Experimental evaluation of 8 kW grid-connected photovoltaic system in Egypt

Abstract

An experimental observation study of 8 kW grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system that is installed at Electronics Research Institute (ERI), Giza, Egypt (Latitude 30.04°N, Longitude 31.21°E), is presented. This study includes the quality of the electrical power generated and injected into the network. The considered system consists of 28 × 295 Wp multicrystalline PV modules, StecaGrid three-phase 8 kW grid-connected inverter and a Solar-Log 300 PM+ for data acquisition and remote monitoring. The power quality parameters at the inverter output side have been measured using CA8335 power quality analyzer. The system has been installed in August 2014 and generated 5.7 MWh till February 2015. The produced electricity by the system is injected directly into the grid without storage device. The purpose of this paper is to present and evaluate the measurements of the power quality parameters obtained from the PV site. Also, this paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of the system over a period of one week. The observation and analyses exploitation of the collected data can help to evaluate the performance of the PV system connected to the network.

Keywords

• Grid-connected photovoltaic system performance
• Monitoring PV system
• Power quality
• Inverter efficiency