Due to the global economic growth and the increased demand for emerging economies, the energy imbalance has become serious. Moreover, an approximate 85% of energy sources has been depending on fossil fuels, which results in accelerating resource depletion. For these reasons, favorable New Renewable Energy policies have been expanded. Especially, the application rate of New Renewable Energy on apartment houses which are the main housing form and account for 59% of the total houses in South Korea has been rapidly increasing. One of the feasible New Renewable Energy sources can be photovoltaic system which has been constantly studied by many researchers. However, hitherto, the studies on photovoltaic system have mainly focused on the locations of photovoltaic generating facilities rather than the installed capacity of them.
This study showed a comparative analysis of the electricity produced by a photovoltaic system, the one checked by KEPCO(Korea Electric Power Corporation), and electricity usage in National Rental Apartments of Ha-Dong in Kimje from February in 2013 to January in 2014. It also investigated electricity usage of 3,847 households in Jeollabuk-Do and 40,650 households in other residential districts. As a result of this study, I could draw the following conclusions.
First, photovoltaic generating capacity has been usually decided based on incentives to be given to buildings with photovoltaic system, installation area, and facilities budget. But, for the case of National Rental Apartments of Ha-Dong in Kimje, it was found that it was ineffective to install photovoltaic generating facilities excessively because they caused surplus energy that cannot be transmitted back to KEPCO and just be disappeared.
Second, according to the results of electricity usage from 40,650 households in different 59 residential districts, it was found to be the minimum electricity usage at 3 P.M. for one month in October.
Third, when photovoltaic generating capacity should be determined, it is more reasonable to install photovoltaic system without reverse transmission provided that it is less than minimum electricity usage at 3 P.M. In the same way, if photovoltaic generating capacity is more than minimum electricity usage at 3 P.M, it is advised to set up photovoltaic system with reverse transmission to sell surplus energy to KEPCO under its approval.
It is expected that the installation standard of a photovoltaic system in National Rental Apartments through this study will help prevent installing unnecessary facilities, reduce maintenance fees in apartments by selling surplus energy, and make new future policies of New Renewable Energy. Also, further studies may be necessary in various aspects including another installation standard of a photovoltaic system in privately-built Apartments as well as the detailed standards based on different size of apartments.