Optimal Solar power plant sizing for high power demands using PSO algorithm and PVsyst: case study FITOULINA Tunisian group company

Abstract

Abstract The importance of photovoltaic technology in Industry 4.0 cannot be overstated. As it is well-known, this technology harnesses the solar energy which is becoming a widely popular renewable energy source, and converts it into a clean electricity through the photovoltaic cells. This technology offers competitive benefits to the company, such as a saved cost, an enhanced process efficiency and then productivity, an increased energy independence, and a reduced carbon emission. In addition, the company gains a better decision making by the data analytics which provide a real-time insight and make more informed decisions. In this topic, the considered study deals with an optimal sizing of Solar Power Plant (SPP) for high power demands. Famously, the two important technologies of any SPP are the Photovoltaic Panels (PVPs) and the inverters. For that, an optimal sizing algorithm for the SPP using Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) algorithm and PVsyst is proposed. This optimal sizing is composed of two key parts: the first one aims to calculate the PVP different characteristics and consequently determines the number of PVPs and inverters that should be fixed in the SPP to satisfy the company demand. The second part deals with a mathematical optimized configuration based on three PSO algorithms. This optimized algorithm aims to seek the optimal SPP inverters and PVPs sizing to guarantee the company best energy efficiency by following four main cases. Fitoulina Tunisian group that required to cover 920.04kW of its power demand by photovoltaic technology, was presented as a case study to highlight the performance of this proposed algorithm. As a result, the algorithm reveals the necessity of installing 1394 PVPs connected to 8 inverters by following the fourth case of the proposed algorithm.