Stand-Alone SCADA based Renewable

Energy Power Station Suitable

for Rural Application

Stand-Alone SC ADA based Renewable

Energy Power Station Suitable
for Rural Application

G.SANDEEP RAGHURAM REDDY

III YEAR, EEE, III YEAR,

EEE,

P.R.R.M ENGG. C OLLEGE. P.R.R.M ENGG. C OLLEGE.

ABSTRAC T:

The paper describes a 20kW hybrid stand-alone integrated power station consisting of Wind (20
kWp), Solar Photo Voltaic (2kWp) and Biomass Gasifier (20 kWp). A Supervisory C ontrolled Data
Acquisition (SC ADA) system has been designed, using dedicated software in conjunction with the
knowledge based Voltage Source PWM Inverter hardware. It is envisaged that such systems shall
be designed and installed in the remote area to protect the environment and also to save cost of
erecting new transmission line.

1. INTRODUC TION

DUE to severe power shortage in India , the designers should develop innovative systems, which
are reliable and which also use locally available resources that can eliminate/reduce the
transmission and distribution problems. Usually, such resources are renewable energy sources
namely Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV), Wind, Hydro and Biomass. Technologies, converting these
energy sources into usable form are generally available and are also known all over the world
including India . However, these sources when used individually, pose several problem of either
insufficient resources or seasonal variability; resulting in a load mismatch between demand and
supply. It is therefore appropriate to design a renewable energy power system, which can use
some of these available resources in an integrated fashion depending on their availability.
Integrating such systems demand technological challenges, which involve adequate knowledge of
interface circuits, their protection and control. Moreover, for small power levels in the rangeof 20
to 50 kW, such stand-alone systems can be designed and experimented with. It is therefore,
proposed to develop, install and demonstrate, a 20 kW stand-alone Integrated Power Station
based on Wind (20kWp), SPV (2kWp) and Biomass Gasifier (20kWp) systems. This paper
envisages developing appropriate control and operating system, which can match the demand
and supply, without constraints on technology as well as on the use of power. The application of
high power PWM inverters to be interfaced with Wind and SPV generators, in conjunction with
knowledge based protection and control is now seen as a way forward. The proposed scheme is
illustrated in Fig 1. Based on continuous Research and Development, adequate knowledge exists
on the latest technology with microcontroller based PWM technique using IGBT's as Power
Semiconductor Device [1-10]

2. REMOTE AREA APPLIC ATIONS

In India , the major population lives in villages. There are about 350,000 villages where the
population is under 500 people. The Electric Power requirements in such villages are generally
less than 20 kW. It is estimated that about 80,000 villages in the country are still to be electrified
of which about 18,000 villages situated in remote and difficult areas such as hilly regions, forests,
deserts and islands, are not likely to be electrified with the conventional grid. It may not be
possible to extend the grid to these locations due to logistic and environmental considerations. It
is therefore recognized that decentralized generation, based on renewable energy technologies, is
perhaps the only way to provide electricity to such villages [11]. Therefore, the overall electric
supply to the Rural India continues to remain poor. The economic development of these Rural
Areas is also affected because without power the agriculture and the industry cannot develop to
the level of sustainability. In this situation of energy deficit, the main sufferers are therefore, not
only the small and middle level industries, but also the Village Health Services, Education and
C ottage Industry. It may be added that due to nonavailability of adequate electrical energy, there
is uncontrollable burning of wood, leading to deforestation. At some places, costly diesel is used
for power generation. Use of diesel also involves substantial foreign exchange, and also causes
pollution. As such, its use should be restricted as far as possible. The problem presented in this
paper includes the design, development and application of Remote Area Integrated Power Station,
which reveal several new aspects with respect to load control and power system dynamic
behavior. The control of renewable energy sources through the Supervisory C ontrol Data
Acquisition (SC ADA) is also presented to take care of seasonal variation. In the applications
envisaged for this research exercise, the grid is not to be used due to the Remote Area
Application. Nevertheless, it is desired to generate a good sine waveform using PWM techniques.

FIG.1 SC ADA BASED POWER STATION

3. SCADA AND MICROCONTROLLER INTERFACE

The schematic block diagram of three-phase PWM waveform generator MA818 interfaced with
microcontroller 8051 is as shown in Fig 2.

