations to be followed during the on-grid photovoltaic system is described. Section-IV highlights
installation. A case study on the ‘95 kWp on-grid photovoltaic the design considerations to be followed during the installation.
system’ commissioned at one of the education institute named One of the on-grid photovoltaic system case study is discussed
Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences in Coimbatore is in section-V. Finally, the paper is concluded in section-VI.
illustrated. Study on the on-grid PV system consists of 95 kWp
PV array comprising of 312 PV modules, four 25 kVA inverters.
Results includes the online monitored data on power generation II. LITERATURE REVIEW
in kWh/kWp, energy saved in MWh, and CO2 emissions avoided. (Arash Anzalchi & Arif Sarwat, 2017) discussed in detailed
Along with this, simulated energy performance of PV system is about the technical specifications and challenges related to the
also illustrated. Promotion of solar PV plants in the educational techniques, codes, and standards used for integrating
institutes would help in reducing their energy consumption bills photovoltaic systems to the electric grid. They highlighted
and helpful in carrying out research activities.
various topologies, control strategies in photovoltaic system
Keywords—Solar energy, Photovoltaic system, On-grid solar
[8]. (Manasseh Obi & Robert Bass, 2016) presented a study on
photovotlaic system, PV system components, 95 kWp solar plant in the need and increasing popularity of grid connected solar
Karunya, PV design considerations. photovoltaic systems. The authors highlighted the various
challenges and suggested few methods that improve the
efficiency of grid connected PV systems [9]. (Sheeraz Kirmani
I. INTRODUCTION et al. 2015) presented a study to overcome the intermittent
In relation to the concerns raised over the environmental behaviour of solar power plant resulting in power fluctuations.
pollution, many policy makers along with governments and The study proposed the authors involves simulation modeling
public involvement were continuously striving to promote the of a performance enhanced method providing a good solution
clean and pollution free technologies in the electric sector [1, in mitigating fluctuation in the power [10]. (C. Nemes & S.
2]. In meantime a global level awareness on reducing Costinas, 2015), presented a study on yield analysis and
emissions, promoting clean and energy efficient methods were availability analysis of existing grid connected PV system to
coming into existence with Kyoto Protocol movement under understand its performance indices. The study by the authors
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change showed better performance of grid connected PV systems [11].
(UNFCCC) [2-4]. Considering the electricity sector, most (A. E. Abdallah & A. Mordi, 2014) proposes the grid
important thing is to promote renewable energy sources such as connected photovoltaic systems to the counter correct the
solar, wind, biomass, fuel cells, geothermal, and hydro power voltage variations in the grid. This occurs due to the
etc. However, among all the renewable energy sources, solar disturbances in grid voltage amplitudes at “point of common
photovoltaic systems have gained much more importance and coupling”. The proposed methodology will help in maintaining
priority [5, 6]. Energy productions from photovoltaic system the grid voltages to the required during over and under grid
can be generated in simple manner when compared to other voltages [12]. (V. Komoni et al. 2016) presented a study on
sources. The number individual components used in solar PV the design and performance analysis of 3.9 kWp grid connected
system are quite low when compared to other system. It does PV plant with rooftop installation. The system was monitored
not involve any large size components also. Solar PV systems for two years and its performance variation with respect to few
are classified into two: standalone or off-grid photovoltaic parameters were showed [13].
system, and grid connected or on-grid photovoltaic system. In
earlier days photovoltaic installations are mostly based on off- III. ON-GRID PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM
grid type and works on isolated conditions. But due to
advancements in PV technology, and power electronics these On-grid solar photovoltaic system is the one that generates
systems were started booming as on-grid PV system [7]. At electrical power with the help of solar photovoltaic harvesters
present in most of the nations, the PV installations are working and delivers the power to electric utility. The schematic view
on grid connected mode and still contribute to electricity mix. and working flow of the system is clearly shown in Fig. 1.
Various components involved in the system is discussed in sub
This article is structured in six different sections: section-I section-A, and the brief operation of the system is dealt in sub
deals brief introduction about how clean energy technologies section-B.

978-1-5386-3695-4$31.00 2018
c IEEE 616
 power flow only in one direction i.e. from soalr panel to the
utility sytem.

3) On-Grid Inverter: On-grid inverter is the one which

converts the DC power to AC power. This is one of the
essential components of PV system to inter connect with the
present day power sector. We have various type of inverter
availble in the market whose rating is from small kVA to
larger kVA. The present available inverter are coming with
MPPT enabled and wider input Vdc range.

