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Procedia Technology 11 (2013) 1048 1053

The 4th International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Informatics (ICEEI 2013)

Study of Renewable Energy Sources Capacity and Loading Using

Data Logger for Sizing of Solar-Wind Hybrid Power System
M. Ikhsan*, Agus Purwadi, Nanang Hariyanto, Nana Heryana, Yanuarsyah Haroen
Electrical Power Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Bandung Institute of Technology
Jl. Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia

Abstract
If the sizing of renewable energy power plant is planned with a less reliable data of its energy sources, usually in the future, the
power system will have poor performance. Such cases often occur in various regions, including Indonesia. This problem can be
solved through observation and measurement in the power systems using a data logger. Data logger is the electronic equipment
which can record the formation of data accurately. In this paper, the current and voltage formation of solar-wind hybrid power
system which is recorded by the data logger will be analyzed. The results then will be used for resizing strategy of the plant,
especially which was established but still showed indications of inefficiency. Furthermore, by using the Levelized Cost of
Electricity (LCOE), the system energy cost before and after resizing will be compared. The data logger is also used to see the
capacity of the energy source by applying the indirect method.

2013
2013The
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Authors.Published
Publishedby
byElsevier
ElsevierB.V.
Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection
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Malaysia.
Keywords: Data logger; system sizing; renewable energy; indirect method, LCOE

1. Introduction
Various research about the sizing strategy of hybrid power system have been carried out, some of them is based
on the potential data of energy [1], the technical characteristics of the plant [2,3], to the levels of CO2 emissions [4].
A large amount of research indicated that the sizing strategy of hybrid power system still require an improvement
[5]. In the sizing plan of hybrid power system, a detail, accurate, and reliable data about energy potential in a
specific location is the most important thing to have [2,4,5]. But in fact, it is often not available. If the system sizing
is based only with a less reliable data, when it completes, the hybrid power systems is not producing the capacity as
expected.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +62-813-65490814.
E-mail address: m.ikhsan.yusuf@gmail.com

2212-0173 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Faculty of Information Science & Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
doi:10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.293

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M. Ikhsan et al. / Procedia Technology 11 (2013) 1048 1053

The solar-wind hybrid power system that operates out of its specification rate can lead to lowering the system
efficiency and loss in financial [6].The system load and the capacity of available energy sources is important to
highlight so that the hybrid power plants work more efficiently.
This research uses the data logger, the electronic instrument with an electronic sensor instrument capable of
recording the data in a specified period [7]. The data from the data logger, in the form of current and voltage
formation, obtained from each renewable energy sources of hybrid power system will be analyzed. The results will
then be used as the basis for sizing of hybrid power systems. Afterwards, the energy cost before and after the sizing
process can be calculated and compared using Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE).
2. Mathematical equations of the wind turbines
The amount of kinetic energy which can be converted by the wind turbines into mechanical energy is
mathematically written as Eq. (1),
1
P
CPS r 2V 3
(1)
2
Where is the power coefficient, is the air density (at sea level: 1.22 Kg/m3), is the radius of wind turbine
blades (m), and is the wind speed (m/s). express the wind kinetic energy that can be extracted by the blades. In
some references such as [8-11], is a function of the pitch angle , the turbine blade radius , the angular velocity
, and the wind speed. approach as described above will greatly depend on the design of the turbine, making it
difficult to use in other types of turbine. In order to avoid this difficulty, the mathematical equations used in this
paper will refer to [12] which use a polynomial method and wind turbine power curve.
3. Photovoltaic mathematical models
The photovoltaic mathematical model in this study was referred to [13]. The generated current I is proportional
to Eq. (2) as follow,

V  Rs I V  Rs
G
  
 I pv ,n  K I T   I o exp
Gn
Rp

Vt a

kT
Vt N s
q
R p  Rs
I pv ,n
I sc ,n
Rp
I

(2)
(3)
(4)

where,

RS
RP
Vt

: Diode saturation current, typical 10-6 to10-15 A [14]

'LRGHFRQVWDQWD
: Series resistance
: Parallel resistance
: Thermal resistance

NS
K
Q
Gn

: Number of cells connected in series

: Boltzman constant, 1.3806 x 10-23 J/K
: Electron charge, 1.6021 x 10-19 C
: 1000 W/m2

