The electrical conversion efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) panel decreases with an increase in operating temperature and this leads to a decrease in power output. To overcome this problem, the thermal management of PV plate is essential to enhance the performance in high solar insolation regions. In this paper, a novel passive cooling approach, that is, water based PVT-PCM system is discussed. The PCM and water container are attached together and fixed to the backside of the PV panel. Initially, the numerical analysis is carried out for PCM thickness of 40 mm and varied water container thickness of 20 mm, 30 mm, and 40 mm are considered at 90° angle of inclination. Further analysis is carried out with the optimized water container thickness of 30 mm for the proposed system at an inclination angle of 45° and 90°. A two-dimensional computational model has been developed and analyzed using CFD software ANSYS FLUENT 19.2. The performance parameters such as the liquid fraction of PCM, average PV panel and PCM temperature, PCM velocity magnitude and electrical efficiency are analyzed. The result shows that the maximum increase in electrical efficiency of 2.66% and 0.88% at 45° and 90° inclination angles has been obtained for the complete melting of PCM.