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Modeling and simulation of 1mw grid connected photovoltaic system in

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
Volume 9, Issue 2, 2018 pp.153-168
Journal homepage: www.IJEE.IEEFoundation.org
Modeling and simulation of 1mw grid connected

photovoltaic system in Karbala city
Afaneen A. Abbood1, Mohammed A. Salih2, Ashraf Y. Mohammed1

1
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq.
2
Planning and Studies Department, Ministry of Electricity, Baghdad, Iraq.
Received 6 May. 2017; Received in revised form 1 Oct. 2017; Accepted 20 Oct. 2017; Available online 1 Mar. 2018
Abstract
The increment of electricity demand in last few years and the wide difference between generation and load,
led to support the national grid with additional generations, solar power is becoming most popular in
generation sector because it is clean, inexhaustible, dependable and available in all sizes in addition of its
capital cost is continuously decreases. It has also become more efficient since the power conversion
efficiency of converters devices and photovoltaic solar cells has increased. This work proposes a design of
1MW grid connected Photovoltaic system under Iraq climate condition. The work contains a studying the
solar radiation estimations, system technical design, system losses estimations, environmental impact,
performance and economic evaluations for this system. From the obtained results, it was found that the
city has good solar radiation to build PV systems in large scales, the estimated energy produced about
(1757.8 MWh) produced in the first year and reach to 40,445 MWh for the total life cycle with performance
ratio varied between 86.4% to 73 % and average capacity factor 19.83%. The system the system will save
about 27794 tons of CO2 emission during total life. The financial analysis shows that the levelized cost of
energy is around 0.0289 $/kWh which is economically feasible.
Copyright © 2018 International Energy and Environment Foundation - All rights reserved.
Keywords: Solar Radiation; PV System design; On Grid system; Performance analysis; Financial
Analysis.
1. Introduction
Renewable energy (RE) sources are very good solution to provide alternative energy to overcome the
global energy problem, and it's believed to be able to meet the energy challenges that are unable to be
solved by traditional centralized power plants [1]. Grid connected PV systems in the world account for
about 99% of the installed capacity of solar energy compared to stand alone systems, which use batteries.
Battery-less grid connected PV are cost effective and require less maintenance [2].
The solar PV technology has now reached to its commercial acceptance and requires a minimal attention
of manpower for its operation [12]. Grid-connected PV systems have many technical advantages such as
flexibility, non-polluting, emitting no noise, requiring little maintenance and simplicity to install in any
area where the solar irradiation is available, therefore, many countries are encouraging customers to install
PV systems in order to support the traditional energy sources and to increase the contribution of renewable
energy to limit carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
ISSN 2076-2895 (Print), ISSN 2076-2909 (Online) ©2018 International Energy & Environment Foundation. All rights reserved.
154 International Journal of Energy and Environment (IJEE), Volume 9, Issue 2, 2018, pp.153-168
Typical megawatt scale grid-connected solar PV power plant main components are: solar PV modules,
module mounting (or tracking) systems, Inverters, Step-up transformers and grid connection interface, [1]
and the net useful energy output of any solar energy conversion system depends on various environmental
factors such as ambient temperature, solar irradiation intensity, the rate of dust settlement on the solar
system upper surface and wind speed at installation sites [3].
The PV farms are easy to build and require a relatively shorter time for its realization. the only requirement
for PV farm development is the proper and accurate solar resource assessment by conducting the
meteorological measurements [12], but it's still suffer from some weaknesses that make it weakly
competitive with fossil fuels energy markets such as high capital cost, modest panel conversion efficiency
and cleaning cost in dusty areas [3].
Today, all the world begins use the on grid PV system in very large scales as non-fossil energy source,
numerous publications regarding deals with design and performance evaluations of PV projects are found
in this research. An investigation of the energy performance, environmental impact, and cost assessments
of 1MWp plant using the main 2017 market available PV technologies under hot climatic conditions for
the state of Kuwait is carried out in [3], a study of design a large scale grid connected (20MW) PV system
for peak load shaving in industrial district is studied in [6], while in [7], a comparative study using new
approach for optimum design of rooftop grid connected PV system. A various performance parameter for
grid connected 1MW SPV plant is carried out using three different methods is presented in [8]. A new
method for the calculation of the optimal configuration of large PV plants is presented in [9], while [12]
presents technical, environmental and economic aspects for the selection of viable sites for constructing
10 MW installed capacity grid connected PV power plants in Saudi Arabia and in [20] a study aims to
numerically discover the optimal configuration for a 1 MW GCPV plant in Oman.
In this work a design of 1MW grid connected PV system in Karbala city (105 Km in south-west of the
capital Baghdad) is proposed, the structure of this paper is as follows: section 2 presents a mathematical
model for solar radiation estimation on horizontal and tilted surfaces, section 3 includes the selection
criterion of solar panel type, section 4 includes PV system design and layout, section 5 estimates the PV
system Losses, section 6 explained the financial analysis, in section 7 the environmental Impact of this
project is presented. Section 8&9 study the system performance and calculating system yield, section 10
contains the result & discussion and finally the conclusions in section 11.
2. Mathematical model for solar radiation

