A study on photovoltaic power plant connected to the distribution network

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the performance of a photovoltaic plant connected to the grid and its compliance with all the new Algerian technical connection rules for connecting the renewable system to the network, This problem arises because the grid connected system presented as a solution to achieve Algeria’s renewable energy objectives. The work focused on a 9.5 KW photovoltaic grid connected plant installed at the Renewable Energy’s Development Center (CDER) and connected to the low voltage network (LV). This plant constitutes a case study rich in information that has accumulated 14 years of operation and equipped with a monitoring system. The present work required restarting the plant and its monitoring system in the first place. The experimental database allowed the evaluation of the power quality at the common coupling point (PCC) by the international standard EN50160,and the experimental analysis of its performance according to the directives of the IEC 61724 standard and simulated using the PVsyst software between 2016 and 2018. Thus, the calculated performance could be compared with those simulated by this software. This work has allowed us to observe that the system performance is still considered satisfactory. Given that it has been operating for more than 14 years, it achieving a performance ratio equivalent to 70%, concluding that the PV investment connected to the grid is very promising on this site.