2014 Power and Energy Systems: Towards Sustainable Energy (PESTSE 2014)

Hybrid Battery Charging System Using Solar PV and

Utility Grid
Dhiwaakar Karan K Bajaj Vineeth Venkatesan M
Purusothaman S R R, Programmer Analyst Vijayaraghavan Proprietor

Ramesh Rajesh Cognizant Technology Director - Research & Tinsel Technologies

Research Assistants,
Solarillion Foundation
Chennai, India
d.srr.1992@ieee.org,
rajeshramesh90@ieee.org
Solutions Chennai, India Outreach Chennai, India
karan.k.bajaj@ieee.org Solarillion Foundation venkat.tinsel@gmail.com
Chennai, India
vineethv@ieee.org
 Abstract-A hybrid design of a battery charging system and its implementation has been India was 9% of the total demand and the southern regional grid had a maximum
explained in this paper. The system has been designed based on a novel algorithm to couple deficit of 18.5%. Tamil Nadu, India, had a peak demand deficit of 13.2% [4]. This
existing solar PV charging and utility supply charging systems. The algorithm has been is evident from the scheduled load shedding for at least 3 hours a day in urban
programmed in an Arduino microcontroller that senses the battery voltage and generates
and rural areas of the state and 40% load shedding for commercial consumers,
appropriate commands to operate a relay that controls the utility grid supply availability by
leading to intermittent power supply throughout the state [5]. As a measure to
connecting or disconnecting it to the Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) system through which
better the situation, the State Government of Tamil Nadu, India has enacted
the battery is charged. Besides the utility grid supply charging, solar PV also charges the
battery whenever it is available through a charge controller. This system ensures continuous appropriate policies and has envisioned adding 3000MW of solar capacity by
power supply and faster charging of the battery. The system has been designed to suit a 2015 [6].
typical Indian scenario where there is intermittent power supply due to power shortage which
results in scheduled and unscheduled load shedding.

Keywords-Battery; Hybrid; Charging; Solar; Utility Grid

Supply
SolarPanel Charge Controller Battery Charging

I. INTRODUCTION

India, a country which has one of the world's fastest growing energy
markets, has been predominantly using fossil fuels in electricity generation.
Almost 70% of India's energy generation capacity is made up of fossil fuels [1].
Over the past few decades, though the fossil fuels have been powering the
country, their diverse demerits such as green house gas emISSIOn,
environmental pollution and their limited availability is forcing India to explore Low-Tension Step-down Rectification and Battery Charging
energy alternatives. Hence to meet the growing energy demands, India has DistributionNetwort Transformer Regulation

planned to expand its renewable energy market. India currently has an installed
generation capacity of 26GW and it has also proposed to generate approximately
41.8GW of power by 2017 from various renewable energy sources [2]. This
would also bring down the use of coal and petroleum to approximately 57% by
2022[3]. This helped India's electricity sector hold a position among the world's
most active players in renewable energy utilization.
Despite India's efforts in attaining energy sufficiency, the country is still
facing a significant amount of energy deficit. During the period 2012-13, the total
deficit of peak power in
Fig.l. Existing Battery Charging Systems
Residential backup UPS systems serve as an alternate power source for
utility grid supply where storage system plays a vital role. These storage systems
need a minimum of two hours of uninterrupted power supply from the utility grid
for charging. As this is a rare possibility, solar energy is used to charge these
systems. Existing methods are based on charging systems which use either solar
power or utility grid supply as a source but an efficient hybrid system that can
utilize both solar power and utility grid supply is a necessity when there is
intermittent power supply.
978-1-4799-3421-8/14/$31.00 20 14
IEEE
 LO\N-Tension Tra nsform er

...... !r

Step-Do\Nn
R_e _ct: if_ie_r
Distribution Net\Nork

i
;.

Regulat:or
Solar Charge Voltage
J
Microconroller

-- -{
Panel Controller Sensing

Circuit

+ Labels

---_Supply.. froln Solar Panel

Bat:tery
----Supply4... from Utility Grid

-------. ..Control Signal Generation

Microcontroller PO\Ner Supply

_ . .. _ . . _.

