Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 42 (2015) 496–502

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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

Design and economics analysis of an off-grid PV system

for household electrification
Abdul Ghafoor n, Anjum Munir
Department of Farm Machinery and Power, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents a study about an off-grid (stand-alone) photovoltaic (PV) system for electrification of
Received 6 May 2014 a single residential household in the city of Faisalabad, Pakistan (31.421N, 73.081E, 184 m). The system
Received in revised form has been designed keeping in view the required household load and energy available from the sun. The
13 August 2014
complete model for the sizing of complete PV system has been presented to determine the required PV
Accepted 5 October 2014
power rating, battery storage capacity, size of charge controller and inverter to fulfill the required load.
Using this model, the peak power and area of PV modules, capacity of battery backup, size of charge
Keywords: controller and inverter was calculated to be 1928 Wp and 12.85 m2, 9640.5 W h, 56.65 A and 1020 W,
Off-grid PV system respectively. The economics evaluation using life cycle cost (LCC) analysis of the complete system has
Battery backup
also been carried out. The LCC of the system was found to be PKR. 457,306 whereas the annualized life
Charge controller
cycle cost (ALCC) was determined to be PKR. 31,963 yr
1, respectively. The unit electricity cost has also
Inverter
Life cycle cost been calculated and was found to be PKR. 14.8 kW h
1. The results show that unit cost of electricity
produced using off-grid PV system is lower than the unit cost charged in case of conventional electric
supply to the residential areas. It is concluded that off-PV electricity is technically and economically
viable technology for the electrification of residential applications.
& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
2. Energy demand of a residential house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
3. Components of an off-grid PV system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
4. Design of an off-grid PV system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
4.1. Sizing of the PV array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
4.2. Sizing of the backup battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
4.3. Sizing of the charge controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
4.4. Sizing of the inverter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
5. Sizing results of an off-grid PV system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
6. Life cycle cost analysis of off-grid PV system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
7. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

