Generation Assessment and Loss Justification

The generation was estimated considering 315Wp modules of a reputed

make and 1MW solar inverter of a reputed make as initial design inputs for
conducting the simulations.

The project uses a seasonal tilt system for with 7.5m pitch.

The DC to AC overloading that has been decided as a design parameter is

25%.
The typical loss breakdown is as shown below with relevant justifications

Table 1: Justification of PVSyst Losses

S.No. Parameter Measure Justification

Latest version of PVSyst simulation tool has
1. PV Syst Version 6.41
been used
For seasonal tilt, the aforementioned tilt angles
2. Tilt Angle/Tracking Angle 5 o and 30 o
for summer and winter have been assumed.
Considering the overloading of 25%, and
corresponding land usage and generation
3. Pitch(m) 7.5
optimization, the pitch values given here came
out to be optimal
Near shading is caused by inter row distance
and due to tall objects like control rooms and
-0.2% (5 o) lightening arrestors. For shading from tall
objects, sufficient spaces are left by conducting a
shadow estimation study so as to keep the PV
array shadow free during generation hours. The
4. Shading near shading loss due to inter row spacing is
however determined by PVSyst as per the
design pitch considered. In the case of seasonal
-3.7% (30 o) tilt, the shading losses are low for summer tilt
and is higher for winter tilt. However, the
average shading loss will fall somewhere in
between the two values.
IAM loss accounts for losses in radiation
-2.2% (5 o)
penetrating the front glass of the PV
modules due to angles of incidence other than
perpendicular. The loss figures is a module
dependent parameter and is calculated by the
5. Incidence Angle Modifier
PVSyst as per the module chosen.
-3.3% (30 o)
 This is the loss due to dust and bird droppings
on the PV modules depending on the
environmental conditions, rainfall frequency
and on the plant’s O&M module cleaning
strategy.
To assure the maintenance of soiling losses
below 1.5%, a novel soiling estimation setup will
6. Soiling Loss -1.5% be setup at plant during O&M consisting of two
PV strings. One of the PV strings will be cleaned
on a daily basis, while the other one will not be
cleaned. Once, the difference between
performance of the two strings will start
touching 1.25%, a module cleaning cycle of the
entire plant will be initiated, thus ensuring
soiling loss in line with the design assumption.
The characteristics of a PV module are
determined at standard temperature conditions
of 25˚C. Considering the temperature coefficient
of the 315Wp modules selected, the module
performance decreases by -0.40% for every oC
rise in cell temperature.
7. Module Temperature Loss -9.5% (Seasonal) Module temperature loss is computed by the
PVSyst by considering the temperature profile
of the location as per the meteo database. Since,
the site is located in Rajasthan, a desert region
with high temperatures, and the high
temperature losses calculated are representative
of the high temperature profile.
PV modules generally deviate from the
manufacturer’s technical specifications. The
315W modules considered here are supplied
with a positive Power tolerance of 0 to 3%. The
8. Module Quality Loss +0.4%
developer has thus considered a quality gain of
0.4%, although on a conservative side so as to
account for other contingencies in generation
estimation.
The performance of PV modules degrades over
the time. The degradation is most significant
during few hours of first exposure of PV
modules to light. This phenomenon is known as
Light Induced Degradation (LID). Factors
affecting the degree of degradation include the
quality of materials used in manufacture, the
manufacturing process and the quality of
First Year Module assembly and packaging of cells into the
9. Degradation (under Light -1.5% modules.
Induced Degradation(LID)) The first year degradation considering LID and
annual degradation is guaranteed to be less than
2.5% in the datasheet. However, as per the
general industry experience, the first year
degradation for Tier-1 modules has typically
been observed between 0.8% to 1.5%. Hence, the
first year module performance degradation has
been considered as 1.5% here.
 Mismatch losses represent the mismatch in
current/voltage of modules in a string due to
statistical variations. Typically, the mismatch
losses are considered as 1%. However, the loss
Module Array Mismatch can be reduced by sorting the modules as per
10. -0.8%
Loss current before factory dispatch. The modules
supplied at site with a 3-bin current sorting will
effectively reduce the mismatch losses. Hence,
we have considered the module mismatch losses
as 0.8%.
Electrical resistance in the wires between the
power available at the modules and at the
terminals of the array gives rise to ohmic losses
(I²R).
For well-designed plants, DC cabling losses at
STC vary from 1.2% to 1.5% at STC. We have
11. DC Ohmic Wiring Loss -1.5% (STC) considered 1.5% as the DC Ohmic losses at STC.
The losses are at full load, and the PVsyst
computed the overall losses considering the
solar plant operates at partial loads most of the
times. The final loss then computed by PVSyst
corresponding to 1.5% loss at STC considering
the partial load profile of plant is 1.1%
Inverters convert power from DC into AC at a
certain efficiency. This results in a loss of power
during conversion from AC to DC. The
efficiency curves are inverter dependent. In our
Inverter Loss during case, the inverters considered are 1000kW of a
12. -1.7%
Operation (Efficiency) reputed make. The efficiency loss has been
calculated by the PVSyst as per the
manufacturer provided efficiency curves of the
inverter and stands at around 1.7%.

Various components of plants like inverters,

PLC, module cleaning system, plant lighting,
security systems etc and amenities like Air
conditioning, plumbing and others consume
electricity for their operation. This is known as
auxiliary loss. The auxiliary losses vary from
0.5% to 1% depending upon the size, design and
structure of the plant. Typically, small plants
require a higher percentage of auxiliary
consumption than bigger plants on relative
13. Auxiliary Losses -0.6%
terms. Various measures such as night
disconnect, self-powered trackers, LED lighting,
have been considered in the design for reducing
auxiliary consumption. The auxiliary losses
have thus been reasonably considered at 0.6%
with sufficient margin.
 This includes ohmic losses in the cable from
inverter leading to the substation, and depends
on the sizing of cables during the design. During
the design of the plants, the AC cable sizing has
been done in such a way that the losses do not
exceed 0.5% in the AC side. Full load AC ohmic
14. AC Ohmic Losses -0.5% (Full Load) losses of 0.5% have been considered,
corresponding to which PVsyst computes the
overall losses considering the solar plant
operates at partial loads most of the times. The
final loss then computed by PVSyst
corresponding to 0.5% loss at STC considering
the partial load profile of plant is 0.3%.
Downtime depends on the diagnostic response
time and stock of spare equipment. Further, loss
in generation due to unavailability of plant and
grid are also accounted for in downtime losses.
Typically, the unavailability is higher for smaller
plants, as compared to larger plants due to
relative impact of failure of a single component
on the entire plant availability. The O&M
scheme thought out also considers stocking of
inverter transformer, breaker, inverter IGBT
stacks, and modules, cables of all sizes,
15. System Unavailability -0.5% consumables and on site deployment of service
persons of critical components like
transformers, inverters on site along with
regular manufacturer training of O&M
personnel. Large solar plants in solar parks are
now connected at 132kV to the grid which is
ultimately connected at 400kV to green corridor
grid network, which will be extremely stable
with very less downtime. Considering the
above, the system unavailability has been
considered as 0.5%

Large losses may rise in the transformer but are

generally less than 1% for each transformation
level. Given the fact that the plant will be
evacuating at 132kV, two levels of losses have
been considered; 1.0% for the intermediate
16. External Transformer Loss -1.6%
transformation at 33/11kV, and 0.6% (following
the GTP of the transformer to be used on-site)
for the second level of transformation at 132kV
in line with standard design practices.