Comparative assessment of PV plant performance models considering climate effects

The paper investigates the effect of climate conditions on the accuracy of PV system performance models (physical and interpolation methods) which are used within a monitoring system as a reference for the power produced by a PV system to detect inefficient or faulty operating conditions. The methodological approach is based on comparative tests of the analyzed models applied to two PV plants installed respectively in north of Denmark (Aalborg) and in the south of Italy (Agrigento). The different ambient, operating and installation conditions allow to understand how these factors impact the precision and effectiveness of such approaches, among these factors it is worth mentioning the different percentage of diffuse component of the yearly solar radiation on the global one. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. In order to have the possibility to analyze and compare the performance of the studied PV plants with others, the efficiency of the systems has been estimated by both conventional Performance Ratio and Corrected Performance Ratio