What is solar energy?

Solar energy is, simply, energy provided by the sun. This energy is in the form of solar
radiation, which makes the production of solar electricity possible.
Electricity can be produced directly from photovoltaic, PV, cells. (Photovoltaic literally
means “light” and “electric.”) These cells are made from materials which exhibit the
“photovoltaic effect” i.e. when sunshine hits the PV cell, the photons of light excite the
electrons in the cell and cause them to flow, generating electricity.
Solar energy produces electricity when it is in demand – during the day particularly hot days
when air-conditioners drive up electricity demand.
In use, solar energy produces no emissions. One megawatt hour of solar electricity offsets
about 0.75 to 1 tonne of CO2.
PV panels are being used increasingly, both in the city and in remote locations, to produce
electricity for households, schools and communities, and to supply power for equipment such
as telecommunication and water pumps. The majority of solar PV installations in Australia
are grid-connected systems.
Also, electricity for remote and regional Australian communities has been supplied by solar
energy for many years.
Australia is one of the sunniest countries in the world and there is huge potential for solar PV
to make a significant contribution to electricity generation.

What is wind turbine ?

Wind turbines, like aircraft propeller blades, turn in the moving air and power an electric
generator that supplies an electric current. Simply stated, a wind turbine is the opposite of
a fan. Instead of using electricity to make wind, like a fan, wind turbines use wind to make
electricity. The wind turns the blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator and
makes electricity.
There are different styles and many different sizes of wind turbines to accommodate different needs.
The most common style, large or small, is the “horizontal-axis design” (with the axis of the blades
horizontal to the ground). On this turbine, two or three blades spin upwind of the tower.
Less common are the vertical-axis turbines: the Savonius and the Darrieus. The Darrieus turbine
was invented in France in the 1920s and is often described as looking like an eggbeater. It has
vertical blades that rotate into and out of the wind. The Savonius turbine is S-shaped if viewed from
above. This drag-type turbine turns relatively slowly but yields a high torque. It is useful for grinding
grain, pumping water, and many other tasks, but its slow rotational speeds are not optimal for
generating electricity.
Small wind turbines are used for providing power off the grid, and range from very small, 250-watt
turbines designed for charging batteries on a sailboat to 50-kilowatt turbines that power dairy farms
and remote villages. Like old farm windmills, they have tail vanes that keep them oriented into the
wind.
Large wind turbines, used by utilities or independent generators to provide power to a grid, range
from 100 kilowatts up to the enormous multi-megawatt machines that are being tested in Europe.
Large turbines sit on towers that are up to 100 meters tall and have blades that range from 30 to 60
meters long. Utility-scale turbines are usually placed in groups or rows to take advantage of prime
windy spots. Wind farms like these can consist of a few or hundreds of turbines, providing enough
power for whole towns.

What is Wind Energy ?

Wind is a form of solar energy. Winds are caused by the uneven heating of the
atmosphere by the sun, the irregularities of the earth's surface, and rotation of the
earth. Wind flow patterns are modified by the earth's terrain, bodies of water, and
vegetative cover. This wind flow, or motion energy, when "harvested" by modern
wind turbines, can be used to generate electricity.

MPPT Techniques:
Tracking the maximum power point (MPP) of a photovoltaic array is an essential
stage of a PV system .
As such, many MPPT methods have been introduced and numerous variants of
each method have been proposed to overcome specific disadvantages. The large
number of methods proposed can make it difficult to determine the best technique
to adopt when implementing a PV system. The methods all vary in complexity,
number of sensors required, digital or analogue implementation, convergence
speed, tracking ability, and cost effectiveness.
Furthermore, the type of application can have a significant impact on the selection
of MPPT algorithm. For this reason, this paper summarises the most popular MPPT
techniques in use today. Two promising methods are then highlighted for
consideration when implementing a system which needs to cope well over a wide
range of irradiance conditions.

