Techno Economic study of a grid connected Solar PV power plant(A case study of Katine Green Field Project)

Abstract

Katine Green Field Project is a proposed solar power plant on 20 acres of land in Eastern Uganda located 8.2km from Katine Trading centre. This study is focused on the design of a large Solar PV power plant, specifically an 8.5MW PV plant. Before implementing the design of the Solar PV power plant and the evacuation process, The main components in a large scale PV plant are described. The components include PV modules, Mounting Structures, Solar inverters, Boost Converters, Charge Controllers, transformers, switch gear and DC and AC cables. For this study, a battery bank is included among the system components so as to solve the problems associated with fluctuations in the amount of power generated and the diminishing solar power output as we approach peak hours. In order to achieve the project objectives, Data of the distribution network and the maximum demand of the line was collected from UMEME. For analysis of data ArcGIS was employed. The solar PV power plant was designed and simulated in MATLAB Simulink. Emphasis was put on the design of the individual components of the Solar PV power plant. In order to achieve 8.5MW, the PV power plant was divided into four blocks each 2.125MW The grid simulation model for the 33Kv Soroti-Atirir network was developed using DIg SILENT software. Load flow analysis was performed on the network before and after interconnecting the solar plant. The results obtained for the voltage profiles at the different buses, losses, and line loading were compared before and after interconnecting the solar power plant. A financial analysis for the solar power plant was also carried out putting emphasis on the Payback Period to the owner of the plant and the grid