Research Projects

In developing countries like India, where economic growth depends mainly on rural agriculture. Small scale renewable energy sources are promising to reduce burden on main power grid and also produce clean energy. Therefore, a simple cost-effective solar photovoltaic (SPV) water pumping systems (WPS) and use of natural energy resources are the solutions to meet such a low power isolated loads in rural India. These SPV pumps enable the use of water sources ranging from surface water to deep wells using latest technologies and hence, gaining research interest for rural application. In contrast to conventional drives using Induction motor, Permanent Magnet DC motor etc., the switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive is an inexpensive and one of the variable speed drives which can be used to drive the pumps through efficient power conditioning system. Therefore, in this project, a cost-effective and reliable SRM based SPV-WPS is proposed. Proposed system involves three major stages; 1) SPV with front end DC-DC converter, 2) SRM converter and Control, and 3) Battery System and BDC converter. Proposed system operation: The SPV operating with MPPT is directly configured to operate SRM based WPS during day time for few hours (usually 3 to 4 hours) of duration, while the BES system is isolated from DC link. The BES system is charged through BDC converter during the daytime when SPV power is not being used for pumping. The SRM based WPS or any other additional load can be operated in the discharge mode by extracting energy from the BES system. This mode needs the BDC output to be synchronized with the DC link voltage to meet the load requirement. Suitable controllers will be developed based on various modes of system operation such as; direct SPV fed SRM based WPS, SPV fed BES charging and BES fed SRM based WPS or any load.