The Faculty of Graduate Studies awarded the researcher Ishraq Jarrar a Master’s Degree in Clean Energy and Conservation Strategy in response to her thesis entitled “PV-Grid Connected Power to Tubas Electric Network (TDECO): Field Tests, Evaluation, Simulation and Optimization”.

Grid connected PV systems became the best alternatives in renewable energy fields. A 4771 kWp PV stations are connected with Tubas District Electricity Co (TDECO). 350kWp PV power station donated from Czech Republic is the largest solar power plant in Tubas. The site is receives high average annual solar radiation amounting to 5.13 and 5.925 kWh/m2-day for horizontal and tilted surface respectively. The annual average temperature of this site is about 20.5°C during 2016.

This thesis presents the technical installation evaluation of the 350kWp PV power station according to national and international standards and the associated recommendations are presented. The system performance is evaluated also, two types of power losses are discussed; uncontrollable losses (like inverters faults and grid shortage) and PV power station equipment (like PV modules, DC cables, Inverters, AC cables and meter). The overall system efficiency is calculated, it amounts to 11.94%.The system operational performance parameters as annual, monthly, actual and expected performance ratio (PR)are calculated. The actual and expected PR is 75.6% and 80.2% respectively. The actual and expected specific annual yield (Ys) is 1640 kWh/kWp and 1740 kWh/kWp respectively. The actual and expected capacity factor (CF) is 18.7%, 19.81%, respectively, which is in the acceptable range (12%-24%).The annual actual and expected energy production in 2016 is 574039kWh and 609029kWh/year respectively.

The other main aspect of this thesis is studying the effect of irradiance, temperature, dust and the number of maximum power point string trackers on the energy production of this PV power station. Moreover, studying of utilized DC cables and transformer optimization are discussed.

Analysis is carried out to provide economic evaluation in terms of life cycle cost and energy cost. The obtained results show that the donated PV power station is economically feasible with an average energy cost of 0.0276NIS/kWh while it is not feasible if TDECO was the financing body of the PV power station since it would not be feasible; because of high costs of ground and land preparation.

Furthermore, this PV power station contributes in protecting the Palestinian environment since it reduces the CO2 emission by 577.97ton per year.

The committee consisted of: Prof. Marwan Mahmoud as a main supervisor and Chairman, Dr. Osama Omari as an external examiner and Dr. Moeen Omar as an internal examiner.

At the end of the session, the committee approved the success of the researcher and recommended her a Master’s degree.