Location: Ohrid, North Macedonia
Goal of the study: Performance assessment and self-consumption optimization
Client: Private (household)
Challenge: Match production and consumption rates
There are various ways in which the owner of the system can make profit from it, and vary by the application segment. Self-consumption, power purchase agreements, cooperatives and virtual power plants are the most common models in Europe. However, the owner doesn’t always have the choice and the available options may be limited. Until recently, households in North Macedonia could only consume the electricity produced for their own needs.
This limitation drastically changes the economic viability of a project, and limits the size of the system to a rate at which the owner can consume the electricity. Battery storage of the excess electricity is possible, but due to the additional investment costs for batteries, it is not always a better choice.
Having these limitations in mind, the owner has an incentive to use as much of the electricity produced as possible. The production rate is varying through the year and through the hours of the day. It is dependent on the location and angle of the PV modules. In the case of rooftop mounted systems, the angle of the modules may not be optimal, but it is predetermined by the rooftop and can not be adjusted due to construction limitations. What can be adjusted, is the consumption of the electricity.
By adjusting the consumption habits and some automated control of heating and cooling devices in the household, the self sufficiency of the system increased from 16% to 27%.