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System Design and Performance Analysis of a Grid-Tied Solar PV Power System

in Bhutan

Article  in  IEEE Parallel and Distributed Technology Systems and Applications · April 2015

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 2015 IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence & Communication Technology
System Design and Performance Analysis of a Grid-
Tied Solar PV Power System in Bhutan
Yangchen Dolkar, Dawa Jamtsho,
Rozal Adhikari,Tshering Wangdi and Sonam Dorji
Students, Department of Electrical Engineering
College of Science and Technology, Phuentsholing, Bhutan
Abstract—This paper presents system design and
performance analysis of a grid-tied solar photovoltaic power
system with battery backup. The system was designed to supply
10.5 kW lighting load of a library building at the College of
Science and Technology in Bhutan. The performance was
simulated using HOMER model. From the simulation, it was
found that the PV system is able to supply more than 31% of
the load in a year. The cost of PV energy generation over 25
years project life term was found to be 0.13 US$/kWh which is
six times higher than the current average cost of hydropower
generation. The proposed system is financially not viable at the
current subsidized electricity tariff in Bhutan as the payback
period is more than the project life term and the net cash flow is
negative.
Keywords— HOMER; Solar PV; Cost of energy; Bhutan
I. INTRODUCTION
Bhutan, located in the Himalayas has a significant
hydropower potential from the rivers flowing from north to
south. The total hydropower potential is estimated to be 30
GW of which 16 GW is said to be techno-economically
viable. Out of which only 1488 MW has been developed [1].
Another 2910 MW hydropower plant is under
implementation, which is scheduled to complete by the end of
2017 [2]. Bhutan exported 5648 GWh electricity to India in
2013 which is more than 75% of total generation [3]. Energy
demand in Bhutan is steadily increasing as it develops and
modernizes. Annual domestic consumption of electricity
increased from 338 GWh in 1995 [4] to 1901 GWh in 2013
[5]. During summer the energy production far exceeds its
need, however it is unable to meet its need during the dry
seasons. With this concern and also to further increase
electricity export to India, the Royal Government of Bhutan
targets to develop 10 000 MW of hydropower capacity by
2020 [3]. At the same time Bhutan also plans to harness
another 20 MW through a mix of other renewable energy
technologies by 2025. Among the many renewable energy
technologies, solar photovoltaic (PV) system has been
identified as one of the feasible options in Bhutan.
Globally, solar PV systems, both off-grid and grid-tied are
being developed as an alternative to conventional systems
using fossil fuels. This paper presents performance analysis of
a grid-tied solar PV power system designed to supply lighting
load of a library building at the College of Science and
Technology, Phuentsholing, Bhutan. The proposed system is
envisaged to be used as a demonstration and training project
in order to encourage development of solar PV power system
in Bhutan. It is worthwhile to note that there are no similar
studies conducted in the past in Bhutan. The current study
was conducted using simulation model HOMER.
978-1-4799-6023-1/15 $31.00 © 2015 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/CICT.2015.55
Tshewang Lhendup* and Pema Lhamo, members, IEEE
Department of Electrical Engineering
College of Science and Technology, Phuentsholing, Bhutan
*
tshewang@cst.edu.bt
Different simulation and modelling softwares are being
used to study the performance of solar PV systems. Hybrid
Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER) is
one such simulation model developed by National Renewable
Energy Laboratory USA [6]. HOMER is a computer model
that simplifies the task of evaluating design options for both
off-grid and grid-tied power systems for remote, stand-alone
and distributed generation applications. It enables the users to
evaluate the economic and technical feasibility of a large
number of technology options and to account for uncertainty
in technology costs, energy resource availability, and other
variables. It can model both conventional and renewable
energy technologies. Several studies have been carried out in
the past using HOMER. Varshney, Sharma and Khatod [7]
used HOMER to size a hybrid energy system consisting of
solar, micro hydro, biomass, diesel and battery for a rural
Narendra Nagar block, Tehri Garhwal of Uttarakhand. The
authors also also carried out the environmental aspects of
different configuration. The total annual optimum cost and the
cost of energy using HOMER was found to be US$ 39 919
and US$ 0.11/kWh respectively. A similar study by Roy,
Basu and Paul [8] also used HOMER to design and analyze a
solar PV system with battery storage in two modes, grid-tied
and a standalone for electrification of a residential area
located near Siliguri, West Bengal. The climate data was
obtained from NASA surface meteorology and solar energy
website. From the analysis, the cost of energy was found to be
US$ 0.87/kWh for a standalone system compared to
$0.08/kWh for a grid-tied system.
Salam, Aziz, Alwaeli and Kazem [9] carried out the
design and analysis of photovoltaic system to supply lighting
load for Renewable Energy Lab at Sohar University, Oman
using HOMER. The solar energy utilization was found to be
an attractive option with initial and energy cost of US$ 3425
and 0.561 US$/kWh respectively. Kazem, Qasim Ali,
Alwaeli, Mani and Tariq [10] used HOMER to design and
analyze a PV system for electrifying a health clinic in Oman
with an average daily load of 42.307 kWh/day. The analysis
showed the cost of energy as 0.418 US$/kWh. Similarly,
Damanhuri, Othman, Ibrahim, Radzali and Mohd [11]
performed system design and cost analysis simulation of
small scale dual-tariff solar photovoltaic system in UiTM
Pulau Pinang Malaysia using HOMER. Givler and Lilienthal
also used HOMER to determine the threshold load size at
which it is more cost-effective to include a diesel than to
increase the size of the battery bank or PV array [12]. Thus it
was observed that several authors used HOMER to design
and analyze performance of a solar PV system. Therefore,
HOMER was used as a simulation model in this paper. The
inputs to the HOMER model were extracted from the
manufacturer’s data submitted by the supplier.
538
 II. SYSTEM DESIGN
A. Load profile
The library building of the College of Science and
Technology, Phuentsholing located at 26.85° North latitude
and 89.39 East longitude was chosen for the study. Only
lighting and ceiling fans were considered with a total
connected load of 15 kW. During the load survey conducted
on different days over a semester, it was observed that not all
the lights and fans were ON at the same time. Therefore,
inorder to acount for the load variation, a load factor of 0.7
was assumed in this paper. Thus the maximum load in a day
is 10.5 kW. The seasonal load profile generated by HOMER
simulation based on input data of the daily load profile is
shown in Fig. 1.