Solar radiation is the rate at which radiant energy of the sun is incident on a surface per unit area, [4]
neglecting the reflection component, the hourly global solar radiation in clear sky on a horizontal surface,
Rh (W/m2) is given by [10]:
0.678
𝑅ℎ = 𝑅𝑎 0.7𝑚 (1)
Where; m is the air mass which the ratio of the mass of atmosphere through which beam radiation passes
to the mass it would pass through if the sun were at the zenith (i.e., directly overhead) [4], given by [10]:
𝑚 = √[1229 + (614𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃𝑧 )2 ] − 614𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃𝑧 (2)
And Ra is the extraterrestrial irradiance on a horizontal surface given by [10]:
2πJ
R a = R sc [1 + 0.033cos 365] cosθz (3)
where; Rsc is the solar constant=1.367 kJ/m². s, J is the day number starting from 1-Janaury, θz is the angle
of incident on a horizontal surface (zenith angle) obtained from; [4, 10]
𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃𝑧 = (𝑐𝑜𝑠∅𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛿𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜔 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛿) (4)
where φ is the geographical latitude and δ is the solar declination angle given by: [4, 10, 11]:
360
𝛿 = 23.5 𝑠𝑖𝑛 [365 (𝐽 + 284)] (5)
International Journal of Energy and Environment (IJEE), Volume 9, Issue 2, 2018, pp.153-168 155
And ω is the hour angle calculated from; [4, 10]
𝜔 = 15(12 − 𝑆𝑇) (6)
where ST is the local solar time which calculated from the local standard time (LT) and the equation of
time (ET) as follow; [10]
𝐸𝑇 4
𝑆𝑇 = 𝐿𝑇 + 60 + 60 (𝐿𝑠 − 𝐿𝐿 ) (7)
where LS is the standard meridian for the local time zone, LL is the longitude of the location in degree &
ET is the equation of time given by: [10]
𝐸𝑇 = 9.87𝑠𝑖𝑛2𝐵 − 7.53𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐵 − 1.5𝑠𝑖𝑛𝐵 (8)
Where;
360 (𝐽−81)
𝐵= (9)
365
Usually, solar energy applications (panels, collectors…) are not installed horizontally but at an angle to
increase the amount of radiation intercepted and reduce reflection and cosine losses [4]. Therefore, there
is a need to convert these data to radiation on tilted surfaces. Figure 1 shows the ratio of beam radiation on
the tilted surface to that on a horizontal surface at any time.
Figure 1. Beam radiation on horizontal and tilted surfaces [4].
The geometric factor 𝑅𝑏 , which represents the ratio of beam radiation on the tilted surface to that on a
horizontal surface at any time, can be calculated as follows [4, 10]:
𝑅 𝑅 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃
𝑅𝑏 = 𝑅𝑇 = 𝑅 𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 = 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 (10)
ℎ 𝑛 𝑧 𝑧
Where; RT is solar radiation on a tilted surface, Rn is solar radiation on a surface normal to the direction of
propagation and 𝜃 is angle of incident on a tilted surface obtained from [10, 11]:
𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛿 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅ 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛽 − 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛿 𝑐𝑜𝑠∅ 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛽 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛾 + 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛿 𝑐𝑜𝑠∅ 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛽 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜔 +
𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛿 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅ 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛽 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛾 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜔 + 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛿 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛽 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛾 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜔 (11)
where; β is the tilt angle, γ is the azimuth angle. Using equation (12) the daily or monthly optimal tilt angle
(βoptimal) can been obtained by substitute the respective 𝛿 for that day or the average 𝛿 for that month
respectively [11].
𝛽𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑙 = ∅ − 𝛿 (12)
MATLAB software has been developed to calculate the best tilt angles and solar radiation on a tilted
surface in Karbala city, the flowchart of the proposed program is shown in Figure 2 with input parameters
as in Table 1 and the results are in section 11.
Figure 2. Flow chart for solar radiation estimation program.
Table 1. Inputs of the MATLAB program.
Latitude of Karbala (φ ) 32.34°

Longitude of Karbala (LL) 44.11°
Standard meridian (Ls) 45°
Local standard time (LT) 1-24 hours
Day number (J) 1-365 days
Solar constant (Rsc) 1.367
Azimuth angle (γ) 0°
Tilt setting Fixed
3. Selection of PV modules
Choosing and ordering the appropriate modules is very important. They are usually the most expensive
part of the system and it can be a costly error if the incorrect product is chosen, this choice should not only
be governed by the performance, efficiency and cost of the module but also by the conditions under which
it will operate [14].
The most common PV panel types that used in the design of large PV power plants are Mono-crystalline,
Poly-crystalline and Thin-film, many constraints that effect on the decision in which type of panel will be
used, such as the available space, type of surface, the nature of climate, capital cost. Consequently, it is
important that selection criteria are used to select PV module to suit the climatic conditions in Iraq, these
criteria include improved efficiency at high temperature with low cost.
Poly-crystalline modules are more likely to be selected, since it has slightly low power temperature
coefficient bearing in mind that its efficiency has also to be considerably high with slightly low cost,
(suntech_STP275-20/Wfw) panel has been chosen in this study which has good specifications in terms of
type, power, cost and warranty, typical electrical characteristics of this PV module that measured under
standard test conditions (STC) are shown in Table 2.
4. PV system design and layout

