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Research Article | | Peer-Reviewed

Simulated Technical and Economic Analysis of Off-grid Photovoltaic Power System with Back-up Generators for GSM Base Station Using PVsyst Simulation Software

Umar Nurudeen Mohammed,  Umoette Anyanime Tim*,  Dominic Ekpo,  Nkanang Bassey Dominic
Published in American Journal of Energy Engineering (Volume 14, Issue 2)
Received: 3 May 2026     Accepted: 14 May 2026     Published: 28 May 2026
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Abstract

In this research, simulated technical and economic analysis of off-grid photovoltaic power system with back-up generators for GSM base station using PVsyst simulation software is presented. The case study load profile comprising of 9 key components has peak power demand of 3325 W and daily energy demand of 58580 Wh. The solar radiation has annual mean of 4.2041 and standard deviation of 1.6018 while the temperature has annual mean of 25.32 and standard deviation of 1.1595. There is no outlier in the solar radiation but the temperature has three outliers, which are, 21.8, 28.7, 28.8. The PV power system has 60 units of PV modules and 112 units of battery for the battery bank. There is solar fraction of 1.0 is all the months except in the month of July where the solar fraction is 0.934 which required the backup generator to supply the energy short fall of 119.4 kWh in July for a total duration of for 39.83 hours. The economic analysis results show that the installation cost according is 10,969,000 Naira while the operating cost is 940,422.08 Naira per year. The unused energy cost is 56,883 naira per kWh. The feed-in-tariff for the energy generated from the solar power system is 170 naira per kWh. The payback period for the system is 4.3 years. That means after 4.3 years, the investment cost of the project will be recovered. The return on investment is 377.7% which means the project is very profitable.

Published in American Journal of Energy Engineering (Volume 14, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajee.20261402.15
Page(s) 83-98
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Science Publishing Group
Previous article
Keywords

Economic Analysis of PV System, Off-grid Photovoltaic Power System, PVsyst Simulation Software, Solar Powered GSM Base Station, Technical Analysis of PV System

1. Introduction
Since the advent of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network services in Nigeria, there has been rapid spread and adoption of the services across Nigeria
[1-3, 24]
. This has created so many jobs and facilitated many good processes in diverse fields. In the higher institutions, it has engendered e-learning solutions, online portal-based services and computer-based testing (CBT) systems that rely on network or cloud-based services
[4-7]
. In view of the critical services supported by the GSM network, it is required that the downtime of such networks should be minimal and well planned to avoid excessive loss of revenues on both the service providers and their clients
[8-10, 23]
.
One of the major problems of the GSM services providers is the poor power supply from the Nigerian national grid
[11-14]
. There is perennial power shortage in Nigeria and epileptic power supply from the national grid which make the power from the national grid to be unsuitable for effective service delivery by the GSM network service providers
[15-17]
. Also, there is the high cost of energy for the Band A electricity consumers in Nigeria
[18-20]
. The poor power supply can seriously affect the GSM base stations and hence the availability of network for the users. Particularly, in the University campus where constant internet service is needed during the day, it is required that the GSM base station should be constantly powered up to serve the university community.
Accordingly, this research focus on the design of solar power system as alternative power supply for the GSM base station. The research provided the simulated design as well as the technical and economic analysis of the system using PYSyst simulation software
[25, 26]
.
2. Methodology
2.1. The Research Process
The research process is approach using the following nine key steps:
Get the GSM base station load profile
Get the installation site geo-coordinates and the Google map visualization of the site
Get the installation site meteorological data relevant for the study using the PVsyst 7.3.1 simulation software
Conduct Statistical analysis of the meteorological data using the descriptive statistics software tool
Setup the PV tilt orientation in the PVsyst 7.3.1 simulation software
Setup the load profile in the PVsyst 7.3.1 simulation software
Setup the PV system components configurations in the PVsyst 7.3.1 simulation software
Simulate the PV system in the PVsyst 7.3.1 simulation software to obtain the system components sizes and technical performances
Setup the PV system economic analysis parameters and simulate in the PVsyst 7.3.1 simulation software to obtain the economic analysis of the PV power system.
2.2. The Load Profile of the Case Study GSM Base Station
The daily load demand profile for the GSM base station is adapted from a recent work by
[21, 22]
and shown in Table 1. The load profile comprising of 9 key components has peak power demand of 3325 W and daily energy demand of 58580 Wh. The distribution of the energy consumption among the load components is presented in Figure 1. The air condition is the highest load component accounting for about 49% of the entire load.
Table 1. The daily load demand profile for the GSM base station.

