2020 7th International Conference on Signal Processing and Integrated Networks (SPIN)
Simulation of a Dubai based 200 KW power plant
using PVsyst Software
Malvika Satish Sharon Santhosh
Solar and Alternater Energy, Solar and Alternater Energy,
Engineering Department Engineering Department
Amity University Dubai Amity University Dubai
Dubai, United Arab Emirates Dubai, United Arab Emirates
malvika1799@gmail.com sharon.santhosh2000@gmail.com
Abstract—With the exhaustion of fossil fuels, their dreadful
effect on the environment and their soaring prices, renewable
forms of energy like solar and wind power have emerged
rapidly, as clean and sustainable sources of generating
electricity. This paper studies the viability of deploying a 200
kWp on-grid monocrystalline silicon solar plant, by making use
of PVsyst software for Dubai international academic city, Dubai.
The system was designed to have 22 modules in series with 32
strings in parallel. And the total number of modules is computed
as 704. The reports of the simulation were examined to
determine the total production of energy and specific energy
production which was found to be 352.6 MWh/year and 1757
kWh/kWp/year respectively. The annual performance ratio of
the system was calculated as 81.67 %. Lastly, by identifying the
main source of losses, the detailed loss for the entire year is
estimated and represented by an arrow loss diagram.
Keywords— Renewable energy, Solar photovoltaic system,
PVsyst software, Grid-connected, Efficiency, performance
ratio, system losses.
I. INTRODUCTION
One of the most crucial issues of the 21st century is to
prevent an energy crisis. There has been relentless effort to
find and develop alternative ways to satisfy the rising energy
demands of the global population [1]. Through technological
advances and innovations in design, performance
characteristics of these renewable sources can be significantly
improved along with the reduction in costs to install, operate
and maintain these systems. Apart from these merits, the use
of sustainable energy sources will bring in variety in sectors
of energy, offer economically viable alternatives to the public,
help secure reliable long term power supplies, and reduce
global carbon footprint. Every single day, the earth receives
about 1353W/m2 of the sun’s energy. Each second, the sun
produces energy of about 4 million tons by transforming its
matter [2]. Hence it is safe to say that the sun is the primary
source that can help the ever-increasing energy requirements
of mankind. One difficulty of harnessing solar energy is that
it is intermittent. We receive the sun’s radiation for a limited
number of hours during the day and even so, the energy
distribution for a particular location varies throughout the
year. This affects the amount of electricity that can be
produced from a solar energy system. The design and
installation technique together with the quality of equipment
used also affects the overall output from the PV module [3].
For the installation of a solar plant, it is important to know
certain specifications of the area, such as the geographical
latitude, climatic conditions, average daily incident sunlight,
tilt angle, azimuth angle, etc. these factors drastically affect
the overall output produced from a solar system.
978-1-7281-5475-6/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE 824
Apurv Yadav
Solar and Alternater Energy,
Engineering Department
Amity University Dubai
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
ORCID: 0000-0001-9681-8234
This paper aims to complement a study on the feasibility
of operating a grid-connected monocrystalline PV system in
Dubai international academic city, by using a software
program called PVsyst. PVsyst is a modeling tool used by
engineers and researchers to determine how much solar
energy can be harnessed from a specific location. It is used to
analyze the on-grid and off-grid systems as well as solar
pumping systems. It includes broad meteorological statistics
and other tools for studying PV systems [4].
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature has proposed the use of simulation software to
predict the feasibility, efficiency, and output of solar power
plants at the concept stage. Yadav et al., 2013, designed and
simulated a 1KWp PV system using PVsyst software for
Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh to effectively utilize the
abundant solar resource in the region [5]. Genuine on-site
measured data from over a year was used for the simulation to
get reliable results. 7 modules of 150 Wp each and a 1KWp
inverter are used to suit the PV power plant. Performance of a
stand-alone PV system in Kangar, Malaysia was evaluated by
Safwati et al., 2015 [6]. To satisfy the PV array configuration,
10 PV modules with 64 W power each and 8 units of 160 AH
batteries were utilized. The studies proved that the sizing of
the photovoltaic system depends greatly on the geographical
site. Kandasamy et al., 2013, discussed the efficacy of
deploying a 1 MW PV system by contrasting the cost and solar
energy irradiance in regions of Tamil Nadu [7]. Solar potential
assessment for Tuticorin, Sivakasi, Sivagangai, and Madurai
is presented and it is established that Tuticorin has the highest
energy production (1523 MWh/Year). Energy production
analysis of monocrystalline and polycrystalline PV
technologies and their performance indices as compared to
other PV plants were carried out by Allouhi et al., 2016 [8].
The results indicated that polycrystalline was superior with
higher annual overall efficiency and capacity factor. Jaydeep,
2015 explored the practicality of constructing 1 MW
polycrystalline on-grid PV power plant in Shapur, Gujarat [9].
Considering limited shading, the overall energy injected to the
grid was 1416980 kWh with a performance ratio of 0.764.
Sharma & Chandel, 2013 performed a study on 190 kWp grid-
interactive solar PV plant in Khatkar-Kalan, India [10]. The
system efficiency, capacity factor and annual average
performance ratio were stated as 8.3%, 9.27%, and 74%
respectively. A thorough review of system efficiency,
capacity factor, reference yield, final yield, and performance
ratio was discussed.
This work also presents an analysis of the simulation for a
solar power plant in a desert region using PVsyst software.
 2020 7th International Conference on Signal Processing and Integrated Networks (SPIN)