The connection of PV inverters with PV panels (Figure 3) in large PV power plants considers four basic
topologies: [1, 5]
1. Central plant inverter

2. Multistring plant inverter
3. String plant inverter
4. AC module technology
The correct choice of the topology is according to the power output, location, reliability, cost and
efficiency, a brief detail for all characteristics for these topologies are presented in [5]. The central
configuration remains the first choice for many medium and large-scale solar PV plants which was selected
in this paper. Central inverters offer high reliability and simplicity of installation, however, they have
disadvantages: Increased mismatch losses and absence of maximum power point tracking for each string
[1].
Table 2. Panel specifications at STC.
Maximum Power at STC (Pmax) 275 W

Optimum Operating Voltage (Vmp) 31.2 V
Optimum Operating Current (Imp) 8.82 A
Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) 38.1 V
Short Circuit Current (Isc) 9.27 A
Module Efficiency 16.8%
Operating temperature -40 °C to+85 °C
Maximum System Voltage 1000 V DC
Power Tolerance 0/+5 %
Nominal Operating Cell Temperature 45±2°C
Temperature Coefficient of Pmax -0.41 %/°C
Temperature Coefficient of Voc -0.33 %/°C
Temperature Coefficient of Isc 0.067 %/°C
No. of Cells 60
Weight 18.2 Kg
Figure 3. Topologies of PV system inverters [1].
The choice of inverter may depend on price, availability, weight, physical dimensions, reputation, or any
number of other considerations [13]. Ingeteam company manufacturer was selected for the design of this
system the specifications of (1000TL M400 DCAC Indoor) central inverter are shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Central inverter specification.
Type Central inverter

Continuous output power (1,108.5 / 1,019.8) kVA
Nominal AC voltage 400 V
Max input power 1,325.7 kWp
DC voltage range, mpp (UDC) 481 to 820 V
Number of independent MPPT 4
Maximum DC voltage(Umax)) 1050 V
Maximum DC current (Imax (DC)) 1800 A
Maximum efficiency 99.1%
Euro efficiency 98.7%
Nominal frequency 50/60 Hz
Current distortion AC < 3%
Nominal line current AC 1,472 A
Range of ambient temperatures -20 ºC to +65 °C
4.1 System design

The main system design is undertaken based on the amount of generated power (1MW), the generated
output power from the PV system is at 0.4 kV AC voltage level. It stepped up from 0.4 kV to 11 kV by
one step-up distribution transformer with 50Hz, 1250 MVA rating, the output of the power transformer is
synchronized with the national grid.
4.1.1 Number of modules in series per string

The maximum number of modules in a string is defined by the maximum DC input voltage of the inverter
to which the string will be connected, this design can be made in the coldest daytime temperatures at the
site location, the different operating voltages at the maximum and minimum site temperatures can be
calculated using the following relation: [6, 14]
𝑉(𝑡) = 𝑉@25° × (1 + 𝛼(𝑇𝑋 − 𝑇𝑆𝑇𝐶 )) (13)
where; V(t) is module voltage at any temperature; 𝛼 is temperature Coefficient of Voc, TX is cell
temperature in °C and TSTC is temperature at standard test conditions. The temperature range for modules
in Iraqi climate is chosen for worst case to be from (-10°C) to (80°C), so the operating voltages at this
range is:
𝑉𝑚𝑝𝑝(−10°) = 31.2(1 + (−0.0033) × (−10 – 25)) = 34.8 𝑉
𝑉𝑜𝑐(−10°) = 38.1(1 + (−0.0033) × (−10 – 25)) = 42.5 𝑉
𝑉𝑚𝑝𝑝(+80°) = 31.2(1 + (−0.0033) × (+80– 25)) = 25.537 𝑉
𝑉𝑜𝑐(+80°) = 38.1(1 + (−0.0033) × (+80– 25)) = 31.184 𝑉
Now, using Eq. (13) the maximum number of modules per string is calculated [6, 7, 13]:
(𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑥 )𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟
𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑒𝑠⁄𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 = (𝑉𝑂𝐶 )(−10°)
(14)
1050
𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑒𝑠/𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 = = 24.7
42.5
Which must down to 24 modules/string for safety. And also the minimum number of module per string
can be found using the following relation: [6, 7, 13]
(𝑉𝑚𝑝𝑝 )
𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑒𝑠/𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 = (15)
(𝑉𝑚𝑝𝑝 )(+85°)
581
𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑒𝑠/𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 = = 22.75
25.537
Also, for safety conditions 23 modules/string were selected, thus the 24 modules/string choice is not
available because the maximum system voltage which equal to (24 ×42.05=1009.2 V) which exceeds the
module maximum voltage (1000 V DC).
4.1.2 Total number of strings