1. Introduction growing awareness of renewable energy resources worldwide

especially in the last decade. Pakistan’s electricity sector is in
The limited availability and increasing prices of fossil fuels as crisis having extended periods of blackouts as longer as 8–10 h per
well as their environmental effects have led to increase the day in urban areas and sometimes double that in rural areas [1,2].
The industrial sector of Pakistan is playing very important role in
its economy, but unfortunately, due to shortage of electricity and
n
Corresponding author.
increasing prices of fossil fuels (Fig. 1) have resulted the break-
E-mail address: abdul.ghafoor@uaf.edu.pk (A. Ghafoor). down in industrial, social and economic sectors. Similarly, the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.10.012
1364-0321/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 A. Ghafoor, A. Munir / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 42 (2015) 496–502
120
Petrol per liter Diesel per liter
100
Cost, PKR per liter
80
60
40
20
0 0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Years
Fig. 1. Rapidly increasing prices of fuels and electricity in Pakistan.
increasing population and increasing comfort demand of house-
holds is posing severe load on the grid.
One option to decrease these electricity crises and load on the
grid is the use of renewable energy sources, those if properly
designed and installed can play a major role to overcome this
problem. On an average, solar global insolation 5–7 kW h m
2 d
1
exists over more than 95% of area in Pakistan; thus offering an
excellent opportunity to use this energy for electricity production
using photovoltaic panels [3–5]. The major issue bound to this
technology is the high initial cost of the system. However, if the
economics analysis of the system is performed in term of lifetime
of the system, it could be a beneficial solution in a long run. The
use of PV electricity in Pakistan is at initial stages. The proper
design and user friendly supply of photovoltaic electricity supply
can attract people to promote this technology in the country. This
paper focuses on the design and economics analysis using life
cycle cost method of an off-grid PV system to supply the required
electrical energy for a small family residential house in the
climatic condition of Faisalabad (31.421N, 73.081E, 184 m),
Pakistan.
Many studies have been carried out to determine the feasibility,
viability, financing indicators and risk factors involved in the
implementation of off-grid/stand-alone PV electrification systems
[6,7]. Ajao et al. [8] examined PV system to supply electricity for
a location in Nigeria using a decentralized approach. The authors
concluded and recommended that off-grid PV systems were a
viable option to be adopted for rural communities to improve
electricity supply and to improve the economic development of
the society. Bhattacharyya [9] provided a review of off-grid PV
systems for electrification in developing countries viz. South Asia,
South East Asia, Africa, and South America including develop-
mental implications of lack of electricity infrastructure and a
review of alternative renewable energy technologies. Kuandinya
et al. [10] carried out a review for on-grid and off-grid PV systems.
Several models have been used to analyse the feasibility or
technical viability of off-grid PV electrification systems e.g. cost–
effectiveness, levelized energy cost approach, annualized life-cycle
cost (ALCC), and financial indicators [11]. Other studies have
employed modern analytical softwares like Hybrid Optimization
Models for Electric Renewable (HOMER) [12–14] and RETScreen
[15,16]. Mahmoud and Ibrik [17] performed techno-economic
feasibility to supply PV electricity for the remote villages of
Palestine. The results have shown that the use of PV electricity
for rural areas is economically more feasible than electric grid
supply or diesel generators. Roy and Kabir [18] performed life cycle
analysis of an off-grid PV system in comparison with conventional
(fossil fuel driven) power sources to determine their commercial
success in remote areas of Bangladesh having no access to grid
supply. The power projects have been analyzed and compared
using net present worth (NPW) method. This study is focused to
497
25 assist planning of financial matters for small to medium scale
Electricity per kWh
renewable energy projects in remote sites of Bangladesh. Ghasemi
20 et al. [19] carried out techno-economic feasibility of hybrid off-grid
PV-diesel-battery systems for electrification of rural communities
Cost, PKR per kWh
15 in Iran using HOMER software. The study gives a comparative
analysis among possible configurations of a system best suited to
cover the needs of isolated Iranian communities.
10
Kolhe et al. [20] employed a life-cycle cost analysis for various
combinations of PV and diesel generators for a school in India. The
5
authors concluded that an off-grid PV system is a suitable option
for minimal power requirements in school becoming more and
more competitive as their costs continue to decline in future. Ajan
et al. [21] investigated the possibility of installing stand-alone PV
system in combination with diesel generator for a school in East
Malaysia. The authors concluded that below a certain critical cost
value, it would be cost-beneficial to invest in PV electrification.
Nafeh [22] designed an off-grid PV electrification system for single
residential household in remote area of Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. The
PV module area is calculated to be 11.3 m2 with peak power of
1356 Wp to cover average daily load of 5.5 kW h d
1 using
6 batteries (250 A h, 12 V). The unit electricity cost was calculated
to be US$ 0.74 kW h
1. Markvart [23] noted that for sunny site of
insolation as 20 MJ m
2 d
1, energy produced from PV system is
significantly cheaper over extended use compared to diesel gen-
erators. Oko et al. [24] designed and performed economic analyses
of a stand-alone PV system using MS Excel spreadsheet for Port
Harcourt (04o400 N, 07o100 E) Nigeria. The authors concluded that
automated MS Excel spread sheet could be used for the design and
economic analyses of PV systems in any geographical location by
sorting input data.
Salam et al. [25] performed simulation for optimal sizing of PV
unit for renewable energy laboratory in Sohar, Oman. The optimi-
zation resulted that PV array of 0.7 kW rated capacity produced
1316 kW h yr
1. The unit energy cost of system was calculated to
be 0.561 US$ kW h
1 in comparison with diesel generator cost of
0.558US$ kW h
1. The author concluded that solar energy is an
attractive option for different applications in Oman both on
economical and technical grounds. Similar study was carried out
by Al-Karaghouli and Kazmerski [26] to electrify a health clinic in
rural locality of Southern Iraq. The authors simulated different
combination of PV, battery and inverter sizes. The optimal pro-
posed system composed of 6 kWp PV panels, 80 batteries (225 A h,
6 V) and 3 kW inverter. The unit electricity cost was calculated
using life cycle cost and was found to be 0.238 US$ kW h
1 which
showed that the electricity produced using diesel generator is four
times expensive than this value clearly indicating the benefits of
using solar PV technology in remote locations of Iraq. The analysis
further showed that use of this small PV system can prevent the
release of 14,927 kg yr
1 of CO2, 36.8 kg yr
1 of CO, 4.08 kg yr
1
of HC, 329 kg yr
1 of NOx, 30 kg yr
1 of SO2, and 278 kg yr
1 of
suspended particles compared to diesel generator. Kumar and
Mandapati [27] designed PV system for a conference hall in Bhopal
having daily electrical load of 9.5 kW h d
1. The life cycle cost
analysis resulted per unit electricity cost of Indian Rs.
28.99 kW h
1. Bataineh and Dalalah [28] developed a computer
program capable of calculating the optimal design and LCC
analysis of stand-alone PV system. The optimal unit electrical cost
was found to be $ 0.293 kW h
1 encouraging the use of PV system
in remote sites of Jorden. Saxena et al. [29] designed a photovoltaic
system to run a biscuit packing machine for estimated load of
233.17 A h d
1. The area of PV module is calculated to be
172.23 m2 having 138 PV modules coupled to 315 batteries (series
and parallel configuration). The cost of electricity produced was
also calculated using life cycle cost method and was found to be
Indian Rs. 15.095 kW h
1. Bhuiyan and Asghar [30] designed a PV
system to operate residential appliances for 4 h operation per day.
498 A. Ghafoor, A. Munir / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 42 (2015) 496–502

