Large scale grid connected (20MW) photovoltaic system for peak load shaving in Sahab Industrial District

In the daily electrical load cycle,peak load that lasts for few hours is the most expensive electrical production. in the present paper,sahab industrial district (sid),as an example,has its peak load occurring during daylight hours. therefore,it is suggested that a pv plant be installed to shave off the peak load. the location of the proposed large-scale grid-connected pv generation system will be in the al-risha area because of the land low cost,and of a link to the national grid. the proposed pv system is designed with 20 mw installed capacity. it is found that the generation cost for all power is us$ 0.170 per kwh,which is much lower than the electrical production cost of the peak load generation. in addition,a cost comparison is conducted between kwh generated from conventional units (gas turbine in this case) and that generated from pv system. it was found that the cost of kwh generated from the pv system for peak shaving can be very competitive compared to gas turbines after 6 years of operation; so the cost of pv compared to the cost of gas turbines after 25 years was found to be 0.170$/ wp,0.375 $/ wp,respectively. also,the overall co2 reduction in the life cycle of pv system is about 541,798 tons of co2. so,there is no doubt that pv can be an effective tool to replace the conventional power generation,fighting against climate change. the results of the present study clearly illustrate that it is possible to use photovoltaic generation at large-scale for peak load shaving because it is a very cost-effective project and could be generalized to other industrial districts,and to other load types,such as industrial,and economic loads. the results of this work should encourage governments to impose new legislations regarding modifying the peak time to coincide with the solar generation time,(at least one operating peak hour).. © 2015 jordan journal of mechanical and industrial engineering.