Efficient utilization of solar PV for corporate building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This paper presents a case study for rooftop PV system mounted on corporate building of Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) HQ with a capacity of 277KWp. By collecting the generation data of the PV system along with the electrical loads of the building for the year 2021, the data showed that the amount of energy produced from the system, which was directly fed to the loads is about 404.8 MWh. Accordingly, the contribution rate of the PV system generation to energy consumption was calculated to be about 15.7% of the loads of the entire building, which totaled about 2547.8 MWh. The study showed that there is an excess of electrical energy produced from these solar panels. The system is programmed through the inverter to keep the production of solar panels equal or less than the electrical loads which is connected to due to the absence of the regulation for connecting PV systems with the electric grid at that time. The excess energy of PV generation was calculated as 478.5 MWh. Hence, the surplus energy is 69.1 MWh representing approximately 15% of the calculated PV generation. The study covered the economic perspective for the system by estimating the levelized cost of energy and payback period to be LCOE= 0.33 SR/kWh = 0.088 USD/kWh and Payback period= 23.9 years respectively.