Impacts of Electricity Rates on the Economics of Rooftop PV System

The huge negative environmental impacts of usingfossil fuel-based electricity generation systems is widely visible interms of air pollutions, greenhouse gas emissions induced climatechange, and skyrocketing of electricity prices while the resourceis continuously being depleted. Using renewable energy sourcesuch as solar energy will surely reduce the negative impacts ofconventional fuels used for electricity generation.Mitigating the negative impact of the traditional energysources usage for the production of electricity needs a concertedeffort of all inhabitants of the planet Earth. Renewable energysources such as wind and solar have recently been seen assaviours. While the technical possibility and their readiness areseen as non-barriers to their deployment, one major barrier thatrecently has been showing up is the economical comparison oftheir economics with grid electricity where and when it isavailable. The premium is still acceptable for having a standalonePV system where grid electricity is not reachable. The economicsanalysis of such standalone system can easily been computed asthere are less dynamics involved. The case is a bit complicatedwhere the PV system is grid-tied and bidirectional energyexchange with the grid is allowable. Dynamics such as feed-intariffs, time of use tariffs, block tariffs et cetera makes theeconomics analysis of grid-tied energy systems complicated tomodel, analyse, and optimise. Net present cost as an economicindicator of technical feasible grid-tied energy system is used toassess the economic viability using HOMER software. Differentscenarios are evaluated with fixed electricity rate but withdifferent sellback prices