Utilization of solar photovoltaic (PV) as a power source in water pumping applications has emerged as one of the valuable solar applications. Solar PV water pumping system is used to fulfill the demand of water in the field of irrigation, livestock watering, and village water supply. Understanding of system design and selection of appropriate design parameters are essential to attain consistent and economical performance of any system. To design a solar water pumping system collection of the information regarding the system components and local climate data of the location are required. This information helps to obtain preferred design and results. In the present paper design optimization of PV system is done by simulation software tool PVsyst 5.52. This simulation software helps to design the system and shows how the different parameters affect the system performance results. Selection of PV array, controller, pumping unit, water supply network is needful to fulfill design requirements. The performance evaluation of a system located at Karansar, Jaipur (Rajasthan) is done with help of simulation software by using existing local data. The theoretical and simulation results are used to understand the system design and its performance by taking different parameters into consideration. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights resrved.