Impact of Utility Grid Instability on an On-Grid Solar PV System Performance

This work studies the losses caused by utility grid instability on PV system parameters, namely, energy production, overall losses, final yield, capacity factor, performance ratio, and system efficiency of the solar PV system throughout 2017. The present PV solar system (HIT-type) is 15 kWp on-grid installed in Baghdad City/training and energy research office. These parameters are compared with other parameters unaffected (intact) by utility grid instability to estimate the magnitude of the influence of instability on the PV system performance. This procedure is explained in detail in the work methodology section. The intact and affected total annual energy values are 23346.49 kWh and 19059.5 kWh, respectively. The intact and affected total annual final yield values are 52.0 kWh/kWp and 42.5kWh/kWp, respectively. The intact and affected yearly average system efficiency values are 13.0% and 10.6%, respectively. The intact and affected annual average performance ratio & capacity factor values are 74.0% and 18.1% & 60.0% and 14.76%, respectively. The intact and affected total annual overall losses values are 19.4 and 28.91 kWh/kWp kWh/kWp, respectively. June is the month most affected by grid instability (significant shortage in electricity supply), while the least affected are March and February. The maximum energy losses are recorded in June at 45%.