Tecno-economic evaluation of residential PV systems under a tiered rate and net metering program in the Dominican Republic.

This article presents a study of the profitability of Residential Photovoltaic Systems (RPVS), through a techno-economic model based on the Net Metering Program (NMP) and tiered rate in the Dominican Republic (DR). This work seeks to identify profitable investment options in RPVS according to the level of monthly consumption of customers and the effect of the Tax Credit (TC). The methodology consists of maximizing the Net Present Value (NPV) to obtain the Payback Time (PBT) and the Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Without TC, the IRR was from 9.0 % to 23.0 % and the PBT was from 9.91 to 4.46 years for Average Monthly Electricity Consumed (AMEC) of 242 kWh and 1594 kWh respectively. At all levels of electricity consumption chosen, surplus generation at the end of the year was required to maximize the NPV; the numerical simulation showed oversized RPVS in relation to the energy demanded, between 25 % and 84 %. To maximize NPV, the lowest installed capacity was 3.28 kWp due to the increase of LCOE on RPVS for low consumption customers. • An explicit techno-economic model is presented for Residential Photovoltaic Systems (RPVS). • The profitability of RPVS for different levels of consumption is investigated. • An oversizing of PV systems was identified to maximize the net present value. • The longest payback time of the investment was approximately 10 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]