4) AC disconnect & Main Panel: In photovoltaic systems

DC and AC disconnect are the two boxes where AC
dissconnect role is to separate the on-grid power converter i.e.
DC-AC inverter from the electrical utility grid. Output
currents of the inverters have to be taken into consideration
while sizing the AC dissconnect and it simply be circuit
Fig. 1. Schematic view of on-grid photovoltaic system breaker. This is generally placed in Main panel.
Main panel comes into picture before the electrical system
A. Components can be integrated to electrical power grid. This generally
The various components involved in the grid connected consists of electro mechanical devices that are used to
photovoltaic system are as follows [14-17]: dissconnect the photovoltaic system from the electric grid.

1) Photovolatic Modules: Mono crystalline solar cells are 5) Net Meter: Net meter is a device that is used to monitor
simply referred as Si-mono. Si-mono photovoltaic modules or the inflow and outflow of electricity between the electrical
cells are made from a single cylindrical crystal ingot having power generating system to electric utility grid. In
high purity. From the single crystal, wafer can be sliced and photovoltaic systems if excess energy is generated that can be
cut in octagonal shapes. At Standard Test Conditions i.e. STC sold to the utility by means of this.
1000 W/Sq. m, Si-mono cells shows the best performance but
the same cell shows poor perfor-mance when temperature 6) Electrical Grid: It is an electrical power network
levels rise [18]. interconnecting the load centers and energy providers. It is one
Poly crystalline solar cells are simply referred as Si-poly. of major parts of electrical power system network acting as
Si-poly modules or cells consist of small crystals which make interface between power generation plant, power transmission
the cell or module to look as “crystal grain known as line, and distributin lines. It transmits electric power that is
crystallites”. Si-poly cells are “produced by sawing a square generated using any source (renewable or non-renewable) at a
cast block of silicon first into bars and then into wafers”. any place and distributes finally to the consumers as per the
These cells performs better at STC and the performance requirement (either in 1-ɮ or/and in 3-ɮ).
reduces as the temperature rises. Si-poly modules are
configured by series and parallel combinations to form Si-poly B. Operation
PV generators as per the requirement [18]. A photovoltaic system operates to generate electricity and
Amorphous silicon solar cells are simply referred as Si- the operation is similar for both the off-grid and on-grid
amorph. Si-amorph PV generator is configured with the photovoltaic systems. Whenever the incident light energy on
the photovoltaic module is enough to produce electrons, then
combinations of the Si-amorph PV modules. These modules
DC power is generated at the output terminals of the PV array
are of thin film based and made by sandwiching the Si-amorph and then is fed to the power converters which in turn helps in
materials of 1 ȝm thickness between the two panes of glass. DC to AC conversion. The AC energy can be used directly to
Si-amorph PV generators perform better than those of Si- electrical loads, or it can be supplied to utility grid by means
mono and Si-poly crystalline. Also perform better under net metering facility. If the generated is utilized for various
elevated temperature conditions when compared with load applications at the generation level itself, then it is said to
crystalline silicon cells [18]. be standalone PV system, if the generated energy continuously
fed to the utility grid then it can be termed as on-grid
2) Junction Box: The junction boxes were used majorly in photovoltaic system [14-16].
two different places in PV systems i.e. one is at the
interconncetion to power converter. Here all the PV strings are IV. DESIGN CONSIDERATION TO BE FOLLOWED
joined together. Another place is at solar PV enclouse where While installing grid connected PV systems, one should
this junction is used comprises the bypass diodes allowing the follow few technical and non-technical design considerations.

4th International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES) 617

 These considerations will be different for each component
and they are inter depend on other components. For while,
foremost and major design considerations when it comes to site
selection would be the appropriate solar radiation data
assessment, and other factors like shading, snow, wind,
seasonal influences. When comes to the PV module or array
mounting, this would be the optimal tilt angle, azimuth angle.
Arranging the PV array as per the technical specification of the
inverter input side one of the major design consideration.
Identifying the suitable DC and AC cables and their rating as
per the PV system parameters. Junction box sizing also plays
vital role. Efficiency of each component must be considered
during the design process to estimate the feasible energy yields.
Make sure that, there should not be any stability and reliability
issues during the operation of PV system [6, 16]. Fig. 3. On-grid solar power plant at Karunya Institute of Technology and
Sciences -Part A

