Reduction of peak power consumption by using photovoltaic panels in Turkey

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the reduction of peak power consumption by using photovoltaic (PV) system. The decrease of the peak load in terms of demand side management is one of the important studies in smart grid. Renewable sources can be used to enhance the efficient use of the existing infrastructure. Technical and financial feasibility of PV used electricity peak power consumption reduction has been investigated at a finance campus in Istanbul, Turkey. The campus is located on an 80,000 m
²
landscape area and it has 60,000 m
²
closed area buildings installed with 6.4 MVA power substation. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)'s PVWatts Calculator and JEDI PV web calculator tools have been used to find the total electricity generation of PV Panels to compensate the peak loads above the nominal consumption level. According to simulation results, use of grid connected PV systems was shown beneficial for peak power consumption reduction throughout the day.