Performance evaluation of first Iranian large scale photovoltaic power plant

In recent years, due to the fact that non-renewable energies come to an end, renewable energy is expected to provide a significant part of the future needs of Iran. Among these energies, solar energy is a suitable option for a wide range of the country, due to availability, proper radiation intensity, and high sunshine times during the year (about 300 sunny days per year). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the performance of a 1 MW solar power plant in Arak (Iran's first megawatt power plant) according to IEC-61724 standard using data recorded over a year (November 2017 to October 2018). The plant has the capacity of a 1 MW in a 1.6-hectare land with 3920 modules (split into 1920*260 Wp mono-crystals silicon technology and 2000*250 Wp multi-crystal silicon technology) in 200 strings and four inverters (each with a capacity of 250 kW). The information of this power plant is recorded in fifteen-minute intervals, which according to IEC-61724 this power plant is in class B, and we can do a one-year performance analysis. Also, the effect of the improper operation on the amount of injected energy into the grid is investigated. In this paper, the performance parameters of the system are presented, also a table to have a comparison to other PV plants in some parts of the world is provided.