III. DESIGN METHODOLOGY
The methodology for designing a 200 KWp grid-
connected PV system for Dubai international academic city,
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Latitude: 25.11° N, 55.41° E)
using the PVsyst simulation tool is described here. In PVsyst,
on-grid system was selected out of on-grid, off-grid and
hybrid system. Geographical location of the site was selected
from the given map. Meteonorm 7.1 data for the weather
station was selected. The schematic of an on-grid PV system
is presented in Figure 1.
the horizontal plane is 824.69kWh/m2. The effective energy
output and the injected energy values were computed as
356.81 MWh and 352.62 MWh.The power obtained from the
PV array is in DC form. This direct current needs to be
transformed into AC power which will result in some loss of
energy due to system losses. The input energy will have
different value as compared to the output energy value. For the
200 kWp Si-mono PV system, the PV system injects annual
energy of 352.62 MWh. The month of May sees the maximum
injection of energy with a value of 32.54 MWh. The lowest
amount of energy that’s supplied to the grid is during
December with a value of 25.53 MWh. Energy injected to grid
versus energy received by the collector plane is shown in
Figure 2

Fig. 1 Schematic of an on-grid PV system

The altitude of the site is 30 m above sea level. The tilt

angle of the panels is kept at 25° to keep it close to the latitude
for maximum absorbance with no shadings. The azimuth
angle is 0°. SolarWorld Sunmodule SW 285 monocrystalline
panels of 285W were selected. A total of 704 modules with 32
strings of 22 modules in each were arranged. The operating
temperature was 50° C. 3 inverters from Sungrow SG60KTL
of 60 kVA capacity each were selected. Table 1 below
summarises the array characteristics.
Table 1. Array Characteristics
Fig. 2 Daily energy input versus energy output
The collection losses, Lc, shows a value of 1.02
kWh/kWp/day, the system losses, Ls, have a value of 0.06
kWh/kWp/day and the useful produced energy, Yf, is 4.82
kWh/kWp/day. The normalized values of energy produced are
illustrated in Figure 3.

Module Type Monocrystalline

Load Grid-connected
Total Nominal Power 200KW
PV Module Sunmodule SW 285
mono,285Wp, 293 A
Inverter Sungrow,180 kVA,
570-950 V
Fig. 3 Normalized production
Module Area 1180 m2
The Performance Ratio (PR) is simulated and computed as
81.7% which is the average annual value for the 200 kWp Si-
mono PV system. The PR value deviates slightly according to
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
the different months and these values are presented in Table 1
A. Key outcomes and the deviations are also illustrated in Figure 4.
Annual production of energy came out to be is 352.6
MWh/year. Annual specific energy production is 1757
kWh/kWp/year. Average performance ratio, calculated on an
annual basis which is 81.67 % for the 200 kWp Si-mono PV
system. The balances and key outcomes are summarized in
Table 1. It consists of parameters such as horizontal plane
based global irradiation, horizontal plane based diffuse
radiation, ambient temperature, global irradiation on the
collector plane, performance ratio, energy supplied to the grid
and overall energy yield of the array. The balances summarize
that the average annual global irradiation on the horizontal
plane is 2000.2 kWh/m2. The incident global irradiation on
the collector plane is 2152 kWh/m2. The diffuse radiation on Fig. 4 Performance Ratio

825
 2020 7th International Conference on Signal Processing and Integrated Networks (SPIN)

Table 1. Simulation results

Months GlobHor DiffHor TAmb (°C) GlobInc GlobEff (kWh/m²) Earray EGrid PR
(kWh/m²) (kWh/m²) (kWh/m²) (MWh) (MWh)
January 117.7 41.42 18.46 156.4 152.7 27.49 27.16 0.865
February 126.4 51.55 20.19 154.5 150.5 26.87 26.56 0.857
March 164.4 74.61 23.65 182 177 30.95 30.6 0.838
April 189.5 80.1 27.72 191.7 186.1 31.69 31.31 0.814
May 219.5 84.53 32.66 205.2 198.7 32.93 32.54 0.79
June 210.8 90.37 33.65 190.4 184.1 30.73 30.37 0.795
July 201.7 94.75 35.67 185.3 179.3 29.68 29.33 0.789
August 198.4 92.37 35.55 194.1 188.3 30.94 30.57 0.785
September 177.3 69.71 32.28 189.4 184.3 30.41 30.05 0.791
October 158.1 54.05 29.44 189 184.5 30.84 30.47 0.804
November 127.3 44.02 24.67 167.4 163.1 28.45 28.13 0.838
December 109.1 47.2 20.73 146.7 142.8 25.83 25.53 0.868
Year 2000.2 824.69 27.93 2152 2091.6 356.81 352.62 0.817

