Smart designing: Reducing the solarization cost by energy efficient retrofits

The demand for electricity has continued to outpace the supply side since 2005, considerably effecting all consumer sectors (residential, commercial & Industrial). Since 2012, the situation has been worsen resulting in load shedding for several hours. In rural as well as even in some underprivileged areas of big cities such as Lahore, brown-outs for 8-12 hours daily during summer can be observed. The shortage of electricity and higher fuel prices for generators shifted the trend towards alternate energy. For Lahore-Pakistan, solar photovoltaic (PV) is the most feasible energy source for alternate clean energy which is economically more viable than petrol generators. The general concept of high initial capital cost for PV system prevents the potential users to take an initiative, however, there are ways to economically design the alternate solar PV system for critical loads. In following case-study, the results for conversion of load on solar PV-Hybrid system with economic viability are presented. Energy audits and energy conservation methodologies to reduce the size of PV system as well as its capital and operational cost are also discussed. The study explains how retrofitting the existing load with energy efficient equipment not only reduces the active load and required size of solar system but also reduces the overall price of the system including the cost of retrofitting.