1250 PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS CONNECTED TO THE GRID IN SANTA CATARINA

MONITORED GENERATION VERSUS EXPECTED GENERATION

Abstract

A challenge for the growing grid-connected distributed photovoltaic energy market is meeting the generation expectation after the system is installed. The objective of this article is to verify if the estimated energy generation for the first year of operation was achieved in 1250 grid-connected photovoltaic systems installed in the years 2017 and 2018 in the State of Santa Catarina. Each of the analyzed systems has ten 265 Wp photovoltaic modules and a 3 kW inverter. Monthly generation data monitored in the inverter from the first full 12 months of system operation were used to obtain a monthly average for each system and compare with the minimum expectation for the first year. The minimum energy generation expectation for the systems was 249 kWh/month. But only 78% of the monitored systems presented average monthly generation equal to or greater than the expected energy, 13% performed below expectations and 9% of the systems had incomplete monitored data. It is recommended for future studies to verify the possible causes for those 277 systems to be outside the generation expectation or without monitored data.