KI is a current constant that is generally found in the product datasheet, T is the actual temperature in Kelvin
reduced by the nominal temperature. The nominal light-generated current value IPV,n,, is equal to the Eq. (4). Isc, is
the short circuit current of solar panels. The current coefficient KI and KV will affect Io which is very dependent on
temperature. The other unknown parameters is Rs and Rp. The value of Rs and Rp can be found if Pmax,m=Pmax,e, thus,

Pmax ,m

q Vmp  Rs I mp Vmp  Rs I mp

Vmp I Pv  I 0 exp

 1 
aN s
Rp
kT

Pmax ,e

(5)

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M. Ikhsan et al. / Procedia Technology 11 (2013) 1048 1053

(6)

Eq.(5) and Eq. (6) has a meaning that for each value of Rs there is only be one value of Rp. To obtain this value it is
necessary to do iterations process until Pmax,m equal to Pmax,e.
Eq. (2) to Eq. (6) will be used to measure the solar irradiation indirectly. In fact, references [15] have first done
the indirect measurements for solar irradiation. However, because it uses only the photovoltaic output voltage, the
method is considered not accurate enough to used.
4. Cost of energy
Electricity generation cost can be calculated by using the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) as written in
Eq.(7)[16], some references use the term Levelized Energy Cost (LEC).

(7)
is the system lifetime, , , , is the maintenance cost, operating cost, and fuel cost. Discount is the annual
percentage rate at which the value of a unit is assumed to fall over time.
5. System resizing procedure
The resizing flowchart is shown in Fig 1. First, the recorded data was used to calculate the amount of energy
received by the power system, this can be done using Eq. (8) where is the power (W) recorded by the data logger
with sampling time 10 s (10/3600 hour), n = 1 and M =8640. 1 is the data taken at 00.00 AM while 8640 is the
data taken at 23.59 PM.
(8)

Fig.1. The hybrid power system resizing flowchart

The total of energy received by the system is used to determining the batteries capacity (based on energy balance).
Some options that can be done is increasing or decreasing the capacity of the batteries and make adjustments to the
load. In this paper, no option for adding the capacity of energy sources, because these components are relatively
expensive compared to the other.
6. PV, Wind turbine, and batteries performance based on field experiment
The data logger used was appropriate with [7], and the installation schematic is shown as Fig 2.

M. Ikhsan et al. / Procedia Technology 11 (2013) 1048 1053

1051

Fig.2. The installation schematic of data Logger

The hybrid solar-wind power system at ITB-Jatinangor is used for data collection. It uses 2 x 130 WP Sharp
ND130T1J solar panels, 500 Watt Hummer HPW-500 wind turbine, and 2 x 70 Ah batteries. The system is off-grid
and used only as a source of lighting with a load capacity installed 3 x 10 Watt. Using Eq. (8), the average energy
per day, charge and discharge of the battery, the energy produced, and the duration of all events can be calculated as
shown in table 1. For the wind energy calculation, an indirect method as referred in [12] was used.
Table 1.System average energy per day
Process
Time
Battery charging
Battery discharging (load)
Photovoltaic generation
Wind generation

6 am 5 pm
5 pm 6 pm
6 am 5 pm
0 am 0 pm

Duration

Watt-hour

9h 43m
14h 57m
9h 43m
24 h

774.25
451.87
1320.14
636.71

6.1. Wind Turbine

Using the indirect methods as shown in [12], the average working point of the wind turbines can be mapped as
shown in Fig 3a. It appears that the wind turbines are rarely generating power at its rating (500watts at wind speeds
of 7 m/s). Fig 3b shows the wind speed at the location for 24 hour, the red lines express the cut-in speed of the wind
turbine (3m/s). Only wind above 3m/s which the energy can be extracted.

Fig.3.Wind turbines performance over 24 hours (a) working point (b) average daily wind speed

6.2. Photovoltaic
By using the current, voltage, and temperature data into Eq.2 to Eq.6, the solar insolation at the site for 24 hours can
be determined, as shown in the Fig 4a. While the current, voltage, and temperature of the solar panel in 24 hour is
mapped as shown in Fig 4b.