Fig 2. Block Diagram of the Proposed System


This paper describes a hybrid
battery charging system suited to
Indian scenario. The
implemented in this paper paves way
to effectively and efficiently
ordinate the utilization of both solar
power and utility grid supply to
charge a battery.
II.
Koutroulis, E. and Kalaitzakis, K.
implemented a battery charging
system that is suited for stand-alone
solar PV systems [7]. This design
works on Maximum Power Point
Tracking algorithm and a control
algorithm that is based on system
operating parameters: battery voltage
thresholds and current levels. The
charging time, when only solar power
is used, is considerably long. Hisham
Mahmood, Dennis Michaelson, and
Jin Jiang designed and implemented
a hybrid system which uses a
bidirectional converter to
battery as a backup support when
power for solar PV is insufficient [8].
It also charges the battery when
there is excess power from solar PV.
Considering the intermittency
power supply in India, a hybrid
design is necessary to facilitate the
battery to charge either from the grid
supply or solar PV.
III. PROBLE
M
STATEM
ENT
Solar and wind energy have
gained significance over the years
and they have been supplementing
conventional sources of energy in
various countries throughout
world. In a country like India, where
the power supply is intermittent and
scheduled power cuts occur regularly
[5], use of renewable sources of
energy is indispensable.
derived from these sources stored in
appropriate storage systems provide
backup during the load shedding
period. Various algorithms and the output obtained from the solar
designs have already been panel to ensure maximwn efficiency.
the battery, an additional source
implemented for effective use of The charge controller is designed
could be appended to this system
design stand-alone solar PV systems [7,8]. such
that will enhance the charging
When this power provided by the
process. Some systems entirely
co- stand-alone system is insufficient to
depending on the grid supply to
charge
charge their batteries incur high
losses. Considering the problem of
intermittency in grid supply, this
system proves to be inefficient. So a
hybrid design that uses both solar
REL
energy and the grid supply as and
A
TED when required will charge the battery
WO at a faster rate and will also provide a
RK
continuous power supply. This would
also reduce the losses significantly
that would occur otherwise.
IV.
METHODO
LOGY
A. A Hybrid Battery Charging
System
The solar battery charging
systems that are currently in use
consist of a charge controller whose
use a design is customized to regulate the
voltage and current according to the
rating of the battery. Other designs
involve an online backup UPS
system that rectify and regulate the
in utility grid supply to charge the
battery. This paper describes a hybrid
design that incorporates both the
above mentioned methods of battery
charging. An algorithm has been
developed to efficiently charge a
battery by switching between the two
available power supplies. Figure 2
represents the block diagram of the
proposed system.
B. Design
J) Solar Panel: A 100 watt
peak solar panel has been used to
charge the battery. The maximwn
power point voltage and current of
the
the solar panel are 17.1V and 5.85A
respectively. The output of the solar
panel is fed to a charge controller.
2) Charge Controller: A charge
Energy
controller with maximwn power point
tracking ability has been used. The
charge controller design involves a
buck-boost converter for regulating
that a minimum of 60Wh (l2V*0.5A *10h) is available every day.
3) Battery: A 12V, 40Ah, 0.48KWH battery is used. The battery is of solar
flooded tubular monoblock type. The battery is charged by the power derived
from the solar panel through a charge controller and the utility grid supply
through an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) system.
2) Utility Grid Supply Charging: The grid supply is utilized for two
purposes: 1) To power the Arduino microcontroller, 2) To charge the battery. To
power the microcontroller, the supply is stepped down to 5V AC using a step
down transformer. It is then rectified to DC supply and regulated which is then
supplied to the Arduino microcontroller. To charge the battery, the supply is fed to
an UPS through a solid-state relay. The operation of this relay is controlled using
the commands generated by the Arduino microcontroller.

