Identification of potential users of photovoltaic conversion

Abstract

The growing demand for electricity resulted from the continuous technical progress and its disturbing impacts on the environment motivate the search for technological alternatives for sustainable energy generation. The power consumption changes from consumer to consumer and depends on the nature of the activity it performs. In general, activities of trade and industry consume more energy during business hours while residential buildings do at dusk and at night. With the exception of Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, period of greatest consumption of electricity in Rio de Janeiro is between 17h30 and 20h30. In summer months, the intensive use of air conditioning anticipates peak hours for 14h00. When technically possible, the use of photovoltaic conversion in these peak times, therefore, constitutes a smart strategy for load shifting the peak hours to off-peak for large consumers with contract demand in medium and high voltage. This alternative has two impacts: it relieves the systems at peak times and allows the utility to defer investments in their installed infrastructure. This paper, while discussing the technical conditions and the benefits of using photovoltaic systems in Brazil, proposes a method to identify, based on local solarimetric conditions, the photovoltaic conversion potential users.