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M. Ikhsan et al. / Procedia Technology 11 (2013) 1048 1053

800

40

600

Temperature (Celsius)

Solar Irradiation (W/m2)

700

500
400
300
200

35

30

25

20
10

100

32
30

5
0

28
0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

Current (A)

Data number

26
0

Voltage (V)

24

Fig.4. Photovoltaic performance for 24hour (a) solar insolation (b) current, voltage, and temperature working point

6.3. Batteries
The battery used at the field is G-Force 70 Ah 12 V flooded shallow cycle type batteries. Parameters of the
existing battery can be seen according to the table 2.
Table 2. System batteries parameter
No

Parameter

Existing Battery

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Nominal voltage
Ampere.hour
Maximum capacity
Efficiency
Depth of discharge
Average charging energy
Average discharging energy

2 x 12
2 x 70
2 x 840
58
27
774.25
451.87

After resizing
(with wind turbine)
2 x 12
2 x 260
2 x 3120
58
27
1956.85
1134.97

After resizing
(without wind turbine)
2 x 12
2 x 175
2 x 2100
58
27
1320.14
765.68

Unit
V
A.h
W.h
%
%
W.h
W.h

7. Result
The new battery capacity will be adjusted by the amount of energy that flows into the system. The total input of
system energy each day is 1956.85 Wh. If the depth of discharge (DOD) and the efficiency of the new battery is
assumed equal with the existing battery, the new battery capacity is,
Battery capacity

totalWh
efficiency u DOD uVnom

1956.85
0.58 u 0.27 u 24

(9)

521Ah

Table 3.System energy cost before and after resizing procedure

System Status
Before Resizing
Ein : 1956.85 Wh
Eout : 451.87 Wh

LCOE Component
Total Life cycle Cost
Total Lifetime Energy
Energy Cost
Average energy Cost

Unit
Rp
Wh
Rp/kWh
Rp/kWh

Wind Turbine
18,239,723.03
2,981,725.36
6,117.17

PV
25,000,000.00
8,771,648.61
2,850.09

Battery
8,845,733.27
3,233,334.42
2,735.79
3,901.02

After Resizing
2 x 520 Ah Battery
Eout : 1134.97 Wh

Total Life cycle Cost

Total Lifetime Energy
Energy Cost

Rp
Wh
Rp/kWh

18,239,723.03
2,981,725.36
6,117.17

25,000,000.00
8,771,648.61
2,850.09

63,386,957.01
8,121,224.17
7,805.10
5,590.79

After Resizing
without wind turbine
2 x 350 Ah Battery
Eout : 765.68 Wh

Average energy Cost

Total Life cycle Cost
Total Lifetime Energy
Energy Cost
Average energy Cost

Rp/kWh
Rp
Wh
Rp/kWh
Rp/kWh

0.00
0.00
0.00

25,000,000.00
8,771,648.61
2,850.09

21,453,702.46
5,478,787.03
3,915.78
3,382.93

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1053

So, the system is requiring 2 x 520 Ah 12 V batteries. Due to efficiency index, only 58% of 1956.85 Wh energy that
can discharged, which is Wh 1134.97. Then, If the lighting load must be served for 15 hours, the load can be resize
to 75 W or equivalent to 1125 Wh.
The generation cost was calculated using LCOE. Table 3 compares the system component cost before and after
the resizing. Based on the result, there are several factors that lead to the high LCOE, which is the use of low
efficiency shallow cycle batteries, and low energy generated by wind turbines. If the wind turbines not included in
the calculation of energy flows and cost, the LCOE value of the system can decrease. This means that the power
system will be more efficient and better without the presence of wind turbine components.
8. Conclusion
In this study, data logger is used to resize an inefficient generating system. The recorded data was analyzed and
used in the resizing process. Power plant components such as the battery and the load will be adjusted according to
the total amount of energy that flows into the system. The same data is also used for the indirect measurement
method to see the performance of solar panels and the wind turbine. Through this performance monitoring, it can be
known whether the energy source is effective to use or not. The resizing strategy is also seen from the cost of energy
which calculated using the LCOE. With this value, the costs of each system component before and after the resizing
can be calculated and compared.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by Director General of Higher Education Republic of Indonesia through DIKTI
decentralization program year 2013.
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[14]
[15]
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