Figure 6 illustrates the arrow loss diagram outlining the
numerous losses of the solar plant. As depicted, the horizontal
global irradiance is 2000 kWh/m² however the incident
radiation on the PV collectors is only 2092 kWh/m². This is
because there is 0,85% energy loss due to irradiance. The
effective irradiance enables the PV system to produce
electrical energy.
Dubai international Academic City, Dubai, and the following
conclusions were drawn:
• The amount of energy fed to the grid annually is
352.6 MWh.
• The maximum energy supplied to the grid is 32.54
MWh for the month of May and the least
amount of energy supplied is 25.53 MWh for
the month of December.
• The average annual performance ratio of this
specific solar plant is 81.7% simulated for the
premeditated location.
The results indicate that this simulated PV system plan will
be of profit to the installer due to operational advantages. The
study also provides the flexibility to simulate the grid
operation for different PV module technologies as per the
requirements that will expand the performance.

REFERENCES

[1] V. Devabhaktuni, M. Alam, ., S.S.S.R. Depuru,, Green II, R.C., Nims,

Fig. 5 Arrow loss diagram
At standard testing conditions (STC) after this conversion
to electricity is calculated to be 420 MWh. At maximum power
point (MPP), the yearly virtual energy of the PV array is 358
MWh and at STC the effective efficiency of the panels is 17%.
The losses that transpire at these stages are 14% due to
temperature losses, 0.44% due to module quality losses, 1.1%
attributable to module mismatch losses and 1.16% due to
Ohmic wiring losses. Finally, the energy obtainable from the
inverter is 352.6 MWh. This is then pumped into the grid. The
losses that occur at the inverter output are 1.17% due to
inverter operational losses and 0.21% due to inverter loss over
voltage threshold.
V. CONCLUSION
The simulated assessment of a 200 kWp Si-mono PV
system was performed using the PVsyst simulation tool for
D. and Near, C. “Solar energy: Trends and enabling technologies.”
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 19, pp.555-564, 2013.
[2] J.O. Oji, N. Idusuyi, T.O. Aliu, M.O. Petinrin, O.A. Odejobi, and A.R.
Adetunji, “Utilization of solar energy for power generation in Nigeria”.
International Journal of Energy Engineering, 2(2), pp.54-59., 2012.
[3] N.M. Kumar, M.R. Kumar, P.R. Rejoice, and M. Mathew
“Performance analysis of 100 kWp grid connected Si-poly photovoltaic
system using PVsyst simulation tool”. Energy Procedia, 117, pp.180-
189. , 2017.
[4] M. Mathew, and J. Hossain, “Analysis of a grid connected solar
photovoltaic system with different PV technologies.” In 2017 IEEE
International Conference on Circuits and Systems (ICCS) (pp. 264-
269). IEEE. , 2017, December.
[5] P. Yadav, N. Kumar, and S. S Chandel, “Simulation and performance
analysis of a 1kWp photovoltaic system using PVsyst.” In 2015
International Conference on Computation of Power, Energy,
Information and Communication (ICCPEIC) (pp. 0358-0363). IEEE. ,
2015, April.
[6] I. Safwati. “Stand-alone photovoltaic (SAPV) system assement using
PVSYST software. Energy Procedia, 79. 596-603., 2015.
[7] C. P. Kandasamy, P. Prabu and K. Nirumba. “Solar potential
assessment using PVSYST software.” In 2013 International
Conference on Green Computing, Communication and Conservation
of Energy (ICGCE), pp. 667-672. IEEE, 2013.”

826
 2020 7th International Conference on Signal Processing and Integrated Networks (SPIN)

[8] A. Allouhi, R. Saadani, , T. Kousksou, , R. Saidur, , A. Jamil, and M. [10] V. Sharma and S.S Chandel, “Performance analysis of a 190 kWp grid
Rahmoune “Grid-connected PV systems installed on institutional interactive solar photovoltaic power plant in India.” Energy, 55,
buildings: Technology comparison, energy analysis and economic pp.476-485., 2013.”
performance.” Energy and Buildings, 130, pp.188-201. , 2016.
[9] J.V. Ramoliya, “Performance evaluation of grid-connected solar
photovoltaic plant using PVSYST software.” Journal of Emerging
Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR), 2(2), 7, 2015.

827