FIG 2 C ONTROL UNIT

The multiplexed address/data lines of 8051 are connected to MA818 Multiplexed lines via a buffer.
The MA818 chip requires a modulating reference waveform. Further, the reference-modulating
wave in the form of a lookup table as stored in EPROM is interfaced to MA818 [5,6]. A 10 MHz
clock has been generated using 10 MHz crystal resonator and is supplied to MA818 for its internal
timing and control
operations. The 8051 control lines WR, ALE and C S are connected to MA818 through a buffer to
control the operation of multiplexed lines for transferring the data from 8051 to MA818 internal
registers. The RESET signal required for resetting the contents of internal register of MA818 chip
is generated from the PPI and is connected to MA818 RESET pin through the RESET circuit. The
six PWM signal outputs of MA818 are connected to the current limiter circuit via the octal line
buffer. The TRIP signal generated by 8051 through PPI and the TRIP signal generated by
hardware circuits are together fed to the OR gate and the output of the OR gate is connected to
the MA818 set TRIP signal pin. The Zero Power Phase (ZPP) output of MA818 is connected to the
interrupt pin of 8051, via the interrupt circuit for identifying the red phase zero crossing reference
of MA818 output PWM waveform signals. Whenever, the set TRIP signal of MA818 goes high, the
MA818 immediately pulls all PWM outputs to low and also generates low signal at the TRIP pin.
The TRIP output is connected to the interrupt pin of 8051 via interrupt circuit as well as hardware
tripping control circuit. Monitoring of such systems is controlled through SC ADA. Data logging,
redundancy operation and fault diagnosis [5.6] etc., are accomplished through SC ADA as shown
in Fig

4. POWER ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS

Recent developments in the field of microelectronics and Power Semiconductor Devices (PSDs)
have made possible the application of converters/inverters in a wide range of power field,
including the Renewable Energy. As such, the reliability of Power Electronics equipment is
assuming extreme importance. Since the PSDs are rather sensitive to conditions like over
current, over voltage, rate of change of voltage, rate of change of current, transients, short
circuits etc., the improved reliability of the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) power controller is of
paramount importance in Renewable Energy and remote area applications. As such, full
exploitation of the potential of Power Electronics and PWM controlled energy saving, especially in
Renewable Energy applications, needs to be done [1-4]. Although, the redundancy and
conservative Power Electronics circuit design techniques at higher costs have been widely used to
improve reliability, improvement in the present day protection system using fault diagnosis has
been under investigation [5-8], and has also been in demand [9,10].

5. PROTECTION SCHEMES FOR INVERTER

During the reverse recovery process of PSDs and their switching action, in the presence of circuit
inductances, voltage transients occur in the inverter circuits. The short circuit fault conditions may
exist, even in very carefully designed circuits, resulting in an excessive current flow through the
PSD. Further, the heat produced due to losses in a PSD must be dissipated effectively, to operate
the device within its safe thermal limit. The reliable operation of the inverter therefore requires
that at all times the circuit conditions should never exceed the rating of the power semiconductor
devices, and should provide adequate protection against over voltage, over current and over
heating. In general, the PSDs must be protected against the following conditions:

• Thermal runaway
• High dv/dt and di/dt
• Faults

In reality, providing protections against the above noted circuit conditions are not sufficient to
fully protect the PSDs and the associated system. A more methodical and thorough attempt has
therefore been made and reported in this paper to protect the system by considering most of the
possible fault conditions, which are described as under. The protection system used for PSDs
should fulfill certain basic requirements.

Therefore, it is necessary to keep the following points

in mind.

• The protection system should be able to identify all the faults and should also identify the
difference between over current and over load.

• The detection and interruption of fault should be fast enough, so that it does not cause
any damage to the devices and also to the equipment.

• The system should be able to differentiate between fault current and starting current as
demanded by the loads.

• After detecting the fault, the system should be able to display the cause of the fault, so as
to reduce the trouble shooting time. Keeping the above noted points in mind, a protection scheme
has been specially designed and developed in the laboratory. The circuit diagram of the newly
designed IGBT protection system is shown in Fig 4.