The number of strings in parallel can be found according the power generated needed (1 MW) using the
following relation: [6]
(𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑘𝑊 )𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟 /𝜂𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑙 = (16)
[(𝑁𝑜.𝑀𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑒𝑠/𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔)×(𝑃𝑚𝑎𝑥 )𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑒
1000000/99.1%
𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑙 = = 159.5 ≅ 160
23 × 275
Thus, the total number of solar modules required is (23×160=3680 modules) connected in best available
method as shown in Figure 4. With solar inverter contain 16 separately DC inputs grouped into four
maximum power point tracker (MPPT) each has four inputs, so each MPPT contain 40 string distributed
among its four inputs by 10 circuit combiner boxes, since there is a single inverter used, there is no need
for synchronization between the serval inverter and just the synchronization to the grid is needed.
Figure 4. 1 MW grid connected PV system single line diagram.
5. PV system losses estimation

Theoretical systems may have 100 % efficiency, but this is not the case when installing a real physical
system. A PV array has several factors that prevent PV systems from working at maximum efficiency and
reaching their rated output. There are many factors that affect the output of a PV system such as:
temperature losses, voltage drop losses, dirt and soil losses, shading losses, mismatch losses, inverter &
Transformer losses [6, 14].
The temperature at which the PV module operates has a large effect on its power output and high operating
temperatures lead to power losses [14]. The effect of temperature on output varies from module to module
and can be calculated using the temperature coefficients provided on the manufacturer’s data sheets using
the following relations: [6]
Tx = 1 + α(Tm − Ta ) (17)
Tm = 20.4 + 1.2 × Tavg (18)
where; TX temperature de-rating factor , α power temperature coefficient for module selected (-0.41% ˚C),
Tm is module temperature (˚C), Ta is reference temperature (25˚C), Tavg is the average daytime temperature
(˚C), the ambient temperature (Tavg) for each month in Karbala city is used [15], and all calculations are
illustrated in Table 4.
The voltage drop equals the total resistance times current. The total resistance is dependent of the cross-
sectional area of the conductor, the wire length and resistivity. The voltage drop in the DC cable can be
calculated using the relation: [13, 14]
𝑉𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑝_𝐷𝐶 = 2 × 𝐿𝐷𝐶 × 𝐼𝐷𝐶 × 𝑅𝐷𝐶( Ω ) (19)

𝑚
Also, the AC cables side drop can be calculated using the relation: [13]
√3×𝐼𝐴𝐶 ×𝑅 𝛺 ×𝐿𝐴𝐶(𝑚)
𝐴𝐶( )
𝑉𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑏𝐴𝐶 (%) = 100 × ( 𝑚
𝑉𝐿
) (20)
where; LDC,LAC are DC and AC cables lengths (m), IDC,IAC are DC and AC cables currents (A), RDC, RAC
are DC/AC cables resistance (Ω/m) and VL is line-to-line voltage.
Table 4. Monthly Temperature losses in PV system.
Avg. daytime Temp. Avg. module de-rating Percentage

Month for Karbala city [15] Temp. (˚C) factor TX of losses (%)
January 7.0 28.8 0.984 1.558
February 12.6 35.52 0.956 4.3
March 20.2 44.64 0.919 8
April 26.3 51.96 0.889 11.05
May 30.2 56.64 0.870 12.9
June 35.1 62.52 0.846 15.3
July 37.0 64.8 0.836 16.4
August 37.9 65.88 0.832 16.7
September 33.8 60.96 0.852 14.7
October 25.9 51.48 0.891 10.8
November 17.7 41.64 0.931 6.8
December 11.5 34.2 0.962 3.7
average 24.6 49.92 0.897 10.18
Table 5, summarizes all system wiring with supposed length and voltage drop calculations, the total voltage
drops percentage losses equal to 0.8847%, this will be increase to 1% adding the effect of resistances in
terminations, fuses and disconnect/isolator devices.
The dirt & mismatch losses are assumed to be 2% and 1% respectively, the inverter losses equal to 1.3 %
according to Euro efficiency of the chosen inverter, transformer losses equal to 0.94% according to
efficiency of the transformer used with load 100% at 75°C) and shading losses is Location dependent and
it assumed that the system is arranged in which there is no shading losses in proposed system, thus, the
annual average losses in this system 16.42%.
6. Econamic analysis of grid connected PV system

In order to assess the benefits of investment in PV power plant establishments, the economic aspects must
also be taken into account [19], among different measures of the economic value of an investment, an
appropriate economic analysis such as life-cycle cost (LCC), net present value (NPV), Internal rate of
return (IRR), payback period (PBP) and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) can guarantee the profitability
of the investment in the PV systems.
6.1 The life-cycle cost (LCC)

The life-cycle cost (LCC) of a solar PV system is given by; [16]
𝐿𝐶𝐶 = 𝐶0 + 𝑂&𝑀𝑃𝑉 + 𝑅𝑃𝑉 (21)
where; C0: capital cost, O&MPV: operation & maintenance cost and RPV: replacement cost.
Table 5. System cable sizing and voltage drop.