Table 1
Different approaches and progress of off-grid PV systems.

Location Required load Designed system Results/outcomes Source

specifications

Bangladesh 2 Fluorescent PV size: 25 W Energy cost per year using PV as $37.825 while for oil lamp as $64.1 [35]
2 WLED lamps Battery: 12 V, 30 A h
Time: 3 h during night
Kerman, Iran Annual load of 24.4 MW h for 50 PV size: 19 kWp Cost of electricity: $ 0.247 kW h
1 [36]
rural household Battery: 12 No. (2 V,
3000 A h)
India Load: 219 kW h yr
1 PV size: 150 W Cost of electricity: $ 0.145 kW h
1 with subsidies and $0.258 without [37]
Lamps: 3 No. Battery Capacity: 60 A h subsidies
TV: 1 No.
Radio: 1 No.
Thailand Total load: 197.83 kW h yr
1 PV size: 220 W Cost of electricity: $1.234 kW h
1 [38]
1 TV, 1 fan, 1 radio and 3 lamps Battery capacity: 250 A h Total LCC: $4886.26 (20 years)
Vadodara, Total load: 1825 kW h yr
1 PV size: 2 kW Cost of electricity: $1.232 kW h
1 [39]
India Wind turbine size: 1 kW
Battery: 12 V, 200 A h NPC: $28,975
Tocantins, Annual load: 8.7 MW h PV size: 6.28 kW Cost of electricity: $0.657 kW h
1 [40]
Brazil Battery capacity: 16 No. Net present cost: $49,711
(12 V, 220 A h)
Sitakunda, Total annual load: 61,685 kW h PV size: 27 kW Cost of electricity: $0.363 kW h
1 for hybrid, $0.525 kW h
1 for solar only and [41]
Bangladesh per year Wind turbine size: 39 kW $0.646 kW h
1 for wind system.
Battery capacity: 370 No.
(6 V, 225 A h)

