Energy Efficiency of LVDC Supplies Including PV Sources

The Low Voltage Direct Current (LVDC) system concept has been growing in the recent times due to its characteristics and advantages like renewable energy source compatibility, more straightforward integration with storage utilities through power electronic converters and distributed loads. This paper presents the energy efficiency performances of a proposed LVDC supply concept and others classical PV chains architectures. A PV source was considered in the studied nanogrids. The notion of Relative Saved Energy (RSE) was introduced to compare the studied PV systems energy performances. The obtained results revealed that the employment of the LVDC chain supply concept is very interesting and the use of DC loads as an alternative to AC loads, when a PV power is generated locally, is more efficient. The installed PV power source in the building should be well sized regarding to the consumed power in order to register a high system RSE.