Cable location Cable Cable cross- Max DC/AC Voltage Relative power
material length sectional Resistance drop (V) loss refer to Max
(m) area(mm2) (Ohm/Km)@70˚C power
DC side (string to Copper 20 2×4 5.09 1.8 0.2508%
combiner box)
DC Side Cables (Com. Copper 45 2×50 0.393 3.12 0.4347%
box to inverter)
LT Cables Copper 20 3×500/phase 0.0459 0.76 0.1912%
(Inverters to Tr.)
HT Cables (Tr. to Aluminum 50 1×185/phase 0.197 0.887 0.008%
feed-in point)
Total 0.8847%
6.1.1 Initial capital cost

Table 6 contains PV system initial capital cost., solar PV modules is the most expensive part with price
with (0.38$/Wp) which represent 51% of the total capital cost, solar cetral inverter also represent 11% of
this cost, panals mounting structure from Grace Solar Company (AL-Ground Mounting System IV) type
which represents 16% of total cost, Evacuation Cost from Bluesun Solar Energy Tech. Co. which include
cost of transformer, DC and AC cables within the solar farm, breakers, junction boxes, LT & HT
switchgear, isolators, protection and metering components ..etc. these component represent 10% of total
cost knowing that this prices is obtain from company's distributors.
Other system costs are very difficult to calculated from solar markets, which are estimated from CERC
[17], these costs are civil & general work which include levelling and mounting, building control room to
house inverter, boundary wall, cable trenching, etc. Preliminary/pre operating expenses and Financing
Costs include transportation of equipment, storage of equipment, contingency & finance charges. Thus,
and with free land, the total initial cost will be 760,540$.
Table 6. PV power plant initial capital cost.
Particulars Total price ($) % of Total cost

SPV module 384,560 51%
inverter 81,800 11%
Mounting structure 120,000 16%
Evacuation cost 78,500 10%
Civil & General works 53,470 7%
Preliminary/Pre-operating expenses costs 42,210 5%
Land free ----
total 760,540 100%
6.1.2 Operation and maintenance cost

It is very difficult to predict the O&M cost over the 25-year design life as there are very few large PV
plants that have been generating for sufficient time to have reached the end of their design life. The need
for O&M can be very different depending on the system size, installation site, and PV technology type. [3]
Generally, it was assumed to be of (22.7 $/kWp. year), [3] thus, (1012×22.7$ = 22,972$/year) including
the cost of spare parts, this is regular annual payments at specified intervals, thus it must be converted to
the present value by the following relation; [6]
(1+𝑖)𝑛 −1
𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 𝑈𝑃𝑊 ×
𝑖×(1+𝑖)𝑛
(22)
where: UPW; Uniform Present Worth, i interest rate: this provides the information about the amount of
profit that is obtainable from saving a sum of money (4% according to Central Bank of Iraq in 31-5-2017),
n number of year. Thus;
(1 + 0.04)25 − 1
(𝑂&𝑀)𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡 = 22972.4 × = 358876$
0.04 × (1 + 0.04)25
6.1.3 Replacement cost

Normally, inverter have shorter lifetimes than the PV modules and other system components and their
lifetime depends on their operating conditions, especially in the hot climate [18]. Thereby, if the inverter
replaced after 12 years, with replacement cost of 81800$; the present value of this cost is calculated by the
following relation: [6]
𝐹𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = (1+𝑖)𝑛
(23)
81800
Total replacement cost = = 51092$
(1 + 0.04)12
Thus; with these three costs the life-cycle cost (LCC) of 1 MW grid connected PV system in present time
is 1170508$.
6.2 Net Present Value (NPV)

The net present value is the value of all future cash flows in today's currency, which is a measure of a
project's economic feasibility [19]. NPV presents the summation of total net cash flows of the investment
project reduced to the present value by discounting. [3]. when a positive NPV indicates an economically
feasible project, and a negative NPV indicates an economically infeasible project, NPV is calculated by
the relation: [19]
𝐶𝐹
𝑁𝑃𝑉 = ∑𝑁 𝑛
𝑛=0 (1+𝑑)𝑛 (24)
where; CFn is the net cash flow related to the conventional nth year, N is number of years (25) and d (%) is
the discount rate (used to determine the present value of future cash flows).
6.3 Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

The internal rate of return is the nominal discount rate that corresponds to a net present value of zero for
projects, [19] the rate in question is the maximally acceptable profitability rate, the largest rate the
investment project can accept, it can be calculated by the relation: [19]
𝐶𝐹
𝑁𝑃𝑉 = ∑𝑁 𝑛
𝑛=0 (1+𝐼𝑅𝑅)𝑛 = 0 (25)
6.4 Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE)

For making fair comparisons with electricity prices and the cost of other power generation technologies,
the concept LCOE is widely used [3]. LCOE is a reliable and practical criterion to compare alternative
technologies for producing energy when different scales of operation, different investment and/or operating
time periods exist, LCOE is calculate by the relation: [19].
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡($⁄𝑊𝑃 )
𝐿𝐶𝑂𝐸 ($⁄𝑘𝑊ℎ) = 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑦𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑(𝑘𝑊ℎ ⁄𝑊𝑝 )
(26)
6.5 The payback period

A common and simple way to evaluate the economic merit of an investment is to calculate its payback
period [16]. The payback period is the number of years of energy-cost saving it takes to recover an
investment’s initial cost, which is given by: [16]
𝐶
𝑃𝐵𝑃 = (𝑄 𝑡𝑜𝑡
×𝑒)
(27)
𝐷
where; Ctot is total system costs, QD is the annual energy production (kWh/year), e is the cost of electricity
per energy unit ($/kWh).
7. Environmental impact of PV system