Perturbation and Observation (P & O) Method :

The P & O algorithm , as shown below in (Figure 2), operates by increasing or

decreasing the array terminal voltage, or current, at regular intervals and then
comparing the PV output power with that of the previous sample point. If the PV
array operating voltage changes and power increases (dP/dV PV > 0), the control
system adjusts the PV array operating point in that direction; otherwise the
operating point is moved in the opposite direction. At each perturbation point, the
algorithm continues to operate in the same manner . The main advantage of this
approach is the simplicity of the technique. Furthermore, previous knowledge of
the PV panel characteristics is not required. In its simplest form, this method
generally exhibits good performance provided the solar irradiation does not vary
too quickly. At steady state, the operating point oscillates around the
MPP voltage and usually fluctuates lightly. For this reason, the perturbation
frequency should be low enough so

Figure 1. I-V characteristics of a typical PV panel with MPPT control.

 Figure 2. Flowchart of the P & O method.

that the system can reach steady state before the next perturbation. Also, the
perturbation step size must be sufficient so that the controller is not significantly
affected by measurement noise, and generates a measurable change in the
photovoltaic array output .
The classic perturb and observe (P & O) method has the disadvantage of poor
efficiency at low irradiation.
For this reason, alternative solutions have been proposed. For example, Cristinel,
Uffe, and Frede combine a constant voltage (CV) algorithm with a modified P & O
method as shown in (Figure 3) to track the MPP with high efficiency under both low
and high solar irradiation conditions. The algorithm operates by increasing the
duty cycle until the PV output voltage is close to the open circuit voltage of the
panel (VOC), this is then used as the initial conditions for the MPP tracker. The
algorithm then evaluates the current output; if the current is higher than (0.7 A)
the algorithm adopts the PO method; if it is lower it converts to the CV method.
Simulation results demonstrate that overall greater energy can be extracted from
the PV panel; efficiency levels of 95% to 99% are quoted over a wide irradiation
range . However, there is complication of combining the two methods.
The P & O method is also prone to erratic behaviour under rapidly variation in light
levels. This may result in slow, or incorrect, MPP tracking. C. Liu, R. Cheung , and
A. Yafaoui, B. Wu , introduced a modified P & O (MP & O) method to solve this
problem. The method adds an irradiance-changing estimate process in every
perturb process to measure the amount of power variation caused by the change of
conditions. Results show improved performance over the conventional P & O
method. However, MP & O has a slow tracking speed which is approximately half of
the conventional P & O method. To improve the tracking speed of the MP & O
method, an estimate, perturb and perturb (EPP) method is proposed by C. Lui, B.
Wu, and R. Cheung . The EPP algorithm uses one estimation step for every two
perturbation steps . It has been shown experimentally that, compared to MP & O,
the EPP method has faster tracking speed, with a similar tracking accuracy to the
MP & O algorithm .
Ultimately, oscillations around the MPP give rise to loss of available energy . To
limit the impact of this issue, Nicola Femia , show how the P & O parameters can
be optimised for the dynamic behaviour of the specific power converter under
investigation.
During rapidly changing irradiation, it is possible for the classic P & O algorithm to
get confused and track the MPP in the wrong direction , D. Sera, T. Kerekes, R.
Teodorescu, and F. Blaabjerg offer a
Figure 3. Flowchart of the combined P & O with CV.

simple and effective solution to this problem; dP-P & O. In this method, the power
measurement is deconstructed to reveal the power coming from different sources.
The MPPT is then provided exclusively with the power change created by its own
previous instructions. To achieve this, an additional measurement of the solar
arrays’ power is required. This is carried out at the mid-point of the MPPT sampling
period.
The method has been experimentally tested and compared with the classic P & O
method. The results show that the dP-P & O technique is able to prevent the P & O
from tracking in the wrong direction during rapidly changing irradiation, and
considerably increases tracking speed.
What is Buck Boost Converter ?

