Design and operation consideration for selection of transformers for solar photovoltaic plant applications Das Koushik, Karmakar Subir NTPC Limited Online published on 16 May, 2023. Abstract Presently, solar energy is one of the prominent renewable energy sources for electricity, and the scale of the solar plant is constantly growing to meet the growing energy demand. There has been marked in reduction of levelised cost of energy (LCOE) due to development of Large Utility scale PV power plant. Inverter Transformers are one of the most critical components in solar PV plants and are deployed in large numbers in large solar PV plants. Power output from PV Solar plant is inherently intermittent depending on available solar irradiance. Accordingly, load on solar inverter transformers also varies. Most of the time they operate at part load only. Hence, judicious selection of design parameters not only reduces the initial cost of transformer, they also help-in optimizing the life cycle cost.Solar projects have very stringent project timelines. With the low tariff being-discovered for upcoming projects, measures to reduce the project cost and aux power consumption are the-new focus areas. This paper presents Solar PV plant acrchitecture details, annual solar generation profile and-loading cycles of solar inverter transformers, estimation and comparative analysis of these transformers losses, service life and cost savings opportunities for presently used and proposed design along with operational-practices. Selection of suitable short-circuit impedance of solar inverter transformers for application with different-rated inverter based on techno-economical consideration. Software simulation, mathematical computation, and techno-economical analysis are presented in details. Top Keywords Solar, Photovoltaic, Transformer, Inverter, Cost, Design, Operation, Loss. Top |