Optimal Design of a Grid Connected Solar Photovoltaic Power System for a Residential Load

The present paper uses the software Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER) to design and analyze a non-autonomous power system which includes a grid connected solar photovoltaic (PV) based power system with battery storage to supply a residential load located near Siliguri, WestBengal (with latitude and longitude of 26 072’N and 88 041’E respectively). For optimal system design the analyses have been carried out in two modes – grid connected as well as stand-alone. The simulation results of these two modes have been studied on the basis of cost of energy, pay-back period, environmental emissions etc. and compared with the grid-only (base) mode. Performance of each component (i.e. battery, inverter, rectifier etc.) of the model is evaluated and finally sensitivity analysis is performed to optimize the system out of different conditions.