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THE ECONOMIC EFFECT OF PHOTOVOLTAIC WATER PUMPING

SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION: CASE STUDY IN RANTAU, NEGERI
SEMBILAN

ABSTRACT

Malaysia is blessed with huge ground water resource and with appropriate utilisation,
this resource could help to alleviate “water tension” during the drought seasons.
Application of renewable energy for pumping of ground water resource for remote
location without electric grid is not widely accepted compares with conventional fossil
fuel electric generator. This research is aim at performing the techno-economic and
environmental analysis to evaluate the impact of implementing photovoltaic (PV)
energy system for ground water pumping off-grid in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. This
research focused on the electric generating system of an actual case study of an off-grid
solar PV ground water pumping installation in Rantau, Negeri Sembilan. The aim is to
evaluate and obtain the indicators of techno-economical and environment impact of the
actual installation in the case study and compare it with an equivalent sized conventional
petrol generator. HOMER software was used to simulate the hourly radiation for a year
imparted on the PV panels and the daily electrical load was synthesized and added with
appropriate standard variation to emulate more realistic data to cater for demand
disparity throughout the entire year. Excel spreadsheet was also used to complement
HOMER in the analysis. This research shows PV system has higher initial investment
cost but the net present cost (NPC) & levelised cost of energy (LCOE) throughout the
project lifespan will be lowered than the petrol electric generator due to fuel
consumption cost. Recommendation of a minor retrofitting on the existing installation
to further reduce the NPC & LCOE was explained and discussed. The environmental
impact analysis concluded that the petrol generator will emit 5,500 kg of contaminating
gas throughout the lifetime of the project while PV system will not have any.