2020 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon)
PV system sizing to cover the Electricity shortage
in a Residential quarter in Iraq
Mustafa Abo alwez
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Universiti Putra Malaysia
kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
mustafaa.hussein.95@gmail.com
2020 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon) | 978-1-7281-7068-8/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/PECon48942.2020.9314441
Mohd Amran Mohd Radzi
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Universiti Putra Malaysia
kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
amranmr@upm.edu.my
Abstract—The use of solar energy to generate electricity has
had a significant increase in recent years, and it is considered a
modern energy source, as its market price is decreasing and is
in constant development. However, other countries suffer from
a huge shortage of electric power generation. Iraq generates
half of its electricity demand, and it only supplies 12 hours of
electricity a day for one area to meet this demand. This study
discusses the sizing of a PV system to cover the shortage of
electricity for one residential quarter which contains 20 houses.
Moreover, the initial cost of installing the PV system is calculated
to cover the shortage of electricity. Specifically, the study covers
a residential quarter in Samawah.
Index Terms—PV system, PV sizing, Solar irradiance in Iraq
I. I NTRODUCTION
Resource utilization and energy production have significant
roles in the development of countries because both are the
core requirements for industry, agriculture, and commercial
purposes [1]. Renewable energy has been gaining attention
in recent years, especially solar energy, as it is clean
and free. Solar energy is considered a modern energy
source, especially because its market price is declining and
is developing permanently [2]. Based on the studies of
international energy agency (IEA), solar energy is expected
to be one of the major energy sources by 2050. IEA
estimates that solar energy can contribute approximately
11% of the worldwide generation of electricity [3][4]. The
agency also expects that most PV systems can be installed
as distribution generators to increase the penetration to
unprecedented levels (over 50%) and continue to increase
worldwide.
Some countries fail to produce sufficient energy. Iraq
is a middle-eastern country with a population of 38 million
and an area of 437,072 km². Iraq is one of the most
oil-producing countries in the world [5]. Only Iraq has a
huge shortage of electricity generation. The national grid
supplies electricity for only 12 hours a day for one area,
as energy shortage is one of the most difficult problems
978-1-7281-7068-8/20/$31.00
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University.
Jasronita Jasni
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Universiti Putra Malaysia
kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
jas@upm.edu.my
Norhafiz Azis
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Universiti Putra Malaysia
kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
norhafiz@upm.edu.my
in Iraq. On the other hand, Samawah is a city located in
the south of Iraq. It is the second-largest city in terms
of area and the lowest city in terms of population, as the
population density is 16 people per km2. Samawah has a
high average of solar irradiance and long hours of sunrise, as
the minimum number of sunrise hours is seven hours. Solar
energy can be used to build solar energy stations to provide
the local population with energy to make up for the shortage.
This study discusses about PV system sizing to supply
electricity for a residential quarter in Samawah. This quarter
contains 20 houses which are supplied with electricity for
only 12 hours/day to cover the electricity shortage. The study
calculates the cost of installing a PV system by considering
the equitable distribution of energy without a decrease or
irresponsible consumption.
The rest of the paper is structured in the following manner.
Section 2 presents the methodology which describes the load
distribution, sit, and solar irradiance in the mentioned area.
Section 3 describes the PV system. Section 4 provides the
mathematical calculation for the PV system sizing. Section
5 presents the cost of each part of the system. Section 6
provides the conclusion.
II. METHODOLOGY
A. Site
The area selected for this study is a residential quarter
which contains 20 houses. The area lies in Samawah, a
city in the south of Iraq. The selected area 31°20’39.0”N
45°17’42.0”E is shown in Fig. 1. The national grid provides
the houses electricity for 12 hours a day. Fig. 1 presents these
20 houses, in which four lines contain five houses each. These
groups of houses are in front of a public empty place where
the PV system can be installed.
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 2020 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon)

Fig. 4. Average sunrise hours during the year

Fig. 1. Area selected for the study (source : Google map)

