First year report on the Rooftop Solar Project at AKH Knitting & Dyeing LTD. (Extension Unit)

Case Study

First year report on the Rooftop Solar Project at AKH Knitting & Dyeing LTD. (Extension Unit)

1. Introduction

Solar EPC Development Ltd. have implemented a 2.8 MWp rooftop solar project on the roofs of AKH Knitting & Dyeing Ltd. in Manikganj one year ago. This Project was also one the largest rooftop solar projects of 2022. With the help of precise design and procurement team and also a very expert installation team, Solar EPC Development Ltd. have installed this huge project in a very short time of only 40 days.

2. Project Details

To develop this project, Solar EPC Development Ltd. have used latest technologies of some of the most renowned brands in the market. For example, they have used Canadian Solar PV modules. Each module capacity was 545 Wp. A total of 5145 number of PV modules have been used in this project which makes the DC capacity 2.8 MWp. They have also used Huawei SUN2000-100KTL-M1 on-grid inverters. 21 inverters were used in this project which makes the AC capacity of this project 2.1 MW. Along with the PV Modules and Inverters, Solar EPC Development Ltd. has used some very renowned brands for all the components used in this solar project such as Cables, Cable Tray, Walk way, Circuit Breakers Etc. For DC, AC, Grounding and Communication cables, Solar EPC Development Ltd. have used cables from Hengtong. As for the mounting structure, cable tray and walkway, Solar EPC Development Ltd. have used components from Powerway. This is one of the reasons behind such amazing results from this project throughout this year.

3. Images of The Project

4. Generating Report

Throughout this one-year, Solar EPC Development Ltd. used their skilled O&M team to maintain the project for a sound overall generation from this project. O&M included cleaning of the project, maintenance check, Troubleshooting test etc. Solar EPC Development Ltd. Performed frequent cleaning so that the project generation stays on the peak. They also did routine troubleshooting test for some of the features of the project such as AFCI test, IV Curve Diagnosis test etc. The O&M also maintained the project in a way so that project can operate soundly and efficiently.

During the designing of the project, after running a simulation on PVsyst, it was estimated that the plant would generate almost 3.5 GWh worth of electricity. From Figure-1, we can see that the plan was able to generate 3.18 GWh worth of electricity, which is over 90% or the estimated production.

5. Project Outcomes

As seen in Figure-2, We can see that the Project has generated over 3.18 GWh worth of electricity. As a result, AKH Knitting & Dyeing Ltd. have saved almost 30 million BDT as revenue from the project.

In Figure-3, we can see the overall generation from July 2022 to June 2023. We can see that the generation was a little low in the winter season but the generation significantly high in the summer. The reason behind the generation gap is mostly because of the low temperature and solar irradiance in the winter season. In the off-peak season, the lowest generation in a month is in the January where the project generated almost 200 thousand Units of electricity. The Highest generation is in the month of May where the project generated over 375 thousand units of electricity.
AKH Knitting & Dyeing Ltd. have also implemented Net metering for their Rooftop solar project. When the load is lower than the solar power generation, the surplus electricity will be fed to the grid. Since AKH Knitting & Dyeing Ltd. have implemented the net metering system, the utility bill will be adjusted according to the amount of electricity they have supplied to the grid. Therefore, there will be no wastage of energy.
Apart from a secondary source of electricity, Rooftop solar projects are being implemented because they reduce the carbon emission and they reduce the use of fossil fuel in day-to-day life. According to Figure-1, the rooftop solar project has saved 1.27 thousand tons of standard coal. For this reason, this project has also reduced 1.51 thousand tons of CO2 emission which is equivalent to planting 2.07 thousand trees.

6. Project Obstacles

While implementing and also after implementing such large-scale solar projects, the installing team faces many obstacles. In this case, Solar EPC Development Ltd. team have also faced a very severe obstacle. One of the inverter’s external cooling fan was not working properly. The problem was not identifiable before commissioning. After the project was completed, the installing team identified the problem and contacted the inverter Manufacturer Huawei immediately. They have maintained their commitment and replaced the faulty inverter with a new inverter within one business day. This way, the problem was sorted out very smoothly and quickly.

7. Conclusion

The Government of Bangladesh is also very enthusiastic about renewable sources of electricity these days. They have also set a goal of 4000MW capacity of electricity generation from renewable sources. Solar EPC Development Ltd. is working to contribute as much as possible to the goal. From all the implemented projects of Solar EPC Development Ltd., they have saved almost 1403 tons of coal, reduced almost 1662 tons of CO2 emission and also generated equivalent energy of planting 2270 trees. The project at AKH Knitting & Dyeing Ltd. is a prime example of the work Solar EPC Development Ltd. have kept on so far. They have almost 10 MW project being implemented as of now and over 50MW rooftop solar projects in their pipeline. Furthermore, they are looking for more and more opportunities to make Bangladesh greener and more efficient.

Case Study