20

15
Load (kW)

Fig. 3. Building orientation

10

0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Fig. 1. Seasonal load profile

B. System configuration
The basic components of a grid-tied solar PV system with
battery backup consists of solar PV panels, tubular deep
charge batteries, an inverter and a charge controller. Fig. 2
depicts the block diagram of the proposed grid-tied solar PV
power system in HOMER. The proposed system is planned
to be installed on the roof of a three storeyed library building.
The building orientation and layout details of the PV panles Fig. 4. Layout of solar PV panels on roof
is presented in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 respectively.
a. PV array
A total of 44 PV panels, each of 250 Wp and 24 V were used
for the proposed system simulation. The initial cost inlcuding
the mounting racks, delivery, installation and commissioning
is US$ 25 383. The operation and maintenance cost per year
was assumed to be 0.5% of the initial cost and its lifetime is
25 years. A derating factor of 90% was applied to each panel
to compensate for the degrading factors which is caused by
wiring losses, temperature, ageing, wind etc. The PV panels
are to be flush mounted on the existing roof which has a
slope of 13°. Thus the solar PV panels will have a slope of
13° with an azimuth of 29° as shown in Fig. 3. The effects of
temperaure on the PV output were also considered. The
Fig. 2. Block diagram of the proposed grid-tied PV system
average monthly solar radiation and clearness index for
Phuentsholing is shown in Fig. 5 and average ambient air
temperature and wind speed in Fig. 6.

539
 6 0.8 The SSE data set is a set of global climatology from data
Daily radiation spanning 22 year period from July 1, 1983 through June 31,
Solar irradiation (kWh/m2/day)

Clearness index 2005 on one-degree latitude by one-degree longitude grid.

0.6 It is usually considered that the ground measured data are
4 generally more accurate than satellite-derived values.

Clearness Index
However, in 1989, the World Climate Research Program
0.4 estimated that most solar radiation ground sites has
uncertainties from 6 to 12% due to measurement
2 uncertainties from calibration drift, operational uncertainties,
0.2
or data gaps are often unknown or unreported for many
ground site data sets. The reliability of most of SSE data as
compared to ground measured data is in the range ±16%.
Moreover, a comparative analysis of long term climate data
0 0 from NASA and typical meterological year (TMY) data by
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Lhendup and Lhundup found variation of upto 7% only [14].
Hence, by using SSE data, there may not be significant
Fig. 5. Monthly solar radiation profile difference between the actual output and the simulated
output. Nevertheless, the longterm climate data was
30 5 compared with the ground measured data.
In order to check the usability of climate data obtained
24 4 from the NASA and SSE website, the climate data was
compared with the measured data obtained from the
Wind speed (m/s)
Temperature (°C)