Fig. 5. Average throughout daylight hours of solar irradiance power during

the year

Fig. 2. Microgrid of PV

B. The distribution of PV Power
The distributing approach involves the use of the national
grid pole. The national grid will contains eight wires, four of
which belong to the national grid and the others belong to the
PV system. Specifically, the PV system and the national grid
do not work simultaneously, indicating that only one supplier
works at a time. Fig. 2 shows the microgrid distribution map.
The power distribution proposed for this study is based on
fair distribution to avoid energy shortage or irresponsible
consumption. The proposed distribution is based on the
limited consumption during the PV system generation in 10
A. This limitation is done by preventing direct connection to
the microgrid, only through a circuit breaker limited by 10 A.
C. Solar Irradiance
Iraq is categorized by its high average of solar irradiance
power and long hours of sunrise, although the sunrise hours
are different between summer and winter. Figs. 4, 5, and
6 show the average sunrise hours, average solar irradiance
power in one year, and solar irradiance for one day in May,
respectively.
III. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
The PV system is a complete system that feeds AC load
with electrical energy depending on solar irradiance [6]. The
system contains different parts depending on the load size

The proposed power distribution method is based on

the supply in each line of houses with a supplying board,
which directly supplied from the microgrid. The houses are
connected to the board circuit breaker (10A) on the board.
Fig. 3 illustrates the power distribution method.

Fig. 3. Method of load connection to the PV system Fig. 6. Solar irradiance power during one day in May

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 2020 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon)

TABLE II
T HE S URRETTE 6CS25P BATTERY DATASHEET

Nominal voltage 6V
Nominal Capacity
20-hr. (11.56 A) 1156 Ah
Type Lead-acid

Fig. 7. Block diagram of PV system

The Power consumption (PV) had obtained as mention is
TABLE I previous section that each house will connect to the PV
CSP17-72H 435-450W DATASHEET
system through circuit breaker of maximum 10 A. Then to
Product CSP17-72H 435-450W obtain the peak power, the required energy must be divided
Company CSun Power by Tmin which is the minimum solar irradiance hours as
Type Monocrystalline follows,
Maximum Power Pmax (STC) 440 W
Maximum Power Voltage Vmp (STC) 40.75 V
required daily power
Maximum Power Current Imp (STC) 10.80 A Pp =
Open-circuit Voltage Voc (STC) 49.27 V minimum peaksunhours per a day (2)
Short-circuit Current Isc (STC) 11.36 A 592.94
Module Eciency (%) (STC) 20.13% Pp = = 65.883KW p
9
Then, the extracting the DC by divided the peak power on
and load type. These parts are wired together to provide a the selected DC voltage of the system.
full system, as shown in Fig. 7.
Pp 65883
• PV array consists of a specific number of PV modules ID C = = = 271.25125A (3)
VD C 240
connected in parallel and series to produce specific
amounts of voltage and current. PV modules are made
The final step in PV sizing, the obtain the number of parallel
of semiconductor materials; PV varies in types such as
modules and series module depending on Id c and Vd c as
single crystal, polycrystalline, and ribbon silicon [1].
the following:
• Battery is the energy storage part. Other energy stor-
age types are pumped hydro storage, supercapacitor, ID C 271.52
NP = = = 31M odules (4)
flywheel, and compressed energy storage. Battery is IR 9
utilized for storing surplus energy which is fed back
to satisfy the demand load.
• charger controller is a device that has main function to
VD C 240
control the charging and discharging processes of bat- Ns = = = 7M odules (5)
VR 37
tery energy storage. Moreover, the charger controller is
used to avoid overcharge/discharge and regulate battery
Total numbers of modules equal to NT = Ns * Np = 7*31 =
current and voltage capacity.
217 module
• An inverter is a power electronic device used to convert
the DC power generated by solar PV to AC power to B. Battery Bank
satisfy load. Renewable energy is characterized by its intermittent na-
• Load refers to the house which uses the PV power. ture. For this reason, batteries or energy stories is a fun-
Details about load are provided in section II. damental part of renewable energy. moreover, the sizing of
batteries must be calculated with high accuracy. This system
IV. PV SYSTEM SIZING contains the using of The Surrette 6CS25P batteries with
A. PV Array datasheet shown in Table II
Firstly, the sizing process of the battery begins with calcu-
PV array sizing depends on many factors, such as average lating the required energy with safety order to avoid under-
solar irradiance, average sunrise hours, and PV module sizing
type. The module that is used in this work is CSP17-72H
435-450W which is produced by CSun Power. Table 1 Required power per day ∗ number of days
Esaf ety =
contains the datasheet of the module. Sizing must consider Saf ety F actor
the PV system efficiency. Therefore, the first step is to 504 ∗ 1.23
= = 832320wh/day
obtain the required energy as follows: 0.75
(6)
daily power consumption(P V ) Calculating the capacity of the required batter is to be done
Er = as the following
P V System Ef f iciency (1)
504, 000 Esaf ety 832320
Er = = 592.94kwh/day C= = = 138720Ah (7)
0.85 Vb 6

