A case study of residential solar photovoltaic system with utility backup in Nagpur, India Ashutosh Sudhirrao Werulkar a,n , Prakash S. Kulkarni b a Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, St. Vincent Pallotti College of Engineering, Gavsi Manapur, Wardha Road, Nagpur 441108, Maharashtra, India b Department of Electrical Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, South Ambazari Road, Nagpur 440011, Maharashtra, India article info Article history: Received 16 April 2014 Received in revised form 1 February 2015 Accepted 30 July 2015 Keywords: Auto controller Battery Charge controller Inverter Multisim 10.0 PSpice 9.1 abstract The importance of solar photovoltaic systems in renewable energy technology is growing rapidly. So is the cost of photovoltaic panels decreasing due to innovative measures and government policies towards development and progress. The demand for renewable energy technology in the day to day life is on a rise due to increased electricity tariff rates, load shedding etc. This paper presents the performance analysis of a residential solar photovoltaic system with utility backup in Nagpur, a city situated in the center of India. The technical and commercial parameters have been analyzed with focus on energy saving. The system has been designed for partial saving of electricity using solar panels, charge controller, inverter, batteryand autocontroller. To simulate the system PSpice 9.1 software is used. Solar radiation data of one sunny week in January has been used for simulation analysis. From the case study, it has been concluded that there is partial energy saving in the existing PV system with utility backup. & 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1809 2. Site details ........................................................................................................ 1811 3. Design of residential PV system with utility backup ....................................................................... 1811 4. Modeling of solar cell and panel....................................................................................... 1813 5. Simulation of standalone residential PV system .......................................................................... 1813 6. Results and discussion............................................................................................... 1819 7. Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 1821 Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................... 1822 References ............................................................................................................ 1822 1. Introduction There is continuous increase in greenhouse gas levels, and so the fuel prices are increasing day by day. In India, more than 90% of the population depends on LPG gas usage for fulfillment of their daily needs. So also, there is a continuous mismatch between electricity demand and supply in the country. This has led to frequent power cuts due to load shedding. Although in big metropolitan cities, load shedding is not high, in villages it has reached a very high level of 12 h per day and in some places about 18 h per day. Due to such erratic and frequent load shedding, a common man with middle class financial earning has been forced to get himself provided an inverter with a battery backup system. Since 2001, almost 90% of the middle high class society people have this system in their residences. This system fulfills the demand of electricity when there is power cut from the state electricity board. The drawback of the inverter is its power losses. Hence the actual power consumption increases by around 5% due to losses. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.195 1364-0321/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9970621934. E-mail address: ashutoshwerulkar@gmail.com (A.S. Werulkar). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 52 (2015) 1809–1822