Generally, the converter used in the front end of the Renewable Energy generator is an
uncontrolled diode bridge rectifier. As such, the DC link voltage regulation is not possible and
therefore, the input voltage plays an important role in the system performance. The input supply
under-voltage condition therefore makes the DC link voltage to fall, which ultimately effects the
performance of the drive-system and also puts the burden on the power semiconductor devices
(PSDs). Hence, the inverter system is protected from this situation by comparing the input supply
voltage with the set reference value. Whenever, the

FIG:4 IGBT PROTEC TION C IRC UIT

comparator output changes its state from high to low, it allows the output to go high, which in turn
makes the system to trip. A protection circuit for IGBT especially designed and developed in the
laboratory is shown in Fig 4.

6. DATA AC QUISITION SYSTEM

As described in the preceding paragraph, the inverter system needs to measure the analog
signals like input AC supply voltage, DC link current and voltage, using an analog to digital
converter. In order to measure these signals with reasonable accuracy an industry standard 12
bit ADC with 25 µsec conversion time has been selected. A generalized data acquisition card has
been specially designed, developed and interfaced to the C PU board. In serial input/output, the
data can be transmitted either as current signal or as voltage signal. Whenever, data is
transmitted as voltage signal, the commonly used standard is known as RS-232C . The research
work reported in this paper covers the design around an asynchronous three line (Transmit,
Receive and Ground) serial communication network configuration [10], which has been specially
designed and developed using 8251 and 8051. As shown in Fig 5 the transmit data (TXD) and
receive data (RXD) lines of 8251 are connected to the MAX 232C chip.

The data transmitted and received over the TXD/RXD lines of 8251 are at the TTL logic level.
The data bits thus generated are converted to RS- 232C voltages levels. Negative logic level for
transmitted signals i.e., the driver converts logic 1 to - 10 V and logic 0 to 10 V. However, the
positive logic level for received signal i.e., the same line driver converts 10V to logic 1 and
10V to logic 0. Apart from the generation of PWM waveforms , the processor needs to do some
logical functions, some arithmetic calculations, monitoring of the drive system operation and
display. The resolution of performance therefore depends upon the accuracy of the feedback
signal estimation. The industry standard twelve bit medium speed (25 µ sec conversion time) ADC
covers most of the industry drive applications. The system reported in this paper has been
designed using 8051 microcontroller in conjunction with MA818 , so as to allow the
bifurcation of burden of drive control requirements. In the scheme thus designed, developed
and proposed, the microcontroller (8051) is used for logical, arithmetic , system monitoring,
display and support required for MA818. The dedicated three phase PWM waveform generator
MA818 is used in conjunction with the microcontroller for generating desired pattern of
PWM waveform with pulse delay and pulse deletion options as shown in Fig 3.

Fig 5 Networking of power stations

7. C ONC LUSIONS

A novel stand-alone integrated hybrid power station for remote area application has been
proposed. It is envisaged to design and develop such systems in collaboration with industry, by
conceiving a Pilot Project in any village location. A comprehensive protection and Supervisory
C ontrolled Data Acquisition System (SC ADA) have been suggested for hardware protection and
for sharing load among the three renewable energy sources e.g., Wind, Solar Photovoltaic and
Biomass Gasifier. Extensive laboratory trials of hardware circuits have also been done. It is hoped
that such systems will be cost effective, reliable, flexible and simple to install in the remote area
rural location in a country like India .

8. REFERENC ES

• C M Bhatia, M M Ektessabi & S S Lamba, A Novel

Microprocessor Based Modulator for PWM inverters; 23rd Universities Power Engineering
C onference, Trent Polytechnic, September 1988, Nottingham (U.K.).

• M M Ektessabi, C M Bhatia & S S Lamba,, A Modified Natural Sampling Strategy for

Microprocessor Implementation of PWM Inverter; IEC ON '88, 14th Annual C onference of IEEE
Industrial Electronics Society, October 1988; Singapore.

• M M Ektessabi, C M Bhatia, S S Lamba, A New Software Strategy for Microprocessor

Implementation of PWM Inverters, ISMM C onference, December 1989, C alifornia ( USA ).

• C M Bhatia, M S Rao, P Kumar & Amit Khare; Microprocessor based closed

loop laboratory model for Rapid Impedance C ontrol as applied to Flexible AC
Transmission System ElectronicsandApplications (EPE-95); 18-21 September 1995; Spain.

• C M Bhatia & M S Rao; Knowledge based Protection circuit for C onverter and Inverter
applications, Patent Application submitted to IIT Delhi for review and onward submission to the
Patent Delhi

C ollected and C reated by youtrick.com .....