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 2020 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon)

TABLE III
Number of batteries is being done as the following PV SYSTEM COST ANALYZE

C 138720 PV array
N= = = 120 battery (8) Type CSP17-72H 435-450W
Cb 1156 Price 0.215 USD/watt
No. of modules 217
The number of batteries in series: PV array cost 20,644 USD
Lifetime 25 years
Vd − c 240 Battery
Nsb = = = 40 battery (9)
Vb 6 Type Surrette 6CS25P
Price 1000 USD/Battery
Number of batteries in parallel No. of batteries 120
N 120 Storage system cost 120,000 USD
Npb = = = 3 Battery (10) Inverter
Nsb 40 Type ATO-OGI-80Kw
C. Inverter Capacity 80 Kw
Price 31,000 USD
Designing such a large array the inverter should be 3 Lifetime 25 years
phase 4 wire. The inverter used in this work ATO-OGI-80kW Microgrid
Length 350
that convert the 240 DC voltage to three-phase 380/220 AC Number of wires 4
voltage with 50 HZ following the Iraqi system, THD 3%. Price 1.15 USD/meter
Cost 1610 USD
D. Wiring PV system cost
The sizing of wire is important to avoid under-sizing or System supplied 592 Kwh/day
Initial cost 175,000 USD
additional cost. The formula to calculate the cross-section
area is as follows:
ρ∗L∗I about 1000 USD every year for the inverter.
A= × S.F. (11)
V
Where VI. C ONCLUSION
p is the metal resistive, for copper is 1.72x10 - 8 , Iraqi national grid suffering from a huge shortage in
L is the length of wire, supplying electricity. On the other hand, PV considered
I and V refereeing to current and voltage respectively, and modern power sources, as it’s clear and free energy. Iraq has
S.F. is the safety factor which is considering 1.25 a high average of solar irradiance power and high average
sunrise. Moreover, Iraq has a low population density, for
The wire that used for the microgrid is 350 M, 35mm2, type this reason, Iraq large empty places can be used to install
IEC 61089 standard AAC. The maximum voltage on the PV systems to cover that shortage in supplying electricity.
cable 17.94 V with percent 4.49 %.
V. C OST C ALCULATION This paper contains the sizing of the PV system to cover the
shortage of electricity for one residential quarter (20 houses)
This study based on calculating the cost of installing the
in Samawah. The system supplying the householder with
PV system to cover the shortage of Iraqi electricity to satisfy
electricity for 12 hours a day to cover Power outages during
the power demand. The microgrid of the PV system will
this time. The system is utilized microgrid with a national
not be completely independent, the four wires of the PV
grid for power distribution. The PV power distribution based
distribution system are used as the electric pole of national
on avoiding Irresponsible consumption by connecting the
gird. The price for three-wire, 400M is 3 USD/Meter, also,
houses to the PV system by circuit breaker (10A) to limiting
the cost of the installation process range is 100-200 USD.
their maximum consumption. The system size based on
Moreover, The PV array is the most important part of the
calculation is 504 kWh/day and the cost is 175k USD. The
system, PV that is used CSP17-72H 435-450W which is
average cost for 1 kW/day is 2,000 USD as an initial cost
cost 0.215 USD/watt with lifetime 25 years. Nevertheless,
Battery is the part that is used to store energy to use in R EFERENCES
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 2020 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon)

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