Operational Losses of a Solar Power Plant: a Case Study

Solar energy is a vital source for electric power generation, as India receives plenty of sun energy. On our part, it is crucial to generate power with minimum losses and maximum efficiency to cut the overall cost of generation and effectively contribute to the microgrid network structure. A case study has been done to study the losses during the operation of a solar power plant, which are often overlooked by researchers, but they affect the generation to a substantial amount. PID, shading, soiling, cable, and inverter losses are discussed along with the failures/faults rates of components of the PV system. The losses are justified by computing the performance ratio. A solar plant located at Neemuch district in Madhya Pradesh (India) has been selected for the study. Some energy-saving systems are also conferred.