V. CASE STUDY: 95 KWP ON-GRID PV SYSTEM

A case study on grid connected PV system is discussed in
this section. A 95 kWp on-grid photovoltaic system is studied
to demonstrate the functioning and performance of grid
connected PV system. This system was installed on 1st August
2016 at an educational institute (Karunya Institute of
Technology and Sciences) located in the foot hills of Western
Ghats in Coimbatore. The PV system consists of 312 number
of polycrystalline modules, four of 25 kVA inverters. The
specifications of the discussed on-grid PV system is presented
in Table I.
The PV modules were interconnected to form a PV array
with possible strings. These were mounted on the vacant roof
area with the extra support system called as open rack systems.
Fig. 4. On-grid solar power plant at Karunya Institute of Technology and
The modules or the PV plant is installed as per the site Sciences-Part B.
geographical condition.
TABLE I. SPECIFICATIONS OF ON-GRID PV SYSTEM In Fig. 2, the mounting position and tilt angle is clearly
seen. Similarly, Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 shows the commercially
PV system component Value/Name
System capacity 95 kWp working solar PV plant at Karunya Institute of Technology and
System type On-grid Sciences.
Module type Poly crystalline TABLE II. PERFORMANCE DATA
Module make EMMVEE
Module power rating 310 Wp PV system parameter Value with Units
Inverter rating 25 kVA Date of installation 1 August 2016
No. of inverters 4 Specific energy generation
1890 kWh/kWp
Inverter make SMA (till 20th November, 2017)
Inverter type Online monitoring Total power generation
192 MWh
(till 20th Novermber, 2017)
CO2 avoided (till 20th November, 2017) 134 tonne
Capacity factor (date of installation to
17.65 %
monitored data)

Performance data is presented in the Table II. This data

includes the specific energy generation i.e. 1890 kWh/kWp,
and total power generation i.e. 192 MWh till 20th November
2017. The capacity factor for the operating duration from the
date of installation to data presented in this paper is estimated.
The operating days were identified to be around 446 days, in
hours it is 10704. The estimated capacity factor for this
operating duration is around 17.65%. Along with the
experimental data the simulated energy performance using
PVGIS and PV Watts [19, 20] is also evaluated and it shown in
Fig. 5. Two software tools show the energy generation for
Fig. 2. Mounting structure used for PV instllation typical year considering the average of past solar radiation of

618 4th International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems (ICEES)

 the location. For Coimbatore location the PV Watts shows the [7] Sonali Goel, Renu Sharma, Performance evaluation of stand alone, grid
superior performance than PVGIS. The specific energy connected and hybrid renewable energy systems for rural application: A
comparative review, In Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews,
generation possible with PVGIS is 1406.632 kWh/kWp. Year, Volume 78, 2017, Pages 1378-1389, ISSN 1364-0321,
and for PV Watt is 1612.968 kWh/kWp. Year. The capacity https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.200.
factor evaluated in PVGIS and PV Watts are 16.05%, and [8] Arash Anzalchi, Arif Sarwat, Overview of technical specifications for
18.41% respectively. There is a slight variation observed in the grid-connected photovoltaic systems, In Energy Conversion and
performance metric parameter between PVGIS, PV Watt, and Management, Volume 152, 2017, Pages 312-327, ISSN 0196-8904,
experimental data. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2017.09.049.
[9] Manasseh Obi, Robert Bass, Trends and challenges of grid-connected
photovoltaic systems – A review, In Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews, Volume 58, 2016, Pages 1082-1094, ISSN 1364-0321,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.12.289.
[10] S. Kirmani, M. Irfan and S. Ahmad, "Performance enhancement
methodologies for grid connected photovoltaic systems," 2015 Annual
IEEE India Conference (INDICON), New Delhi, 2015, pp. 1-6.
doi: 10.1109/INDICON.2015.7443211
[11] C. Nemes and S. Costinas, "Yield and availability analysis of grid-
connected photovoltaic systems - a case study for Iasi region, Romania,"
2015 Intl Aegean Conference on Electrical Machines & Power
Electronics (ACEMP), 2015 Intl Conference on Optimization of
Electrical & Electronic Equipment (OPTIM) & 2015 Intl Symposium on
Advanced Electromechanical Motion Systems (ELECTROMOTION),
Side, 2015, pp. 135-140. doi: 10.1109/OPTIM.2015.7426955
[12] A. E. Abdallah and A. Mordi, "Grid-connected photovoltaic systems for
grid voltage correction," 2014 15th International Conference on
Sciences and Techniques of Automatic Control and Computer
Fig. 5. Energy performance using PVGIS and PV Watts
Engineering (STA), Hammamet, 2014, pp. 809-812. doi:
10.1109/STA.2014.7086706
VI. CONCLUSION
[13] V. Komoni, A. Gebremedhin and N. Ibrahimi, "Performance evaluation
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(MedPower 2016), Belgrade, 2016, pp. 1-7. doi: 10.1049/cp.2016.1050
system. The details regarding the components, design
consideration to be adopted were clearly explained. Apart from [14] Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar, M. Rohit Kumar, P. Ruth Rejoice, Mobi
Mathew. Performance analysis of 100 kWp grid connected Si-poly
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practical data. The presented work in this paper will be help Optimal energy performance and comparison of open rack and roof
full the society, industry-academia etc. in positive way. mount mono c-Si photovoltaic Sys-tems, Energy Procedia, vol. 117, pp.
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