4) Microcontroller: An Arduino ATmega328 micro controller has been used

to monitor and control the charging of the battery from solar power and utility grid
supply. The microcontroller uses a voltage sensing circuit which is connected at 3) Hybrid System: The hybrid system makes use of both the solar power
analog pin AO of the Arduino to sense the battery voltage and controls the and utility grid supply to charge the battery. This switching between the power
switching between power supplies by generating commands that operate the supplies is based on preset thresholds that are set in the microcontroller. When
relay connected at the digital pin D2. An LCD display connected to the these thresholds are met, the Arduino microcontroller generates appropriate
microcontroller at digital pins D5 - D12 displays the state of the battery. The commands to switch the relay accordingly, allowing solar power and/or utility grid
schematic diagram of the Arduino is depicted in figure 3. supply to charge the battery. The threshold values are set in terms of the
percentage of battery charge or the battery voltage levels. The 12V solar tubular
battery used in this design can be charged to a maximum voltage level of 14.5V
and can retain a voltage level of 1O.5V when fully discharged. The threshold
level has been set at 80% of the battery voltage for the range of 10.5V to 14.5V.
The charging of the battery can be divided into two stages based on the preset
RESET
TXloo
threshold value.
Arduino
REsrn Uno "'01
AREF 02
PWMD3
Nle

VOLTAGE AD D4

SENSING PWMD5

CIRCUIT ., Stage 1: 0% - 80%: This stage denotes the charging of the battery to 80% of
tV. 07 the maximum voltage level from the fully discharged state. The battery voltage
DB
AJ
PWMD9
level is constantly measured using a voltage sensing circuit and the Arduino
MISOA
ASlSCl MOSUPWM D1I microcontroller has been programmed such that when the battery voltage level
goes below 13.7V which corresponds to 80% of the maximum level, it generates
MISO/012
a command to switch the relay from normally open state to normally closed state
5(1(1013
[CSP2MISO allowing the battery to charge from the solar PV and utility grid supply
A
simultaneously.
[CSP2SCK Y
lCSPMOSI

GNO

Stage 2: 80% - 100% : When the battery is charged up to 80% of its maximum
voltage level, the Arduino microcontroller generates commands to switch the
relay back to normally closed state and block the utility grid supply. At this stage,
Fig. 3. Arduino Microcontroller Schematic Diagram
the battery is charged only from the solar PV. The flowchart for the control
strategy explained above is given in figure 4. The pseudocode to set the
5) Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS): An 875VA sine wave UPS has been
threshold value is given in table l.
used. It converts the AC supply from the utility grid to DC on the battery side and
also converts DC supply from battery to AC to serve the loads i.e., it performs the
operations of both rectifier and inverter, as and when required.
TABLE I. PSEUDOCODE - THRESHOLD SETTING
Start
Set pinmode for pins 3 and 4 as input Write I
to the pins 3 and 4
C. implementation Set threshold value
Store the limit in variable Z
J) Solar Charging: The output of the solar panel is fed to the charge If switch at 3 is pressed increase Z If
controller. The charge controller then regulates the voltage and current to suit the switch at 4 is pressed decreaseZ Display

requirements of the battery to charge and its output is fed directly to the battery. the value ofZ using LCD End
 14
Table II represents the pseudocode for the microcontroller command
generation.

T ABLE II. PSEUDOCODE - COMMAND GENERATION

12
10 ,n',
Start
8
Set pinmodes for input and output pins Read
a.
analog input from pin AO
E -8:urrent
Store the value in variable X
Check if X <Z

Tf true set digital pin D2 to 0 Else c

set 02 to 1

c
3.5A
"'\...

"
Print the value of X Using LCD display End U
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

('f) 1Il .-l I'l lIl .-l I'l lIl ..-l ('f) 1Il .-l I"l lll.-l I'l lIl .-l I'l lll.-l ('rj 1Il .-l ('rj
cr;&iOOO .:.t.:.i.:.iNNN Miririi ;:Lri tii iji li:ilDlD r.; ,:.:
O O .. - l.....rl - I nnrir i r- l r i. .- l . .- l ..- l r-l.-l..-lr-lr"lri

Time in Hours
Fig. 6. Charging Current - Time Characteristics

Figure 5 represents the voltage-time characteristics of the battery during the

entire charging period. From the graph, it can be seen that around 11 :35 am the
battery voltages reaches 13.7V and between 12:50 pm and 13:15 pm, the battery
has been charged to its maximum voltage level of 14.5V but the charging
continues even after 13:15 pm as till the charging current reduces to OA. This is
evident from figure 6 that shows the charging current - time characteristics of the
YE S battery.
SetD2= O

Figure 7 shows the photograph of the implementation setup.