Department of Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs

18 3 (MoEA), which was measured at Malbase, Pasakha (latitude
Ambient temp.
26.51° East and longitude 89.26° North). Data from MoEA
Wind speed consisted of the temperature and humidity measurements for
12 2
the year 2012. All the climate data used in this paper from
NASA are for an average of ten years on a monthly basis
6 1 from 1994 to 2004. From Fig. 7, 8 and 9, it can be seen that
the trend and magnitude of NASA data and MoEA data are
0 0 almost same with a variation of less than ±10%. Which
shows that using NASA SSE climate data for the study of the
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
proposed PV system will have no significant effect on the
Fig. 6. Average monthly ambient air temperature and wind speed performance of the system.
30
b. Battery
PV systems cannot store electricity, so batteries are often
added to store electricity to use during unexpected weather
changes maintaining continuity of power supply. A total of
Temperature (°C)

20
30 tubular dry charge batteries of 200AH, 12V each were
used for the system which results in 5 hours autonomy. The
capital cost of the batteries is US$ 7960 and its life term was
assumed to be 10 years. The maintenance cost per year was
10
presumed to be 1% of the initial cost.
NASA MoEA
c. Inverter
An inverter was used to convert the DC output from the
PV array and the battery into AC output. A solar inverter of 0
20kVA/360V was chosen for the simulation whose 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
efficiency as per the manufacturer’s data is 96%. The capital
cost of the inverter if US$ 5900 and its life term is 10 years. Months
The maintenance cost was assumed to be same as the battery Fig. 7. Monthly minimum temperature (NASA vs MoEA)
maintenance cost.
III. CLIMATE DATA EVALUATION
Climate data is one of the most important factor which
determines the output power generated by a PV system.
Without proper assessment of the available renewable solar
energy resources, PV is set to disappoint the end users.
Therefore ground measurement stations are a useful assets
for the development of solar PV system. But due to absence
of the ground measurement stations in most part of Bhutan
the climate data for the simulation was obtained from NASA
Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy (SSE) website [13].

540
 40 100%

80%
30

Load served (%)

Temperature (°C)

60%
Grid
20
40% PV
NASA MoEA
10
20%

0 0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Months

Fig. 8. Monthly maximum temperature (NASA vs MoEA) Fig. 10. Monthly average electricity production

100 12

Average PV generation (kW)

80
Relative Humidity (%)

9
60

6
40
NASA MoEA
20 3

0
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Months Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Fig. 9. Average monthly relative humidity (NASA vs MoEA) Fig. 11. Average monthly PV power generation

IV. RESULTS B. Economic Analysis

A. Energy Analysis Table II shows the cost components of the proposed
system. The total cost of the proposed system over 25 years
The simulation results show that more than 31% of the
project life term is US$ 56 026 inlcuding the replacement
power can be supplied by the proposed PV system and 70%
cost, operation and maintenance costs. The cost of genertaion
by the grid as shown in Table I. Fig. 10 depicts the simulated
is US$ 0.13/kWh (Ngultrum 7.78/kWh) assuming constant
graphical representation of the proportion of load served by
generation over 25 years. This is six times higher than the
the PV array and grid. The monthly average power output
average current cost of hydropower generation (which is
from the PV array is shown in Fig. 11. From the graph it can
equal to Ngultrum 1.39/ kWh) in Bhutan [3]. On the
be seen that the power production is realatively higher from
otherhand, the cost of PV generation is nearly equal to the
Novermber to April as the rainfall during these months is
current low voltage grid elecricity supply cost (which is
less and the sky remains clear most of the time. The power
equal to US$ 0.101/kWh or Ngultrum 6.11/kWh) [15]. But
production is minimum during the summer months of June to
the acttual electricity tariff in Bhutan is highly subsidized by
August as there is high rainfall and cloud cover which are
the Royal Government. For instance, the current electricity
important parameters affecting the power output from the PV
tariff for low voltage bulk consumer is US$ 0.0512/kWh
system. The maximum PV generation is 10.2 kW although
(Ngultrum 3.07/kWh) [16]. At this tariff, the proposed
the rated capacity is 11 kW.
system is not able to recover the cost of installation over the
TABLE I. ENERGY OUTPUTS project life term. Therefore the payback period is more than
the project life term. However, if the electricity tariff is not
Parameters Unit Value
subsidized, then the pay back period is nearly equal to the
Total load served kWh 54 923 project life term. Thus the proposed project is financially not
PV array generation kWh 17 280
viable at the current electricity tariff. It may also be noted
that the power generation from PV depends on the climate
Mean daily PV output kWh/day 47.3 data which were not measured but extracted from NASA.
Maximum PV output kW 10.2 The actual climate data may vary when implemnted resulting
in a different performance parameters.
Load served by PV array % 31
Grid purchase kWh 37 643 Currently the proposed system is being implemented with
the funding from the Global Environment Facilty, United

