2015 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATION OF POWER,ENERGY,INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION
Simulation and Performance Analysis of a
lkWp Photovoltaic System Using PVsyst
Priya Yadav
Centre for Energy and Environmental Engineering,
National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur
Hamirpur (H.P), INDIA
priya.b227@gmail.com
Abstract-the performance of a photovoltaic
depends on the geographical location and type of PV
modules used. PV systems are useful in areas having good
amount of incident solar radiation. Hamirpur receives an
annual average solar radiation of about 4.4 kWh/m2 a day.
In this paper lkWp photovoltaic system is designed and
simulated using PVsyst software for Hamirpur, Himachal
Pradesh, India using measured data of the location. The
total amount of energy generated by the system and various
losses occurring in the system are analysed and presented.
Performance ratio of the system over the whole year is
estimated as 0.724 which shows that generation
electricity from the PV system is a viable option for
Hamirpur to supplement the increasing energy needs.
Keywords-Solar photovoltaics, System Simulation, Solar
Radiation, PVsyst.
I. INTRODUCTION
Energy is essential for wide range of applications in
agriculture, industry, buildings, transportation and
household sectors. The increasing consumption of fossil
fuels like coal for power generation is resulting into huge
greenhouse gas emissions which affect environment
leading to global warming. Thus, there is a need to use
cleaner energy sources like solar, wind, biomass and
hydro energy as alternative to fossil fuels. These sources
are renewable as these are continuously replenished by
nature. Solar energy is one of most promising solutions
to the global energy crisis. Solar photovoltaic (PV)
systems have emerged reliable for power generation
worldwide as extending power lines to rural and remote
areas are not economical.
India is endowed with vast solar energy
potential. About 5,000 trillion kWh per year energy is
incident over India's land area with most parts receiving
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Nitin Kumar
Centre for Energy and Environmental Engineering,
National Institute of Technology
Hamirpur (H.P), INDIA
S.S Chandel
Centre for Energy and Environmental Engineering,
National Institute of Technology
Hamirpur (H.P), INDIA
system 4-7 kWh per sq. m per day [I]. A fraction of this energy
is sufficient to meet all the energy demands of the
country given this energy is captured efficiently. The
exponentially increasing Indian population and rapidly
depleting conventional sources of energy make solar
energy the only reliable alternative for energy. A number
of initiatives have been taken in this direction.
To utilize the solar resource efficiently, it
becomes necessary to size and simulate the system
of parameters for efficient energy yield. The energy yield
and the required size of PV system can be estimated
using simulation software PVSYST [2].A number of
researchers have used PVSYST to estimate the
performance of the system [3-5]. Sharma and Chandel
[6] have studied the performance of 190kWp grid
connected Solar PV power plant in India. Karki [7]
compared the electric energy generated by the PV arrays
and their losses in grid tied systems of Kathmandu and
Berlin using PVSYST. Bouhouras [8] used PVSYST for
the simulation of the PV systems and the generation of
their power outputs. Kandasamy et al. [9]. simulated a
grid connected photovoltaic system using PVsyst and
discussed the viability of installing 1 MW solar photo
voltaic (PV) power plant by comparing solar energy
production and life cycle cost of some locations in
southern region of Tamilnadu, India.
The aim of this paper is to design and simulate
a solar photovoltaic system to meet the energy
requirements of a small load of a department building in
Hamirpur (H.P.), India using PVSYST software.
In this paper we have used actual measured
onsite data as input to the software so that accurate
results for the system design and performance analysis
are obtained.
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Priya Yadav et al: SIMULATION AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A lkWp PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM USING PV SYST

II. METHODOLOGY TABLE I. INPUT PAR AMETERS FOR PVSYST

Solar radiation, wind speed and ambient temperature Parameters Hamirpur

time series data is measured by the weather monitoring Latitude 31.6° N

station located at Centre for Energy and Environmental
Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur Longitude 76.5° E

[Latitude: 3 1°6' N, 76°5" E]. Per minute data is stored in Altitude 875 m
a Campbell CR 1000 data-logger and downloaded using
PC 400 software. The time series data of one minute time Optimu Summers 9°
m Tilt
step is collected for the year 20 12 and analysed. angle Winters 46°