PV is recognised as one of the cleanest technologies for energy production [3]. During PV system
operations, there are zero (or negligible) releases of CO2, CO, NOX, and SO2 gases and it does not
contribute to global warming. While a special study estimated that the Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
is range from 60.1 to 87.3 g-CO2,eq/kWh depending on the installation methods, with 84% or even more
of the total energy consumption and total GHG emission occupied during the PV manufacturing process.
[23], the saving amount of CO2 emission can be calculated using equation (24) [7].
𝐶𝑂2(𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛) = 𝐹𝐸 × 𝐴𝐸𝑃 × 𝑁 (28)
where; AEP, annual energy production of system, N, number of years FE, emission factor, FE is set to be
0. 699 kg CO2-eq/kWh [7].
8. System performance analysis

The performance of solar PV system is a function of climatic conditions, equipment used and system design
[21]. The main parameters for evaluation of PV system performance are as follows. [8, 21, 22].
8.1 Final Yield (YF)

The final yield is the annually, monthly or daily net AC energy output of the system divided by the rated
output power generated (PPV, Rated) of the installed PV system at STC.
𝐸
𝑌𝐹 = (29)
𝑃𝑃𝑉(𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑)
8.2 Reference Yield (YR)

Reference yield is defined as the ratio of total in plane solar insulation (Ht) (kWh/m2) to the reference
irradiance (G) (1kW/m2).
𝐻𝑡
𝑌𝑅 = (30)
𝐺
8.3 Performance Ratio (PR)

Performance ratio is defined as the ratio of the final yield (YF) to the reference yield (YR). Performance
ratio is dimensionless quantity and it is normalized to performance parameter w.r.t incident solar radiation.
It shows the overall effect of losses.
𝑌
𝑃𝑅 = 𝑌𝐹 (31)
𝑅
8.4 Capacity Factor (CF)

Capacity factor (CF) implies a relation of the real annual electrical energy generation and electrical energy
which could be generated if the PV solar plant operated with its total installed (nominal) power 24 h a day
over a year, Solar PV plant capacity for one year is calculated by equation (28) [22].
𝐹 𝑌 𝐸𝐴𝐶 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝐺𝑂𝑃𝑇 ×𝑃𝑅

𝐶𝐹 = 8760(ℎ) =𝑃 =𝑃 (32)
𝑚𝑎𝑥.𝑆𝑇𝐶 ×8760 𝑚𝑎𝑥.𝑆𝑇𝐶 ×8760
Also, the capacity factor (CF) for any month can be calculated using the relation [6]:
𝑆𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒(𝑘𝑊ℎ⁄𝑚2 .𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ)×𝜂𝑠𝑦𝑠.𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ

𝐶𝐹𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ = (33)
24(ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟⁄𝑑𝑎𝑦)×𝑁𝑜.𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ×1𝑘𝑊⁄𝑚2
9. Calculating system yield

The net AC energy (kWh) produced for any month can be estimated using equation (34), [6] PV system
efficiency for any month can be calculated using the de-rating factor (TX) combinations for all losses,
taking in the account the Industry-leading Warranty based on nominal power of the selected solar panel
which 97.5% in the first year, thereafter, form the second year through twenty-five, 0.7% maximum
decrease from module's nominal power output per year. Also, because not all year days are sunshiny, taking
the effect of cloudy days, a factor of (350/365) is added to the calculations meaning that there are 15 days
off work in every year.
𝐸𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ(𝑘𝑊ℎ) = 𝐹𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑋 𝐶𝐹𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ (34)
The full nameplate capacity for any month (kWh) is calculated by the relation: [6]
𝐹𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 = [𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 (𝑘𝑊)] 𝑥 [24 (ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟/𝑑𝑎𝑦)

× (𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ) (35)
MATLAB software is used to calculate the plant generated energy, performance, environmental impact &
economic evaluations for the proposed system according to the flow chart shown in Figure 5 with the input
data of average solar radiation from the output of the first program, 1012 kWp plant and the estimated
system losses in section 5.
Figure 5. Flow chart of the MATLAB program used for system parameters estimation.
10. Results and discussion

Two MATLAB programs were used to get the complete study for installing large scales PV system in
Karbala. First, the solar radiation estimation and its' results are used as input for the second program to get
System performance, generated energy, environmental impact and economic evaluations as follows.
10.1 Solar radiation

Table 7 shows the optimal tilt angles settings for Karbala city with their respective annually average solar
radiation in (kWh/m2.day), the fixed tilt angle is calculated by finding the average value of the tilt angles
for the all months of the year which it is found to be equal to latitude of the location (32 o), while the
seasonal adjustment for solar collectors was achieved by taking the mathematical average of each six
months to represent one season which was equal to ( latitude + 15°) for winter months whilst in summer
months equal (latitude -15°).
Table 7. Tilt angle setting for Karbala city.
Month Jan Fab Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec annual Avg.
radiation
Setting kWh/m2.day
Monthly tilt 53 46 35 23 13 9 11 19 30 42 51 55 6.524334
angle
Seasonally 47 47 47 17 17 17 17 17 17 47 47 47 6.439888
tilt angle
yearly tilt 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 6.0725
angle
Figure 6 shows the variation of average solar radiation in (kWh/m2.day) with different tilt angle settings,
as it clear monthly type give best performance with annually average of 6.524 (kWh/m2.day). Yearly tilt
type gives less annually average radiation of 6.075 (kWh/m2.day). It is worth mentioning that in order to
reduce the initial investment cost (simple panels mounted stricture) and periodic operation and
maintenance cost, the fixed tracking system preferred for large scale as well as the yearly optimum tilt
angle for installing PV modules which is dependent in this study.
Figure 6. Monthly average solar radiation (kWh/m2.day) with different tilt angle settings.
10.2 System performance

