Incidence of non-working days on limiting photovoltaic potential on a building with day-hours high power consumption, without storage and grid injection

Abstract

This study investigates the practicality of a 7 kWp photovoltaic (PV) system designed to partially supply power to the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism buildings at the University of Cuenca, Ecuador, without storage or bidirectional meter. Leveraging theoretical capacity alignment with irradiation, the system aims to avoid surpluses, as it is not connected to the grid through net metering, net billing, or a storage system. Despite the equatorial location's low seasonal fluctuations and reduced irradiation and energy demand variations, significant consumption fluctuations between working and non-working days pose a primary challenge. Implementing a system with the potential to cover around 7,5% of the total annual demand, surpluses occur at midday on non-working days, reaching 2,7 kW, yet annually constituting only 0,17% of overall consumption or 2,2% of total energy production. This underscores the limitations of nonworking day fluctuations despite the system's potential for on-site energy generation during working hours.