S/N

Load Description

Q T Y

Power Rating (W)

Total Power Demand (W)

Duration of opera tion (h)

Energy Demand (Wh)

1

Base station transceiver

2

40

80

24

1920

2

Connecting microwave

1

75

75

24

1800

3

Air conditioner

1

1200

1200

24

28800

4

Halogen lamp

3

200

600

12

7200

5

Aviation warning light

5

160

800

12

9600

6

LED light

5

20

100

24

2400

7

Security light

3

120

360

12

4320

8

Motion and proximity sensor

1

30

30

24

720

9

CCTV setup

1

80

80

24

1920

3325

58680
Figure 1. The distribution of the energy consumption among the load components.
2.3. The Installation Site Geo-coordinates and the Google Map Visualization of the Site
The installation site geo-coordinates and the Google map visualization of the site was done using the online Google Map. Notably, the case study site is in Akwa Ibom State University Obiokpa Campus. The geo-coordinate of the site is obtained through a location search on Google map and the coordinates obtained are latitude and longitude of 4.96451929968801, 7.759789035138503 respectively. The Google maps visualization of the site is presented in Figure 2.
Figure 2. The Google maps visualization of the case study site in Akwa Ibom State University Obiokpa Campus with latitude and longitude of 4.96451929968801, 7.759789035138503 respectively.
2.4. The Installation Site Meteorological Data Relevant for the Study Using the PVsyst 7.3.1 Simulation Software
Figure 3. The scatter plot of the daily solar radiation, (GlobHor) of the case study site done with Visual basic for application programming tool in Excel.
Figure 4. The scatter plot of the daily atmospheric temperature, (T_Amb) of the case study site done with Visual basic for application programming tool in Excel.
The scatter plot of the daily solar radiation, (GlobHor) of the case study site is shown in Figure 3. It has annual mean value of 4.2 kWh/m²/day. Also, the scatter plot of the daily atmospheric temperature, (T_Amb) of the case study site is shown in Figure 4. It has annual mean temperature value of 25.32°C.
2.5. The Setup of the PV Tilt Orientation in the PVsyst 7.3.1 Simulation Software
Figure 5. The screenshot showing the settings for the PV tilt orientation in the PVsyst 7.3.1 simulation software.
The screenshot showing the settings for the PV tilt orientation in the PVsyst 7.3.1 simulation software is presented in Figure 5. The annual fixed tile angle is selected. Tilt angle of 14 degrees is selected which gave a transposition factor of 1.02. This means that 2% of extra solar radiation is obtained by the optimal tilting of the PV panel.
2.6. The Setup of the Load Profile in the PVsyst 7.3.1 Simulation Software
Figure 6. The screenshot showing the daily load profile settings for the PV in the PVsyst 7.3.1 simulation software.
The screenshot showing the daily load profile settings for the PV in the PVsyst 7.3.1 simulation software. According to the load profile in Table 1, the daily energy demand is 58680 Wh per day. The load profile in the PVsyst (Figure 6) shows an average power demand of 2445 W, which is the average hourly power demand obtained by dividing the 58680 by 24, (that is, 58680 Wh /24 h =2445 W). The daily energy demand of 58680 Wh per day approximates to 58.7 kWh per day in the PVsyst the software.2.7. Setup of the PV System Components Configurations in the PVsyst 7.3.1 and Simulation of the PV System
The PVsyst settings for the PV array is presented in Figure 7. Each PV model is a Si-mono panel rated at 400 Wp 32 V. There are 4 strings in series (giving a total terminal voltage 132 V). There are 15 strings of the PV module where each string has 4 PV modules in series, as shown in Figure 7. The PVsyst settings for the battery bank are presented in Figure 8. Each battery is rated as 240 Ah 12 V. There are 8 strings of batteries in series (giving a total terminal voltage 96V). There are 14 strings of the PV module where each string has 8 batteries in series, as shown in Figure 8.
The PVsyst settings for the charger controller is presented in Figure 9. A universal charger controller with MPTT converter is selected. The details of the charger controller are shown in Figure 9. The PVSYst settings for the back-up generator are presented in Figure 10. The back-up generator is a 3-kW rated generator as shown in Figure 10.
Figure 7. The PVsyst settings for the PV array.
Figure 8. The PVsyst settings for the battery bank.
Figure 9. The PVsyst settings for the charger controller.
Figure 10. The PVsyst settings for the back-up generator.
2.8. Economic Analysis of the PV Power System Using the PVsyst 7.3.1 Simulation Software
Figure 11. The screenshot showing the input for the investment and charges in the PVSyst economic analysis dialogue box.
At this point the input parameters for the economic analysis are supplied through the PVsyst economic analysis input dialogue box shown in Figure 11. Nest the economic analysis simulation is conducted in the PVsyst 7.3.1 software to obtain the economic analysis results for the PV power system.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Results on the Technical Analysis