Performance Ratio (PR) is widely used to access the quality of PV system installations that are commonly
reported on a daily, monthly or yearly basis, the PR for every month for first year of generation plotted is
shown in Figure 7-a. Performance Ratio is varied between 86.4% in January month to 73 % August,
evidently, the PR is low in the summer months compared with the winter months, this due to profoundly
effect of temperature in system performance. The annually average PR is about 78.78% which is acceptable
in case of large scale PV system. The capacity factor in each month for the first year is varied between
16.73% in December to 21.9% in April with annually average of 19.83%, (Figure 7-b) which is mainly
depending on the amount of solar radiation fulling on the panels, so the variation of its values distributed
as the same as the solar radiation for fixed tilt type that shown in Figure 6, the capacity factor percentages
is acceptable compare with that for real PV power plant installed in different countries in Asia.
(a) (b)
Figure 7. (a) Monthly PR for first year of generation, (b) Monthly CF for first year of generation.
10.3 Energy yield

The most important part of any type of PV system is the amount of generated energy. The result show that
about (1757.8 MWh) produced in the first year with average of (4.817MWh/day) distributed among the
months as shown in Figure 8. Spring and autumn months gives higher production than the other because
of the type of tilt angle setting which is suitable for this months which give maximum generation of 162.86
MWh in March while the wintery months give less amount of generation reach to 126 MWh in December.
Also, the expected generated energy for 25 years (after taking the effect of module degradation of 0.7%
maximum decrease from nominal power output per year) of the plant life time the result is plotted in Figure
(9-a). The degradation effect is clearly shows in future years ended to 80.7% of the nominal power in the
25th year of life. The total MWh produced for twenty-five years is estimated to be 40,445 MWh.
10.4 Environmental impact

The environmental impacts of PV system with regard to reductions in emission are estimated for one of
the four atmospheric emission constituents (i.e. CO2) which has the greatest amount from others. After
taking into consideration the small amount of CO2 emission during the PV system operation, the saving
value of CO2 emission result by installed a 1MW PV plant in first year is 1208 tons. Figure 9-b shows the
amount of CO2 emission reduction for twenty-five years of life time of the project which is estimated to
be 27794 tons of CO2 can be avoided from entering the local atmosphere in during 25 years.
Figure 8. Monthly kWh produced for 1MW capacity PV power plant in first year.
(a) (b)
Figure 9. (a) Annually energy expected, (b) Greenhouse gas emissions saving.
10.5 Financial analysis

The economic analysis of 1MW PV plant with 1170508$ total life cycle cost and 40,445 MWh life cycle
generated energy, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is 0.0289 $/kWh with installation cost of 0.7515
$/Wp. The relationship between the electricity selling price ($/kWh) and NPV, IRR and PBP has been
investigated in Table 8 with 5% discount rate, obviously, the NPV & IRR are increased considerably with
an increase in the electricity selling escalation and the NPV has positive value and the IRR is higher than
the discount rate, then the project is economically profitable.
The PBP is important to know for an investor to get his investment back, Figure 10 shows the cumulative
cash flow and the expected equity payback period with three selling prices, the payback period, in the
present case are found to vary between minimum of 6.8 years for 0.1$/kWh selling price and maximum of
11.5 years for 0.06$/kWh selling price and the other is shown in the table according to the unit price that
chosen since the price value is depend on demand sector and the amount of energy consumed.
Table 8. The relationship between the electricity selling price and NPV, IRR and PBP.
Price($/kWh) NPV ($) IRR (%) PBP(Year)
0.06 221,410 6.88 11.5
0.07 453,400 8.72 9.6
0.08 685,390 10.4 8.5
0.09 917370 12.17 7.4
0.1 1,149,400 13.82 6.8
Figure 10. The cumulative cash flow and the expected equity PBP with different selling price.
11. Conclusion
On grid PV system type is widely increased nowadays especially in medium and large scales power plants,
this work proposed a design of 1 MW grid connected PV plant in Karbala city. The results obtain from
MATLAB programs including the estimation of solar radiation and the PV system performance
parameters, clarified that the energy generated form PV system dependable for supporting the national grid
in generation and management sector in addition the system has a high environmental impact by reducing
the very high amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Also the project has good economic returns. The results
obtained from this work would encourage the government to exploit this type of project in future.
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Afaneen A. Abbood received the B.S degree in electrical engineering from the Collage of Engineering, Baghdad
University in Baghdad, Iraq in 1990, and the M.Sc. and the Ph.D. in Electrical Power Engineering degrees from
University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq in 1998 and 2005 respectively. From 1991to 1993, she was a lecturer in the
institute of the Technology in Baghdad, from 1993 to 1998, she served in the training and work shop center of UOT
in Baghdad as trainer, head of the electrical unit, and head of the registration department, from 1998 till now she is a
faculty member in the electrical engineering department, UOT. Also she is the head of the Electrical Power branch in
the Electrical Engineering Department, UOT, Baghdad, Iraq, since 2011. Her current research interests include power
system operation and control, renewable energy, and smart grid. She has published more than 28 research papers in
International journals/conferences, and supervised more than 15 M.Sc. and Ph.D. Thesis. Dr. Afaneen was a recipient
of the 2010 Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research’s shield, and the 2012, 2014, 2015 University
of Technology Scientific Research Shield. She is Member of Iraqi Engineers Union since 1991 and a Member of Iraqi
teaching Union since 1993.
E-mail address: [email protected], [email protected]
Mohammed A. Salih is Ph.D. in Physics, College of Science, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq. He has complete
his M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Physics from College of Science, Baghdad University, Baghdad, Iraq. He has published more
than 20 research papers in international journals/conference, and supervised more than 40 M.Sc. and Ph.D. Thesis. Dr.
Mohammed interested with Physics, Power Systems, Smart Grid, Renewable Energy, Demand Side Management and
Economic. He is currently Head of the Economic Studies Department, Planning and Studies directorate, Ministry of
electricity, Baghdad, Iraq.
E-mail address: [email protected]
Ashraf Y. Mohammed is a M.Sc. degree student in the research level at Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq, and complete B.Sc. degree at 2013 in Electrical Engineering
Department, College of Engineering, University of Kufa, Najaf, Iraq. He worked as an electrical engineering to build
new 400 bed education hospital in Karbala City and as lecturer in department of life medicine engineering, Collage of
Engineering, Karbala University. Mr. Ashraf interested with electric power systems, projects electrical system design
solar energy and control systems.
E-mail address: [email protected]
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Modeling and simulation of 1mw grid connected photovoltaic system in