Tunisia Annual load: 83,161.6 kW h yr
1 PV size: 41.6 kW Cost of electricity: $0.240 kW h
1 [42]
Battery Capacity: Total LCC: $542,618
228 kW h
Madhya Total village load: 15,768 per year PV size: 8 kW Cost of electricity: $0.47 kW h
1 for hybrid, $0.38 kW h
1 for solar alone and [43]
Pradesh, Wind turbine size: 7 kW $0.24 kW h
1 for wind alone system
India Battery
Capacity:44.29 kW h
Tripios, Total peak load: 4.2 kW PV size: 2160 W Total investment cost: $31,837.86 [44]
Kythnos Battery Capacity: 30 No.
(50 kW h)

The minimum size of PV and battery is calculated to be 282 Wp PolySun Meteonorm

7
Global Horizontal Irradiation, H

and 128 A h, respectively. Soufi et al. [31] designed and evaluated

off-grid PV system for electrification of livestock shelters in 6
Algeria. The results showed that daily load of 5.5 kW h requires
(kWh/m2 /day)

4 kW PV array, 6 dry batteries (200 A h and 12 V) and 5 kW DC–AC 5

inverter with initial capital cost of US$ 9700. The authors have not
4
provided the unit cost of electricity produced from this system.
Hassan et al. [32] designed a stand-alone PV system for an 3
emergency health clinic in Egypt. The analysis includes sizing,
simulation and economic evaluation of PV system. The results 2
show that a 3.3 kW PV array and 20 batteries (6V, 1156 A h,
1
6.94 kW h) are required to fulfil the load of the clinic. The total
net present value of the system was found to be US$ 48,749 and 0
the total annual output energy of PV array was 7353 kW h. Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Nogueira et al. [33] provided methodology using simulation tools Months
and linear programming for sizing and simulating a PV-wind Fig. 2. Solar energy available in Faisalabad.
hybrid system using battery backup for small rural property
located in South of Brazil. The model is useful for energizing
remote rural areas and produces a system with minimum cost and facing horizontal plane of PV array calculated using PolySun and
high reliability. The authors used different scenarios of energy Meteonorm software for Faisalabad is shown in Fig. 2.
production and the unit electricity cost of one of the scenario is
calculated to be R$0.922 kW h
1 for the photovoltaic system and
R$0.785 kW h
1 for the wind system. Moreover, different
approaches and progress of an off-grid PV system in different 2. Energy demand of a residential house
tropical countries from review point of view have been presented
in Table 1 [34]. After the assessment of solar resource, the next step is the
The design of the PV system starts with the solar resource estimation of peak electric load of a single family residential
assessment. The average daily energy input (Gavg) over the year on house. About 70–80% population of Pakistan is residing in rural
a horizontal surface in southern areas of Pakistan is approximately areas having low energy demand, therefore, the residential house
5.50 kW h m
2 d
1 measured at latitude and longitude of 22N selected in this study is low energy house without taking into
and 661E respectively with yearly average temperature of 24 1C consideration the air-conditioning demand and other high energy
[45]. The monthly average daily solar irradiation falling on a south consumption appliances. The electrical load (Lel) requirement in
 A. Ghafoor, A. Munir / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 42 (2015) 496–502 499

Table 2
Calculation of required residential electrical load.

Load profile

Equipment in use No. of equipments Power of equipment Total wattage, (W) Daily appliances use (h) Daily energy required (kW h d
1)

Lamps 5 40 200 6 1.20

Refrigerator 1 100 100 24 2.40
Washing machine 1 250 250 2 0.50
TV 1 100 100 6 0.60
Fans 2 100 200 0–6n 1.20
Total 850 4.70–5.90

n
This value varies from 0 to 6 h depending upon the season. Zero value is for peak winter (Dec/Jan) and 6 value is for peak summer (June).

Fig. 3. Layout of an off-grid PV system.

a residential house is shown in Table 2. The average daily demand 4.1. Sizing of the PV array
of the selected house is calculated to be 5.90 kW h d
1.
The size of the PV array can be calculated using Eq. (1) [47].

