Technical, Financial and Environmental Impacts of Utilizing SPV Distributed Generation: A Case Study for 480kWp Hybrid SPV Mini-Grid at IUG Campus

In this paper, technical, financial and environmental impacts of implementing a decentralized SPV Distributed Generation (SPVDG) system are addressed. Since the beginning of2020, the IUG was retrofitted by a Building Applied Photovoltaic (BAPV) power system constituting a hybrid SPV mini-grid as a partial green solution to the frequent grid outages. The hybrid SPV mini-grid is composed of 480kWp rooftop SPV as an intermittent Renewable Energy Source (RES) which synchronizes either with two on-site diesel generator units in island mode or with the centralized macro-grid in grid-tied mode through Net Energy Metering (NEM) agreement with GEDCo for billing purposes. Technically, the system is found to be resilient and capable of supplying electric power to essential loads at IUG campus efficiently. It was found that the aggregate SPV system is capable of generating a total of approximately 13GWh over an assumed 20 years project lifetime. It was found that it can also increase the overall electrical system efficiency by reducing the LV electrical technical losses and curtailing the need for additional grid rehabilitation investments. Financially, the project’s capital cost was approximately 0.6 MUSD. The Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) throughout the lifetime of the project was found to be about 0.04$/kWh which is competitive compared with the GEDCo per unit energy price. The diesel fuel consumption was minimized and the energy bill from GEDCo was lowered. Accordingly, it was found that the project shall recover its capital cost within the first three years of operation. Environmentally, the system shall dramatically mitigate the environmental impacts by avoiding about 8000 tons of CO2 emissions over the lifetime of the project which is a substantial amount of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions reductions.