1. BUCK CONVERTER STEP-DOWN CONVERTER

In this circuit the transistor turning ON will put voltage Vin on one end of the
inductor. This voltage will tend to cause the inductor current to rise. When the
transistor is OFF, the current will
continue flowing through the inductor but now flowing through the diode. We
initially assume that
the current through the inductor does not reach zero, thus the voltage at Vx will
now be only the
voltage across the conducting diode during the full OFF time. The average voltage
at Vx will
depend on the average ON time of the transistor provided the inductor current is
continuous.

Fig. 1: Buck Converter

Fig. 2: Voltage and current changes

To analyse the voltages of this circuit let us consider the changes in the inductor
current over one cycle. From the relation

the change of current satisfies

For steady state operation the current at the start and end of a period T will not
change. To get a simple relation between voltages we assume no voltage drop
across transistor or diode while ON and a perfect switch change. Thus

during the ON time Vx=Vin and in the OFF Vx=0. Thus which simplifies

to or

and defining "duty ratio" as

the voltage relationship becomes Vo=D Vin Since the circuit is lossless and the
input and output powers must match on the average
Vo* Io = Vin* Iin.
Thus the average input and output current must satisfy Iin =D Io These relations
are based on the assumption that the inductor current does not reach zero.

1.1 Transition between continuous and discontinuous:

When the current in the inductor L remains always positive then either the
transistor T1 or the diode D1 must be conducting. For continuous conduction the
voltage Vx is either Vin or 0. If the inductor current ever goes to zero then the
output voltage will not be forced to either of these conditions. At this transition
point the current just reaches zero as seen in Figure 3.
During the ON time Vin-Vout is across the inductor thus

(1)
The average current which must match the output current satisfies

(2)
Fig. 3: Buck Converter at Boundary
If the input voltage is constant the output current at the transition point satisfies

(3)
1.2 Voltage Ratio of Buck Converter (Discontinuous Mode)
As for the continuous conduction analysis we use the fact that the integral of
voltage across the
inductor is zero over a cycle of switching T. The transistor OFF time is now divided
into segments
of diode conduction ddT and zero conduction doT. The inductor average voltage
thus gives
(Vin - Vo ) DT + (-Vo) δdT = 0 (4)

Fig. 4: Buck Converter - Discontinuous Conduction

 (5)
for the case . To resolve the value of consider the output current which is half the
peak when averaged over the conduction times

(6)
Considering the change of current during the diode conduction time

(7)
Thus from (6) and (7) we can get

(8)
using the relationship in (5)

(9)
and solving for the diode conduction

(10)
The output voltage is thus given as

(11)
defining k* = 2L/(Vin T), we can see the effect of discontinuous current on the
voltage ratio of the converter.
Fig. 5: Output Voltage vs Current
As seen in the figure, once the output current is high enough, the voltage ratio
depends only on the duty ratio "d". At low currents the discontinuous operation
tends to increase the output voltage of the converter towards Vin.

2. BOOST CONVERTER STEP-UP CONVERTER

The schematic in Fig. 6 shows the basic boost converter. This circuit is used when a
higher output voltage than input is required.

Fig. 6: Boost Converter Circuit

While the transistor is ON Vx =Vin, and the OFF state the inductor current flows
through the diode giving Vx =Vo. For this analysis it is assumed that the inductor
current always remains flowing (continuous conduction). The voltage across the
inductor is shown in Fig. 7 and the average must
be zero for the average current to remain in steady state
 This can be rearranged as

and for a lossless circuit the power balance ensures

Fig. 7: Voltage and current waveforms (Boost Converter)

Since the duty ratio "D" is between 0 and 1 the output voltage must always be
higher than the input voltage in magnitude. The negative sign indicates a reversal
of sense of the output voltage.