The screenshot showing the result on the energy yield, energy delivered and solar fraction is presented in Figure 12. The solar fraction of 1.0 shows that all the energies required by the user or load are provided by the solar power for all the months of the year except in the month of July where the solar fraction is 0.934 which is less than 1.0.
However, the Loss of Load (Pr_LOL) and duration of loss of load (T_LOL) for the system in the month of July, as shown in Figure 13 is 0, indicating that there was not power outage in the month of July due to the short fall in energy supply from the solar power system. This is because the backup generator supplied the short fall of 119.4 kWh worth of energy in the month of July alone, as shown in Figure 13.
Figure 12. The screenshot showing the Result on the Energy Yield, Energy Delivered and Solar Fraction.
Figure 13. The screenshot showing the Result on Loss of Load (LOL) and Power Supply from the Backup Generator.
The results in Figure 14 show that the backup generator has to supply the shortfall in the energy for 39.83 hours in the month of July. Also, the energy required is about 3.653 kWh per day, as shown in Figure 15. The loss of load would have occurred on 5th of July as well as from 19th to 20th of July, (as shown in Figure 15). As shown in Figure 16 and Figure 17, the duration of the backup energy supply on 5th of July will be 5.128 hours, and as shown in Figure 17, the duration of the backup energy supply from 19th of July to 29th of July will be 14.79 hours.
The results in Figure 18 show that the fuel consumption of the backup energy supply in the month of July will be 71.6565 liters. The detailed breakdown of the fuel consumption for the backup generator on the 5th of July and for the 19th to 20th of July are presented in Figure 19.
Figure 14. The screenshot showing the Result on Loss of Load Duration which is also the Backup Generator Running Per Month for a Whole Year.
Figure 15. The screenshot showing the Result on Loss of Load Energy per day in July which is also the amount of energy supplied by the Backup Generator per day in July.
Figure 16. The screenshot showing the Exact Time the Loss of Load will Occur on 5th of July.
Figure 17. The screenshot showing the Exact Time the Loss of Load will Occur from 19th to 20th of July.
Figure 18. The screenshot showing the fuel consumption of the Back-up Generator per month for a whole year.
Figure 19. The screenshot showing the fuel consumption of the Back-up Generator per day for the month of July.
3.2. The Results of the Economic Analysis
The results of the economic analysis of the solar power plant are presented in this section. The details of the cost of the system are presented in Figure 20 and Figure 21. The installation cost according to Figure 21 is 10,969,000 Naira while the operating cost is 940,422.08 Naira per year. The unused energy cost is 56,883 naira per kWh.
Figure 20. The screenshot showing the part I of the results for the cost of the system.
Figure 21. The screenshot showing the part II of the results for the cost of the system.
The details of the financial analysis of the system is presented in Figure 22 and Figure 23. The results in Figure 22 show 6,000,000 Naira are funds provided by the owner out of the 10,969,000 Naira required for the initial investment cost of the system. The remaining 4,969,000 are borrowed funds for which tax need to be paid. The feed-in-tariff for the energy generated from the solar power system is 170 naira per kWh.
The payback period for the system is 4.3 years. That means after 4.3 years, the investment cost of the project will be recovered. The return on investment is 377.7% which means the project is very profitable. The details of the profit are presented in Figure 23.
Figure 22. The screenshot showing the of the results for the financial analysis of the system.
Figure 23. The screenshot showing the of the detailed economic analysis results for the financial analysis of the system.
4. Conclusion
In this research, technical and economic analysis of an off-grid solar power system based on photovoltaic (PV) approach is presented. The PV off-grid solar (PVOGS) power system is meant to power a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) base station located in one of the campuses of Akwa Ibom State University. The PV power system design included a back-up generator to supply power to the critical load during potential power shortage moments from the solar power source. The PVOGS power system was modeled and simulated using the popular PVSYst simulation software for PV power systems.
In all, the research provided the requisite technical information for contingency management in the energy supply to the GSM base station. It also provided the economic analysis details that will be used to justify the expenditure on the power system due to it very short payback period of 4 years compared with the life cycle period of 25 years.
Abbreviations