Lel
3. Components of an off-grid PV system APV ¼ ð1Þ
H avg  ηPV  ηB  ηI  T CF
The major components of an off-grid PV system include PV
where; APV is the required area of PV array in m2, Lel is the required
array, maximum power point tracking (MPPT), charge controller,
electric load in kW h d
1, H avg is the average irradiation available
battery backup and inverter [34,46]. The block diagram of PV
per day in kW h m
2 d
1, ηPV is the efficiency of PV panel in %, ηB
system is shown in Fig. 3. The working of PV system starts with
is the battery efficiency in %, ηI is inverter efficiency in % and T CF is
striking of solar radiation over tilted PV panels which convert
the temperature correction factor normlly taken as
0.4 to
0.5%
these radiation into electrical energy and transmit it to MPPT in
per oC for crystalline silicon [48]. The battery and inverter
order to adjust the current or voltage. The batteries are used as a
efficiency is generally taken to be 85% and 90%, respectively.
backup source to store the energy in case the energy produced is
The peak PV power (P pðPVÞ ) can be calculated using Eq. (2)
higher than the demand. This energy can be used during low or no
[47,49,50].
solar radiation or during night time. The DC/AC inverter convert
DC supply to AC supply to match with common household P pðPVÞ ¼ APV  I p  ηPV ð2Þ
appliances.
where; Ip is the peak solar irradiance taken as 1000 W m
2.

4. Design of an off-grid PV system

The design of the PV system starts with the known initial load
and available solar energy per unit area. The average daily solar
energy input (Havg) over the year for a south facing and tilted
surface (Latitude7101) for Faisalabad is nearly 5.50 kW h m
2 d
1.
4.2. Sizing of the backup battery
The storage capacity of the battery (BSC ) is calculated based on
the continuous number of cloudy days, battery efficiency, depth of
discharge of the battery and efficiency of the inverter as shown in
500 A. Ghafoor, A. Munir / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 42 (2015) 496–502

Table 3 for the required load is calculated to be 12.85 m2 assuming

Characterisitcs of PV module. efficiency of PV panels as 15%. The peak PV power calculated is
1928 Wp.
Characteristic Rating Unit
MLU250HC PV module has been selected for stand-alone PV
Maximum power, Pmax 250 W system. The module is made of 120 monocrystalline silican cells
No. of cells 120 No. connected in series to provide peak power of 250 Wp. The
Voltage at Pmax, Vmp 31.0 V characteristics and specifications of PV module are shown in
Current at Pmax, Imp 8.08 A
Short circuit current (ISC) 8.79 A
Table 3.
Open circuit voltage (VOC) 37.6 V A total number of 7 modules are required with a peak power of
Efficiency 15.1 % single module as 250 Wp, maximum voltage 31 V and maximum
current as 8.08 A at STC of 1000 W m
2 and 25 1C with air mass
equals 1.5. The series and parallel configurations can be adjusted
Average Power Produced, kW based on required DC bus voltage. The required capacity of the
1.40
storage battery is calculated to be 9640.5 W h assuming Nc as
Average Power Produced, kW

1.20 1 day and DOD as 80%. Based on DC bus voltage of 24 V, the

required capacity of the battery is calculated to be 401.69 A h.
1.00 A graph showing the average of each particular month and
0.80
corresponding power produced from off-grid PV system is shown
in Fig. 4. Fig. 4 depicts the average power produced during
0.60 different months of the years. It is evident from the Figure that
peak average value in June is maximum and in Jan/Dec is
0.40
minimum. The reason is that the city of Faisalabad is lying in
0.20 northern hemisphere having maximum solar insolation in sum-
mer than in winter season and the energy range vary from about
0.00 120 kW h in peak Winter (Dec/Jan) to 360 kW h in Peak Summer
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
(June). The total energy produced per annum from off-grid PV has
Months been found to be 2900 kW h (using average power produced per
Fig. 4. Average power produced from off-grid PV system. month times average number of sunny hours during each month).
However, the minimum and maximum energy demand is calcu-
lated to be 1716 kW h and 2153.5 kW h in Dec/Jan (peak winter)
Table 4
Unit costs of PV system components. and June (peak summer), respectively. The results have shown that
the annual energy produced using off-grid PV system is much
Item Unit cost Unit higher than the annual energy demand throughout the year
justifying the appropriate size and design of the existing PV
Cost of PV 120 PKR. Wp
1
Cost of battery 100 PKR. A h
1 system for continuous power generation for household
Cost of charge controller 60 PKR. A
1 electrification.
Cost of inverter 40 PKR. W
1
Installation cost 10% of PV PKR.
Operation and maintenance cost 2% of PV cost PKR.
6. Life cycle cost analysis of off-grid PV system

