Performance assessment of 3kW grid-connected PV Systems in Korea

In this paper, for the field test of the first photovoltaic (PV) systems in Korea, the performance of a 3 kW grid-connected PV systems for house, separately installed in the solar energy demonstration research complex, had been analyzed for the four years from January 2003 to December 2006. For the evaluation and analysis of the three sets of 3 kW grid-connected PV system, the operation characteristics of the PV modules and PCS (power conditioning system), the component constituting the PV systems were analyzed, depending on the change of the weather condition. In addition, the performance and loss of the PV system was evaluated and analyzed, where the performance was evaluated in the method of IEA 61724 by establishing the monitoring system using the weather observation sensors and electric measurement sensors, and the performance index of performance ratio PR, capture losses Lc, and system losses Ls was calculated using the analysis parameter of final yield (Y F ), reference yield (Y R ), and array yield (Y A )From the performance analysis of the individual 3 kW grid-connected PV systems, the quantity of the energy generated for four years by the PV system A, B and C, were indicated as 11.943 MWh, 12.9 MWh and 12.8 MWh respectively. Final yield YF by the system was shown as 2.74 h/d, 2.94 h/d and 2.92 h/d, and PR showed a good capacity as 0.67, 0.72 and 0.72. On the other hand, in terms of the energy loss, the average capture losses Lc was 1.11h/d for the PV system A, and the system B and system C were all 0.74h/d, and system losses Ls was found out to be 0.25, 0.41 and 0.42 for each PV system.