Optimal Configuration for Design of Stand-Alone PV System

This paper presents a design for a stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) system to provide the required electricity for a single residential household in rural area in Jordan. The complete design steps for the suggested household loads are carried out. Site radiation data and the electrical load data of a typical household in the considered site are taken into account during the design steps. The reliability of the system is quantified by the loss of load probability. A computer program is developed to simulate the PV system behavior and to numerically find an optimal combination of PV array and battery bank for the design of stand-alone photovoltaic systems in terms of reliability and costs. The program calculates life cycle cost and annualized unit electrical cost. Simulations results showed that a value of loss of load probability LLP can be met by several combinations of PV array and battery storage. The method developed here uniquely determines the optimum configuration that meets the load demand with the minimum cost. The difference between the costs of these combinations is very large. The optimal unit electrical cost of 1 kWh for LLP = 0.049 is $0.293; while for LLP 0.0027 it is $0.402. The results of the study encouraged the use of the PV systems to electrify the remote sites in Jordan.