Eq. (3) [51].
N ccd  Lel
BSC ¼
η B  Dd  η I
where; Nccd is the largest number of continuous cloudy days and
Dd is maximum permissible depth of discharge of the battery.
4.3. Sizing of the charge controller
The battery charge controller is employed in PV system to
safely charge the batteries and remove the risk of overcharging the
batteries. This device also helps in maintaining the long life of the
batteries. The charge controller should be selected carefully so that
it must be able to carry short circuit current of the PV array.
4.4. Sizing of the inverter
The inverter is selected in such a way that it must be able to
handle the maximum expected power of AC loads. Therefore, it
must be selected atleast 20% higher than the total rated power of
the required AC loads (Table 2).
5. Sizing results of an off-grid PV system
Assuming the cell temperature reaching to 60 1C will result
14–20% loss in efficiency resulting TCF of 80% [52], the area of PV
The life cycle cost analysis of off-grid PV system consists of total
fixed and operating costs over its life expressed in today’s money
ð3Þ [53–57]. The major cost of PV system includes acquisition costs,
operating and maintenance cost. The total life cycle cost of PV
system includes the sum of present worth (PW) of PV modules,
storage batteries, charge controller, inverter, installation, and
operation and maintenance cost [6–8]. In case of PV system the
life of system is considered to be 20 years except for storage
batteries that is taken to be five years. Therefore, each group of
batteries needs to be replaced after every five years with effect of
inflation (i) and discount rate (d).
The PWs of all the components can be calculated using the
following procedure;
Cost of PV array, CPV ¼Unit cost of PV  No. of modules  Peak
module power
Initial cost of batteries, CB ¼Unit cost of battery  battery size
The PW of 1st, 2nd and 3rd group of batteries after 5, 10 and 15
years can be calculated using Eq. (4).


1 þi N
C B1 ¼ C B ð4Þ
1þd
The cost of charge controller is calculated using unit cost of
charge controller multiplied by size of the charge controller and
inverter cost as unit cost of the inverter multiplied by size of the
inverter. The installation cost is considered to be 10% of initial cost
of PV modules.
 A. Ghafoor, A. Munir / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 42 (2015) 496–502
The PW of maintenance cost (Cm) can be calculated using
annual maintenance (M) cost and lifetime of the system using
Eq. (5).
2  N 3