3. BUCK-BOOST CONVERTER

Fig. 8: schematic for buck-boost converter

With continuous conduction for the Buck-Boost converter Vx =Vin when the
transistor is ON and Vx =Vo when the transistor is OFF. For zero net current change
over a period the average voltage across the inductor is zero.
Fig. 9: Waveforms for buck-boost converter

which gives the voltage ratio

and the corresponding current

Since the duty ratio "D" is between 0 and 1 the output voltage can vary between
lower or higher than the input voltage in magnitude. The negative sign indicates a
reversal of sense of the output voltage.

What is grid ?
An electrical grid is an interconnected network for delivering electricity from
producers to consumers. It consists of generating stations that produce electrical
power, high voltage transmission lines that carry power from distant sources to
demand centers, and distribution lines that connect individual customers.[1]
Power stations may be located near a fuel source, at a dam site, or to take
advantage of renewable energy sources, and are often located away from heavily
populated areas. They are usually quite large to take advantage of economies of
scale. The electric power which is generated is stepped up to a higher voltage at
which it connects to the electric power transmission network.
The bulk power transmission network will move the power long distances,
sometimes across international boundaries, until it reaches its wholesale customer
(usually the company that owns the local electric power distribution network).
On arrival at a substation, the power will be stepped down from a transmission
level voltage to a distribution level voltage. As it exits the substation, it enters the
distribution wiring. Finally, upon arrival at the service location, the power is stepped
down again from the distribution voltage to the required service voltage(s).

Explain different types of loads ?

Types Of Electrical Loads
An electrical load is a device or an electrical component that consumes
electrical energy
and convert it into another form of energy. Electric lamps, air conditioners,
motors, resistors
etc. are some of the examples of electrical loads. They can be classified
according to
various different factors. Some popular classifications of electrical loads are as
follows.
Resistive, Capacitive, Inductive
Electrical loads can be classified according to their nature as Resistive,
Capacitive,Inductive and combinations of these.

Resistive Load
■ Two common examples of resistive loads are incandescent lamps and electric
heaters.
■ Resistive loads consume electrical power in such a manner that the current
wave remains in phase with the voltage wave. That means, power factor for a
resistive load is unity.

Capacitive Load
■ A capacitive load causes the current wave to lead the voltage wave. Thus,
power factor of a capacitive load is leading.
■ Examples of capacitive loads are: capacitor banks, buried cables, capacitors
used in various circuits such as motor starters etc.

Inductive Load
■ An inductive load causes the current wave to lag the voltage wave. Thus,
power factor of an inductive load is lagging.
■ Examples of inductive load include transformers , motors, coils etc.
Combination Loads
■ Most of the loads are not purely resistive or purely capacitive or purely
inductive. Many practical loads make use of various combinations of resistors,
capacitors and inductors. Power factor of such loads is less than unity and
either lagging or leading.
■ Examples: Single phase motors often use capacitors to aid the motor during
starting and running, tuning circuits or filter circuits etc.
Types Of Loads In Power System

Domestic Load / Residential Load

Domestic load consists of lights, fans, home electric appliances (including TV,
AC, refrigerators, heaters etc.), small motors for pumping water etc. Most of
the domestic loads are connected for only some hours during a day. For
example, lighting load is connected for few hours during night time.

Commercial Load
Commercial load consists of electrical loads that are meant to be used
commercially, such as in restaurants, shops, malls etc. This type of load occurs
for more hours during the day as compared to the domestic load.

Industrial Load
Industrial load consists of load demand by various industries. It includes all
electrical loads used in industries along with the employed machinery.
Industrial loads may be connected during the whole day.

Municipal Load
This type of load consists of street lighting, water supply and drainage systems
etc. Street lighting is practically constant during the night hours. Water may be
pumped to overhead storage tanks during the off-peak hours to improve the
load factor of the system.

Irrigation Load

Motors and pumps used in irrigation systems to supply the water for farming
come under this category. Generally, irrigation loads are supplied during
off-peak or night hours.

Traction Load
Electric railways, tram cars etc. come under traction loads. This type of loads
reaches its peak during morning and evening hours.