GSM

Global System for Mobile Communications

CBT

Computer-based Testing

PV

Photovoltaic

LOL

Loss of Load

PVOGS

PV Off-grid Solar
Author Contributions
Umar Nurudeen Mohammed: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Writing – original draft
Umoette Anyanime Tim: Resources, Software, Supervision
Dominic Ekpo: Validation, Visualization
Nkanang Bassey Dominic: Writing – review & editing
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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    Mohammed, U. N., Tim, U. A., Ekpo, D., Dominic, N. B. (2026). Simulated Technical and Economic Analysis of Off-grid Photovoltaic Power System with Back-up Generators for GSM Base Station Using PVsyst Simulation Software. American Journal of Energy Engineering, 14(2), 83-98. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajee.20261402.15

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    ACS Style

    Mohammed, U. N.; Tim, U. A.; Ekpo, D.; Dominic, N. B. Simulated Technical and Economic Analysis of Off-grid Photovoltaic Power System with Back-up Generators for GSM Base Station Using PVsyst Simulation Software. Am. J. Energy Eng. 2026, 14(2), 83-98. doi: 10.11648/j.ajee.20261402.15

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    AMA Style

    Mohammed UN, Tim UA, Ekpo D, Dominic NB. Simulated Technical and Economic Analysis of Off-grid Photovoltaic Power System with Back-up Generators for GSM Base Station Using PVsyst Simulation Software. Am J Energy Eng. 2026;14(2):83-98. doi: 10.11648/j.ajee.20261402.15

