Design and analysis of a rooftop PV system for an apartment building in Newfoundland

Abstract

This research describes the design of a rooftop photovoltaic system to meet the partial energy needs of an apartment building in Newfoundland. A residential apartment building consisting of 54 apartments at fresh water road, St. John’s is selected for this work whose average energy demand is 54KW (building is heated using oil). A grid-tied solar photovoltaic system without any battery backup has been deigned for this site because local grid is available and some net-metering laws are in place. The system has been designed by keeping in mind that the produced energy must not be greater than the average energy consumption of the building. Detailed system design, steady state modeling, dynamic modeling, control system design, analysis and required protection system are explained in this paper. Some cost analysis and installation details are also included in the paper.