In this section methodology is described to Azimuth 0°

design and simulate 1 kWp photovoltaic system for
Albedo 0.2
Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh (India) using PVsyst
software. PV System Size 1 kWp

A. PVsyst Software PV module Suntech 150Wp,Si-poly,

PVsyst is a photovoltaic design and simulation
program. It is designed to be used by architects,
engineers, and researchers. It offers a user-friendly
approach to develop a project. PVsyst has a large
database of meteorological data for a number of sites all
over the world. It also provides manual insertion of
measured data for sites which are not enlisted in the
software. It presents results in the form of a full report
which includes specific graphs and tables. The data can
be exported for use in other softwares. To obtain results,
we have to provide some inputs to the software.
Simulation variables in PVsyst are:
-Meteorological data
-Incident irradiance in collector plane
-Incident energy factors
-PV array (field) behaviour
-Inverter losses
-System operating conditions
-Energy use
-Efficiencies
-Normalized performance index
STP 150-24B
Inverter Sunny Boy lkWp, SWR
1100 LV
2) Tilt Angle
Tilt angle is defined as the slope angle at which
solar panels are mounted to face the sun. Sun's position
changes every day with respect to earth, so the mounting
angles of panels also keeps on changing. Generally tilt
angle is taken to be equal to latitude of the considered
location [ 10]. Optimum value of tilt angle is required to
get maximum amount of sun energy onto the panels [ 1 1].
In this paper we have considered seasonal optimum tilt
angles for summer and winter based on the monthly
optimum values of tilt angle obtained by Priya and
Chandel [ 12].
3) Azimuth Angle
Azimuth angle defines the direction of sun. It is
taken as zero as the panels are mounted facing south in
northern hemisphere.

B. Inputs required 4) Albedo

The design of a photovoltaic system is location
dependent because every location receives different
amount of solar radiation. It happens due to the position
of that particular location with respect to sun. This
difference of position is observed in the form of unique
set of parameters like latitude, longitude and altitude of
a location.
1) Location
Hamirpur is a city situated in northern India at
latitude 3 1.6° N, longitude 76.5° E and at an altitude of
875 m. It has hilly terrain. The system is designed for
Centre for Energy of Environmental Engineering office
building, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur to
meet light loads of CFLs, tube lights and ceiling fans.
Albedo is the measure of refiectivity of earth's
surface. It is dependent on the location ground texture.
Its values varies from 0. 1 to 0.9. It is higher in snowy
areas. For Hamirpur we have taken an albedo value of
0.2 because of the grassy surface [ 13].
5) Module and Inverter Specification
For sizing of 1 kWp system at Hamirpur, we
have considered Suntech poly crystalline silicon modules
of 150 Wp each and Sunny Boy SWR Inverter of 1 kWp.
6) Solar Radiation Variation
Hamirpur receives an annual average solar
radiation of about 4.4 kWh/m2 a day. The monthly
variation of solar radiation is shown in fig 2. Maximum
solar insolation is observed for the month of May at
Hamirpur. It is 6.32 kWh/m2/day. January month
receives lowest amount of solar irradiance. It happens
because of the variation in position of the sun with

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2015 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATION OF POWER,ENERGY,INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION

respect to concerned location. The global horizontal solar kWh/m2/day. The annual average daily solar radiation is
radiation varies throughout the year from 2.6 to 6.2 4.4 kWh/m2/day.

TABLE II. MODULE SPECIFICATION

PV module: Suntech, STP 150-248

Manufacturer Suntech

Model STP 150-24B Cells temp. = 25 'C

Polycrystalline
Technology
Silicon 5 Incident Irrad. = 1000 W/m'
r----------------- ___

Number of cells in series 72

lnc
4 r-_______ _ id _ _ lrr_ad
_ ent _ ._=_ O_W
BO _ _ /m'____
Isc (A) 4.8 _

�
Voc (V) 43.2 1" Incident Irrad. = 600 W/m'
� 3 r---------------
�
_________

Imp (A) 4.3 u

2 f-------Incident
------ Irrad. = 400 W/m'
----
Vmp (V) 34.4 _____

Rs (ohm) 0.62 Incident Irrad. = 200 W/m'

