Performance Analysis of a Community-Based Off-Grid PV System

Abstract

People living in coastal areas are the most vulnerable during natural disasters. Many families were displaced during the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan when it hit the Philippines in 2013. After several years, many households remain displaced prompting the private sectors and NGOs to take action. One project is an eco-village on an island in Palawan. Built in 2016, an off-grid solar PV system was originally designed to provide electricity for households and facilities within the eco-village. When the village started construction in 2017, the solar PV system was used to power the construction equipment. Three years after the solar PV system was deployed, a significant decline in its performance was observed. Thus, a monitoring system was installed to gather and analyze the energy data from the solar PV system. This paper presents the results of the monitoring and some insights derived from the gathered data. It was observed that the use of construction equipment registered high current readings up to 12.21 A. Current surges due to high power equipment also cause the circuit breaker of the system to trip. The degradation of the batteries is the primary reason for the underperformance of the system.