SetD2= O

NO

Stop

Fig. 4. Flowchart

16

14 ----

A 14. SV 12 13.7V

10 ../

Battery
Voltage

'''"1111 11111111' "'" '''"1111 01111111,

"' " ""
' " "", "
" "' ' "
0
"' 0
"' 0 "' 0
"' 0
"' 0
"' 0
"' 0 "' 0 "' 0
"'
'" "' N " rl <;l '2 <;j '!1 rl " 0 '" "' N " rl '" '2 N
a; a; 0 0 rl rl N N N .;; .;; .;; .;; .;; .;; " ;.:.
0 0 rl rl rl rl rl rl rl rl rl rl rl rl rl rl rl rl rl rl

Timein Hours
 Fig. 7.lmplementation Setup
Fig. 5. Voltage - Time Characteristics
 In the charging current - time characteristics, it can be seen that at around
11 :30 am to 11 :50 am, when the charging current reaches IO.2A, it suddenly
drops down to 3.5A indicating that the battery voltage level has reached I3.7V
i.e., 80% of the maximum voltage level and the utility grid supply has been
blocked. From here on only solar power is used till the battery charges up to
100% voltage level i.e., I4.5V. Table 3 shows the system components and
respective specifications.
It can be inferred from the above that the hybrid charging system is much
suited for those areas where both grid supply is insufficient and solar irradiation is
available in abundance. The efficiency of batteries used also increase
considering the methodology chosen for charging. The use of open source
microcontroller for relay switching significantly impacts the control circuit
component cost and can be programmed as per the needs of the consumer and
the Balance of System (BOS) specifications.

TABLE TIT. SYSTEM COMPONENTS AND SPECIFICA nONS

REFERENCES
Components Specifications

[I] Eric Yep. (201 1, March). india's Widening Energy Deficit [Online].
I) 100 Wp
Available: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/20 1 1103/09/indias-widening-energy-deficit
2) Vmpp=17.1 V
Solar Panel
3)1==5.85 A
[2] Ministry of Power, Government of Tndia. (2013, June 30). Power Sector at a Glance "ALL
1)12 V
2) 40 Ah iNDiA" [Online]. Available: http://www.powermin.nic.inlindian_electricity_scenario/introduction.ht
Battery
m.
3)0.48 KWH

[3] S. Chakrabarti et aI., "Energy Statistics 2013," Central Statistics Office, Government
Microcontroller Arduino Uno A Tmega 328
oflndia, Mar. 2013.
Uninterrupted Power [4] A. S. Bakshi et aI., "Load Generation Balance Report 2013-14," Central Electricity
875 VA
Supply (UPS) Authority, Ministry of Power, Government of India, May 2013.

V.CONCLUSION [5] Central Electricity Authority, Government of India. (2013, June)

Executive Summary Report-June 2013 [Online]. Available: http://www. cea. nic.
The hybrid system designed to charge a battery has been implemented inlreports/monthly/executive _rep/j un 13. pdf
utilizing both solar PV and utility grid supply suited to an Indian scenario. The use [6] Energy Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, India. (2012). Tamil Nadu Solar Energy
of Arduino microcontroller has simplified the control and enhanced the Policy 2012 [Online]. Available: http://www.teda.inlpdf/tamilnadu_solar_energy0Iicy_2012.pdf
operational efficiency of the system. The prerequisite for varying the threshold
[7] Koutroulis, E. and Kalaitzakis, K.., "Novel battery charging regulation system for
setting has ensured enhanced flexibility of the system. Battery voltage-based
photovoltaic applications," Electric Power Applications, TEE Proceedings - , voU51,
switching has simplified the operation, programming and control of the entire no.2, pp.191,197, Mar 2004
system. The complete battery charging period has been monitored and Battery [8] Hisham Mahmood, Dennis Michaelson and Jin Jiang: "Control Strategy for a Standalone
Voltage - Time and Battery Charging Current - Time characteristics have been PV/Battery Hybrid System", 38th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics
Society (IECON2012), Montreal, PQ, 25-28 October 2012.
plotted.