Installation of 6kWp Grid Tie rooftop Solar System

for Generation of 25 units of energy per day

Debadyoti Ghosh, Sreemoyee Madhura Karmakar, Arundhati Roy, Sreyajit Manna, Sanhita Samanta and
Sayantan Mitra

Department Of Electronics & Communication, Institute of Engineering & Management, Salt Lake, Kolkata, India.
debadyoti.ghosh@iemcal.com
mitra13sayantan@gmail.com

Abstract—Demand of grid tie rooftop solar system is increasing II. INSTALLATION CONSIDERATIONS
day by day due to its unique capability of reducing electricity
The capacity of grid tie rooftop solar system can vary from 1kW
consumption costs. Grid tie rooftop solar system generates
electricity which is fed to the utility grid through a solar inverter.
to 1MW depending on the area of the roof where the plant is to
The solar inverter is designed to convert the solar generated direct be installed. The design and the installation of rooftop solar
current (dc) into alternating current (ac) maintaining the utility system includes plant layout, module disposition, electrical
grid frequency. After that it is also fed to the commercial electrical layout and connections, sizing of equipment, earthing and other
grid. In this way the system can supply surplus energy units to the electrical protections. The entire system should be properly
commercial power distribution company and consumers can get synchronized with the existing electrical system. The block
discount on their own electricity consumption from that particular diagram of such a system is shown if figure.1. Another most
company which might be reflected on their monthly electricity bills.
important thing is that for maximum power tracking, solar
In this paper, the details of installation of 6KWp grid tie solar
panels are mounted facing south in India (northern hemisphere)
system and its generation capability have been discussed.
and north in southern hemisphere. The tilted angle of panels
should be considered as equal to the angle of latitude of that
Keywords—Rooftop solar panel, utility grid, grid tie inverter, anti- particular location. This is one fixed orientation of solar panels
islanding. where the panels almost always intercept the highest amount of
solar radiation during the year.
I. INTRODUCTION
Solar energy is undoubtedly the source of renewable energy.
Moreover, it is nature friendly. Solar energy can be harnessed by
the photovoltaic technology. After that it is converted into the
electric energy (dc). Grid tie rooftop solar system is actually
based on this technology. It is one of the most popular solar
solutions for houses and commercial establishments. It provides
power to the running load of consumers directly and additionally
can sell excess solar power by feeding the electricity
distribution company. Thus it can reduce the energy cost.
Rooftop PV market in India is in the process of evolving. For
the growing demand in electricity, it may be the best solution in
near future to meet that demand with the reduction in energy
cost as well as the assurance of power back up in absence of
grid supply. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE),
Government of India is also giving serious efforts in promoting
such kind of renewable energy resource projects in various
sectors including corporate houses with subsidy based scheme.
Fig.1: Block diagram

978-1-5090-0996-1/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

The solar panels generate dc power which goes to a grid
tie inverter. The inverter converts this dc power to 240 volt
ac power that is equal to the supply power from the
distribution company. Thus the power from the panels goes
via the grid-tie inverter to the load. If the solar
generated power is more than that of the power consumed
by the load, the excess power is fed to the main
distribution supply line. If the load requires more power
than that of solar generated powers, the additional power is
drawn from the main distribution supply line. Grid tie
system works only when the grid supply is on. If the grid
power goes out, the grid tie inverter shut down
immediately which is termed as anti-islanding.
III. FEATURES OF INSTALLED PLANT
A 6kW rooftop solar plant has been installed on the roof of
Institute of Engineering and Management, salt lake,
Kolkata, India. The latitude of the city Kolkata is 22.5667
degree. For optimal tilt angle we have maintained 21
degree. The panels used are of polycrystalline type (blue
color panel) and manufactured by Tata BP Solar India
Limited with nominal operating cell temperature of 470C.
Table-1 shows some of the other features of that installed
grid tie solar plant:
TABLE-1
Number of modules 28 Nos.
Number of modules in series 14 Nos.
Number of parallel strings or 02 Nos. (Unit-I &
units Unit-II).
Cable use in string 4 sq mm single core dc
cable.
Earthing DC earthing with 1.2Ω
insulation resistance.
Total generation capacity of the plant - 6kWp.
IV. RESULTS
In this system no battery storage has been
introduced because the plant works only in the day
light. The system directly supplies the existing load via the
solar inverter and thus reduces consumer power
consumption which is taken from the commercial
distribution company.
Table-2 shows the approximate readings of individual
units for a sunny day generation. It has been also found
from the energy meter reading that the sunny day kilo-
watt-hour unit generation is approximately 23 units per
day. The data has been collected on the month of April,
2016.
TABLE-2
Open circuit Current in RYB-
voltage phases
Unit-I 322V(dc) 2.97A(dc)
Unit-II 342V(dc) 2.97A(dc)
V. CONCLUSION
Rooftop solar system has huge future prospects. Further
research and development on the application of solar
technology can enrich the world with clean and natural
energy. However, generally it is observed that per kW
plant has the capability of generation of 5 units energy
per day. Therefore, this 6kW plant should give 30 units
per day. But here it is 23 units. It does mean that few
amounts of loss are taken place in the system either due
to installation problem or some other reasons may be
there. So the future scope related to this project is to
detect the problems and to provide technical support to
achieve the goal of generation of 30 Units by the 6kWp
rooftop solar system. The collection of data for different
parameters related to this running project and the
analysis of that data will make the system very efficient.
VI. REFERENCE
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Johri, “Grid Connected Roof Top Solar Power Generation:
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[2] G.Ravi Kumar, A.Hari Prasad, N.Satya Saketha,
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[3] M. H. Albadi, R. S. Al Abri, M. I. Masoud, K. H. Al Saidi,
A. S. Al Busaidi, “Design of a 50kW solar PV rooftop
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