Rsh (ohm) 350

Current Temp. Coefficient (mAl'C) 4.9

10 20 30 40 50
Voltage [V]
Voltage Temp. Coefficient ( mAI"C) -148
Fig. 1. I-V curve of module.
Efliciency (%) 11.76

Monthly Average Daily Global Horizontal Radiation

-;:
ro
"D 8
....
N
..
E
...... 6
..c
S
-"
4
c
0
'';::;
ro 2
"D
ro
c:::
>- 0
ro
0
'l>� 'l>� Q" ��
Vl .;:,: "?-�
�
,,7>
�.;:,: �q}
«.�

Month

Fig. 2. Monthly variation of daily global horizontal variation.

7) Diffused Solar Radiation parameters taken as inputs in the system simulation by

Another importance parameter considered for PVsyst are temperature and wind data of the location.
the design and simulation of the system is diffused solar
radiation. It is the solar radiation reaching earth's surface
after being scattered by molecules and particles in the III. RESULTS & DISCUSSION
atmosphere [ 14]. The amount of diffuse radiation
A detailed report consisting of various graphs and tables
received for a particular geophysical location on the
obtained using PVsyst software is presented in this
earth's surface depends mainly on the solar elevation,
section. One inverter of lkWp and 7 modules of 150 Wp
turbidity in the atmosphere and cloudiness [ 15]. Other
each are required for this system. The output power is

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Priya Yadav et al: SIMULATION AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A lkWp PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM USING PV SYST

obtained after applying all necessary efficiency
corrections. System simulation results are shown in
Table.
TABLE III. SIMULATED RESULTS OF PV SYSTEM USING
PVSYST
losses are taken 1.5 %, 2.5% and 2 % respectively. These
are mainly due to temperature, mismatch and wiring. The
grid input is calculated after correcting inverter losses.
Finally the energy obtained from the system for load/grid
comes out to be 1356 kWh.

The output energy to the load is obtained after a number

arame of loss corrections within the software as shown in fig 3.
Eflect
rs Ener
Horizo Incide Effecti ive
Ambi gy 1574 kWh/m' Horizontal global irradiation
nta! nt ve Array
ent fed +13.4% Global incident in coil. plane
Radiati Radiat Radiat Energ
Temp to
on ion ion y ·2.9% lAM factor on global
load Effective irradiance on collectors
output
(kWh/ (kWh/ (kWh/ efficiency at STC = 11.8% PV conversion
(0C) (kW
m') m') m') (kWh 1822 kWh Array nominal energy (at STC effic.)
h)
) ·2.7% PV loss due to irradiance level

Month ·11.6% PV loss due to temperature

Januar Module quality loss

80.9 13.0 113.2 1l0.3 100.2 91.7
Y Module array mismatch loss

Ohmic wiring loss

Februa MPP
91.8 15.0 114.0 II1.1 98.7 90.4 1478 kWh Array virtual energy at
ry

132. Inverter Loss during operation (efficiency)

March 152.8 20.0 170.9 165.9 144.2
5 Inverter Loss over nominal inv. power
Inverter Loss due to power threshold
129. Inverter Loss over nominal inv. voltage
April 166.2 26.0 171.2 166.2 140.8
5 Inverter Loss due to voltage threshold
1341 kWh Available Energy at Inverter Output
142.
May 195.9 31.0 195.3 189.5 154.7 1341 kW Energy injected into grid
3

126.
June 177.9 34.0 174.0 168.5 137.4 Fig.3. Loss diagram of SPV system
4

July 133.0 32.0 131.7 127.3 105.2 95.6 Loss diagram shows all the losses that occur in the
system step by step. At the output 1356 kWh of energy
August 115.6 31.0 116.8 112.8 94.8 86.2 is obtained from the system.
Septem 100.
128.7 29.0 134.7 130.1 109.9 Performance ratio (PR) is used to evaluate the
ber 5
performance of the PV plant. Performance ratio of the
Octobe
134.8 26.0 167.6 163.2 177.8
126. system is the ratio of energy output of the system and
r 7
radiation incident on the given area. It is presented in fig
Novem 115. 4. It is around 0.7 for most of the months in a year which
102.6 20.0 148.0 144.5 125.8
ber 7 is satisfactory for a system as small as this.