541
 Nations Development Programme, Bhutan. Along with the [10] H. A. Kazem, S. Q. Ali, A. H. A. Alwaeli, K. Mani, and M. Tariq,
proposed system, a weather station is also being installed. "Life-cycle cost analysis and optimization of health clinic PV system
for a rural area in Oman," in World Congress on Engineering, London,
The proposed system will also be connected to a remote United Kingdom, 2013.
monitoring unit. The simulated results will be compared with [11] N. S. Damanhuri, N. A. Othman, I. R. Ibrahim, R. Radzali, and M. N.
the actual measurements and the results will be reported Mohd, "System design and cost analysis simulation of small scale dual-
elsewhere. tariff solar photovoltaic (PV) system in UiTM Pulau Pinang Malaysia,"
in World Congress on Engineering, London, United Kingdom, 2010.
TABLE II. COST COMPONENTS [12] T. Givler and P. Lilienthal, "Using HOMER® software, NREL’s
micropower optimization model, to explore the role of gen-sets in
Capital Replace- O&M Salvage Total
Comp. small solar power systems case study: Sri Lanka," National Renewable
($) ment ($) ($) ($) ($)
Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, Colorado, United
PV
25 383 0 3 173 0 28 556 States of America Technical Report NREL/TP-710-36774 May 2005,
module
2005.
Battery 7 960 6 579 1 990 881 15 648 [13] NASA. (2014, April). NASA surface meteorology and solar energy.
Inverter 5 900 5 134 1 475 687 11 822 Available: http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov
[14] T. Lhendup and S. Lhundup, "Comparison of methodologies for
Total 39 243 11 713 6 638 1 568 56 026 generating a typical meteorological year (TMY)," Energy for
Sustainable Development, vol. 11, pp. 5-10, 2007.
[15] BPC, "Tariff revision proposal July 2013 - June 2016," Bhutan Power
Corporation, Thimphu, Bhutan2013.
[16] BEA. (2014, September). Bhutan Power Corporation Tariff.
V. CONCLUSIONS (September), Bhutan Electricity Authority. Available:
The proposed grid-tied solar PV system for the library at http://www.bea.gov.bt/?page_id=28
College of Science and Technology, Phuentsholing was
simulated using HOMER model. From the analysis, it was
found that the simple payback period is more than the project
life term at the current subsidized electricity tariff. The total
cost of the system including the initial cost, replacement cost,
operation and maintenance cost and salvages is US$ 56 026.
The proposed system will be able to supply more than 31%
of the load at the generation cost of US$ 0.13/kWh which is
six times higher than the cost of hydropower generation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Yangchen Dolkar, Dawa Jamtsho, Rozal Adhikari,
Tshering Wangdi and Sonam Dorji would like to thank the
College of Science and Technology for the support rendered
while conducting this study.
Tshewang Lhendup and Cheku Dorji would like to thank
the Global Environment Facilty through the United Nations
Development Programme, Bhutan for generously sponsoring
the proposed project.
REFERENCES
[1] BEA. (2014, September). Druk green power corporation. (September),
Bhutan Electricity Authority. Available:
http://www.bea.gov.bt/?page_id=28
[2] DGPC. (2014, September). Updates from Projects Department.
Available: http://www.drukgreen.bt/index.php/projects-updates
[3] DGPC, "Druk Green Power Corporation Annual Report 2013,"
Thimphu, Bhutan2013.
[4] PCS, "Ninth five-year plan," The Planning Commission Secretariat,
Royal Government of Bhutan, Thimphu, Bhutan2002.
[5] BPC, "Bhutan Power Corporation Annual Report 2013," Thimphu,
Bhutan2013.
[6] HOMER, "Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables
(HOMER)," ed: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) USA,
2014.
[7] N. Varshney, M. P. Sharma, and D. K. Khatod, "Sizing of hybrid
energy system using HOMER," International Journal of Emerging
Technology and Advanced Engineering, vol. 3, pp. 436-442, 2013.
[8] B. Roy, A. K. Basu, and S. Paul, "Optimal design of a grid connected
solar photovoltaic power system for a residential load," International
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[9] M. A. Salam, A. Aziz, A. H. A. Alwaeli, and H. A. Kazem, "Optimal
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