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajee.20261402.15,
  author = {Umar Nurudeen Mohammed and Umoette Anyanime Tim and Dominic Ekpo and Nkanang Bassey Dominic},
  title = {Simulated Technical and Economic Analysis of Off-grid Photovoltaic Power System with Back-up Generators for GSM Base Station Using PVsyst Simulation Software},
  journal = {American Journal of Energy Engineering},
  volume = {14},
  number = {2},
  pages = {83-98},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ajee.20261402.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajee.20261402.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajee.20261402.15},
  abstract = {In this research, simulated technical and economic analysis of off-grid photovoltaic power system with back-up generators for GSM base station using PVsyst simulation software is presented. The case study load profile comprising of 9 key components has peak power demand of 3325 W and daily energy demand of 58580 Wh. The solar radiation has annual mean of 4.2041 and standard deviation of 1.6018 while the temperature has annual mean of 25.32 and standard deviation of 1.1595. There is no outlier in the solar radiation but the temperature has three outliers, which are, 21.8, 28.7, 28.8. The PV power system has 60 units of PV modules and 112 units of battery for the battery bank. There is solar fraction of 1.0 is all the months except in the month of July where the solar fraction is 0.934 which required the backup generator to supply the energy short fall of 119.4 kWh in July for a total duration of for 39.83 hours. The economic analysis results show that the installation cost according is 10,969,000 Naira while the operating cost is 940,422.08 Naira per year. The unused energy cost is 56,883 naira per kWh. The feed-in-tariff for the energy generated from the solar power system is 170 naira per kWh. The payback period for the system is 4.3 years. That means after 4.3 years, the investment cost of the project will be recovered. The return on investment is 377.7% which means the project is very profitable.},
 year = {2026}
}

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  • TY  - JOUR
T1  - Simulated Technical and Economic Analysis of Off-grid Photovoltaic Power System with Back-up Generators for GSM Base Station Using PVsyst Simulation Software
AU  - Umar Nurudeen Mohammed
AU  - Umoette Anyanime Tim
AU  - Dominic Ekpo
AU  - Nkanang Bassey Dominic
Y1  - 2026/05/28
PY  - 2026
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajee.20261402.15
DO  - 10.11648/j.ajee.20261402.15
T2  - American Journal of Energy Engineering
JF  - American Journal of Energy Engineering
JO  - American Journal of Energy Engineering
SP  - 83
EP  - 98
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2329-163X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajee.20261402.15
AB  - In this research, simulated technical and economic analysis of off-grid photovoltaic power system with back-up generators for GSM base station using PVsyst simulation software is presented. The case study load profile comprising of 9 key components has peak power demand of 3325 W and daily energy demand of 58580 Wh. The solar radiation has annual mean of 4.2041 and standard deviation of 1.6018 while the temperature has annual mean of 25.32 and standard deviation of 1.1595. There is no outlier in the solar radiation but the temperature has three outliers, which are, 21.8, 28.7, 28.8. The PV power system has 60 units of PV modules and 112 units of battery for the battery bank. There is solar fraction of 1.0 is all the months except in the month of July where the solar fraction is 0.934 which required the backup generator to supply the energy short fall of 119.4 kWh in July for a total duration of for 39.83 hours. The economic analysis results show that the installation cost according is 10,969,000 Naira while the operating cost is 940,422.08 Naira per year. The unused energy cost is 56,883 naira per kWh. The feed-in-tariff for the energy generated from the solar power system is 170 naira per kWh. The payback period for the system is 4.3 years. That means after 4.3 years, the investment cost of the project will be recovered. The return on investment is 377.7% which means the project is very profitable.
VL  - 14
IS  - 2
ER  -

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Author Information

  • Umar Nurudeen Mohammed

    Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Akwa Ibom State University, Ikot Akpaden, Nigeria

  • Umoette Anyanime Tim

    Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Akwa Ibom State University, Ikot Akpaden, Nigeria

    Contact Email

    http://orcid.org/0009-0000-5063-5280

  • Dominic Ekpo

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Akwa Ibom State University, Ikot Akpaden, Nigeria

    Contact Email

  • Nkanang Bassey Dominic

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Akwa Ibom State University, Ikot Akpaden, Nigeria

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  • Abstract
  • Keywords

  • Document Sections

    1. 1. Introduction
    2. 2. Methodology
    3. 3. Results and Discussion
    4. 4. Conclusion
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  • Abbreviations
  • Author Contributions
  • Conflicts of Interest
  • References
  • Cite This Article
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