Article · September 2018

Afaneen Alkhazraji Mohammed Ahmed Salih

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Modeling and simulation of 1mw grid connected

Afaneen A. Abbood1, Mohammed A. Salih2, Ashraf Y. Mohammed1

2. Mathematical model for solar radiation

𝑚 = √[1229 + (614𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃𝑧 )2 ] − 614𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃𝑧 (2)

And Ra is the extraterrestrial irradiance on a horizontal surface given by [10]:

𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃𝑧 = (𝑐𝑜𝑠∅𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛿𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜔 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛿) (4)

And ω is the hour angle calculated from; [4, 10]

𝜔 = 15(12 − 𝑆𝑇) (6)

𝐸𝑇 = 9.87𝑠𝑖𝑛2𝐵 − 7.53𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐵 − 1.5𝑠𝑖𝑛𝐵 (8)

Figure 1. Beam radiation on horizontal and tilted surfaces [4].

Figure 2. Flow chart for solar radiation estimation program.

Table 1. Inputs of the MATLAB program.

Latitude of Karbala (φ ) 32.34°

4. PV system design and layout

1. Central plant inverter

Table 2. Panel specifications at STC.

Maximum Power at STC (Pmax) 275 W

Figure 3. Topologies of PV system inverters [1].

Table 3. Central inverter specification.

Type Central inverter

4.1 System design

4.1.1 Number of modules in series per string

𝑉(𝑡) = 𝑉@25° × (1 + 𝛼(𝑇𝑋 − 𝑇𝑆𝑇𝐶 )) (13)

4.1.2 Total number of strings

Figure 4. 1 MW grid connected PV system single line diagram.

5. PV system losses estimation

Tm = 20.4 + 1.2 × Tavg (18)

𝑉𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑝_𝐷𝐶 = 2 × 𝐿𝐷𝐶 × 𝐼𝐷𝐶 × 𝑅𝐷𝐶( Ω ) (19)

Table 4. Monthly Temperature losses in PV system.

Avg. daytime Temp. Avg. module de-rating Percentage

6. Econamic analysis of grid connected PV system

6.1 The life-cycle cost (LCC)

𝐿𝐶𝐶 = 𝐶0 + 𝑂&𝑀𝑃𝑉 + 𝑅𝑃𝑉 (21)

Table 5. System cable sizing and voltage drop.

6.1.1 Initial capital cost

Table 6. PV power plant initial capital cost.

Particulars Total price ($) % of Total cost

6.1.2 Operation and maintenance cost

6.1.3 Replacement cost

6.2 Net Present Value (NPV)

6.3 Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

6.4 Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE)

6.5 The payback period

7. Environmental impact of PV system

𝐶𝑂2(𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛) = 𝐹𝐸 × 𝐴𝐸𝑃 × 𝑁 (28)

8. System performance analysis

8.1 Final Yield (YF)

8.2 Reference Yield (YR)

8.3 Performance Ratio (PR)

8.4 Capacity Factor (CF)

𝐹 𝑌 𝐸𝐴𝐶 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝐺𝑂𝑃𝑇 ×𝑃𝑅

𝑆𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒(𝑘𝑊ℎ⁄𝑚2 .𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ)×𝜂𝑠𝑦𝑠.𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