Decem 118. Daily output energy of the system is shown if figure 5.

93.6 15.0 147.1 143.6 128.6
ber 4
The fluctuations in the daily output energy of the system
1478. 1356 are due to the continuous changes in solar radiation,
Total 1574.0 24.4 1784.4 1733.0
2 .0 ambient temperature and wind velocity.

IV. CONCLUSION

The global horizontal radiation data taken as
input to the software are measured data obtained from
pyranometers installed at Hamirpur. Yearly total incident
global horizontal radiation of 1574 kWh/m2 is given as
input to the system. Incident radiation data on tilted plane
is obtained after simulation at seasonal optimum tilt
angles. After applying seasonal optimum tilt to the global
horizontal radiation, outcome increases to 1784.4
kWh/m2• Effective radiation data is calculated after lAM
correction which give the output of 1478.2 kWh. A
number of losses occur in photovoltaic module and array.
Wiring loss, module quality loss and module mismatch
A detailed methodology to design and simulate a
photovoltaic system using PVsyst software is presented
in this paper. Using the measured global solar radiation
data for Hamirpur, more accurate results are produced. It
is concluded that design of a PV system is entirely
location dependent. Performance ratio is very important
parameter for evaluating the system performance.
Performance ratio of the system over the whole year is
estimated as 0.724 which is satisfactory. It shows that
generation of electricity from the PV system is a good
option for Hamirpur. Based on this analysis, large
capacity systems can be designed for this location.

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2015 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATION OF POWER,ENERGY,INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5

0:::
0... 0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

Fig.4. Monthly variation of PR

Output Energy of PV array

ISO
160
:::2 140
� 120
� 100
Q)
� SO
,&
.....

60
8 40
20
o

Fig.5. Output energy of the PY array over a whole year

REFERENCES condition" Power Engineering Conference, AUPEC, Australasian

[1] www.mnre.gov.in (viewed on 29/1/2015)
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Priya Yadav et al: SIMULATION AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A lkWp PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM USING PV SYST

[7] Karki,P.,Adhikary,B., and Sherpa,K., 2012 "Comparative study solar resource assessment, optimal sizing of renewable
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[11] Yadav, A. K., and Chandel, S. S., "Tilt angle optimization to currently pursuing M.Tech.
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[12] Yadav, P., and Chandel, S. S., "Optimal Slope Angles for Solar
from National Institute of
Photovoltaic Panels for Maximum Solar Energy Gain." International Technology Hamirpur (H.P). His current research
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[14] J. A. Duffie and W. A. Beckman, "Solar Engineering of Thermal
Processes",Wiley,New York,1991. is Professor in
s.s. Chan del
[15] Bhattacharya, A. B., Kar, S. K, and Bhattacharya, R., "Diffuse the centre for Energy &
Solar Radiation and Associated Meteorological Parameters In India", Environmental Engineering at
Ann. Geophysicae,Vol. 14,pp. 1051-1059,1996.
National Institute of
Technology, Hamirpur. Dr.
Chandel has More than 35
years of Experience in
Research, Development,
Administration, Policy
Priya Yadav received her
formulation Issues, Capacity
B.Tech degree in Electrical
Building, Strengthening &
Engineering from DCRUST
Creation of Facilities in the field of Science, Technology,
Murthal, Sonepat in 20 1 1 and
and Environment & Renewable Energy. He has 50
M.tech in Energy Technology
research publications in International & National
from NIT Hamirpur (H.P.). She
Journals and 36 Scientific Publications ITechnical
is currently working as junior
Reports. His field of interest includes High Energy
research fellow at National
Physics, Renewable Energy, Passive Solar, Bio-Energy,
Institute of Technology
Science, Technology & Environmental Issues and IPR.
Hamirpur (H.P). Her current research interests include

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