 1þi
1 þ i 61
1 þ d 7
C m ¼ ðM=yrÞ  4  5 ð5Þ
1þd 1
11þþdi
Finally, the LCC of the system can be calculated using Eq. (6).
LCC ¼ C PV þ C B þ C B1 þ C B2 þ C B3 þ C c þ C i þ C inst þC m
The annualized LCC (ALCC) of off-grid PV system in terms of its
present value can be calculated using Eq. (7).
2  3
1þi
6 1
1 þ d 7
ALCC ¼ LCC4  N 5 ð7Þ
1
11þþdi
The unit electrical cost can be calculated using Eq. (8).
ALCC
UCel ¼
365Lel
To calculate the cost of the suggested off-grid PV system, the
following data of the system components have been taken into
account using current market prices as shown in Table 4. The
inflation and discount rate is taken to be 4% and 8%, respectively.
Using the above methodology and equations, the PW’s of all the
items have been calculated. The cost of PV array is calculated to be
PKR. 210,000. The PW’s of initial set of batteries was calculated to
be PKR. 40,169. The PWs of group of batteries for first after 5 years,
second after 10 years and third after 15 years were calculated to be
PKR. 33,261, 27,541 and 22,805, respectively. The total cost of
charge controller and inverter was calculated to be PKR. 3399 and
40,800, respectively. The installation of PV system is taken as 10%
of initial cost of PV system and was calculated to be PKR. 21,034.
The PW’s of maintenance cost (2% of initial PV cost) was calculated
to be PKR. 57,958.
Finally, the total LCC of the system is the summation of all PW’s
of the system components including installation and maintenance
cost and was calculated to be PKR. 457,306. The Annualized Life
Cycle Cost (ALCC) of the system was calculated to be PKR. 31,963
per year. The unit electrical cost of the system was calculated to be
PKR. 14.8 kW h
1.
It is worth mentioning here that the current unit electrical cost
in case of conventional electric supply system is nearly PKR.
20 kW h
1 which shows that the unit cost of PV system is lower
than conventional unit which shows the economic benefits of
using solar PV system along with additional benefits of CO2 saving
released in producing conventional electricity in thermal power
plants. The proposed study has been conducted for a tropical
region in Pakistan, where, there are about 3000 sunshine hour per
annum and solar irradiance are as high as 900–1000 W m
2 in
summer. Moreover, Pakistan invest about 14 billion US$ annually
on the import of fossil fuels in the form of petrol, diesel and
furnace oil. Similar situation can be found in most of the South
Asian countries as well as in all African regions. Therefore, this
mathematical formulation is best suited for these reasons
which will not only share the fossil fuel consumption but also
play a vital role in the electrification of rural residential areas
which are situated well away from the utility grids. This design
procedure regarding off-grid PV electrification is simple, flexible
and does need any special computational setup, thus offering a
huge potential in domestic, commercial as well as industrial
configurations.
501
7. Conclusions
With the increasing population and industrialization as well as
with the depleting resources of fossil fuels, the utilization of solar
energy is gaining popularity worldwide for household electrifica-
tion. It is imperative to enhance the acceptance rate of this
technology, it is worth full to determine the proper design,
feasibility, viability, financing indicators, and risk factors involved
in the implementation of off-grid PV electrification system. The
major issue bound in the wide spread use of this technology was
ð6Þ the high initial costs of the system, however, the rapidly decreas-
ing prices of PV system has proven this technology to be cost-
competitive in comparison to conventional energy resources. The
present study focuses on the design aspects and economics
analysis of an off-grid PV system to fulfil the required load for
a residential house in tropical regions like Faisalabad, Pakistan.
This paper covers the algorithm for sizing of the complete PV
system to determine the required capacity of peak PV array,
battery storage capacity, size of charge controller and inverter to
meet the energy demand. As a result of mathematical modeling,
the peak power and area of PV modules, capacity of battery
backup, size of charge controller and inverter were determined
ð8Þ to be 1928 Wp and 12.85 m2, 9640.5 W h, 56.65 A and 1020 W,
respectively. In order to assess the economic feasibility of this
system to the end-users, life cycle cost analysis of off-grid PV
system under consideration has been carried out and was found to
be PKR. 457,306. Annualized life cycle cost and unit electricity cost
have also been calculated to be PKR. 31,963 per year and PKR.
14.8 kW h
1, respectively. The results conclude that unit cost of
electricity produced using off-grid PV system is lower than that of
conventional grid electric supply to the residential areas. This
model can be used to design and assess the economic feasibility of
off-grid PV electrification in any geographical location of the world
by sorting input data viz. solar insolation, cost of the conventional
energy as well as the market prices of the off-grid PV components.
It is also concluded that off-PV electricity is technically and
economically viable technology for the electrification of residential
applications under the tropical conditions of Pakistan.
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