DESIGN OF A STANDALONE SOLAR POWER SYSTEM, FOUR OFFICES, ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONIC DEPARTMENT

The amount of sunlight that strikes the earth’s surface in an hour and a half is enough to handle the entire world’s energy consumption for a full year. Solar Power Technology is one of the major types of green and renewable energy. They are used to convert sunlight into electrical energy either through photovoltaic (PV) panels or through mirrors that concentrate solar radiation. This energy can be used to generate electricity or be stored in batteries or thermal storage. This project is titled “The Design of a Standalone Solar Power System for Four Offices in Electrical/Electronic Department”. The project aims to design and install a Standalone Solar system to provide power supply for the critical loads present in four offices in Electrical/Electronic department, University of Benin. The methodology employed in this project was to calculate and estimate the electrical loads and critical loads in the four offices in Electrical/Electronic department, the sizing and installation of solar panels, batteries, inverter and charge controller, and lastly the test results and maintenance procedures carried out after the installation. This PV system consist of 3.5KVA 220V inverter at 50Hz which incorporates 14 300W-Solar panels all connected in parallel, 2 deep cycle batteries rated 200Ah, 12V connected in series and a 12V 200Amps charge controller. The system was designed to assess the total electric power demand. During the day the output from the PV charges the batteries and feed the load and when power failure occurs from the grid, the stored energy in the battery is again supplied back to the load in order to ensure there is always availability of power in the office.