Smart MPPT Solar Charge Controller

Project Title

Smart MPPT Solar Charge Controller

Project Area of Specialization Electrical/Electronic EngineeringProject Summary

Amid growing demand for solar photovoltaic (PV) energy, the output from PV panels/cells fails to deliver maximum power to the load, due to the intermittency of ambient conditions. Therefore, utilizing maximum power point tracking (MPPT) becomes essential for PV systems. In this project, a novel internet of things (IoT)-equipped MPPT solar charge controller (SCC) is designed and implemented. The proposed circuit system utilizes IoT-based sensors to send vital data to the cloud for remote monitoring and controlling purposes. The IoT platform helps the system to be monitored remotely. The Arduino microcontroller is used as a main controller of the proposed MPPT-SCC besides implementing the perturb and observe (P&O) technique and a customized buck–boost converter. To validate the proposed system, both simulation and hardware implementation are carried out by the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment and laboratory set up, respectively. The proposed MPPT-SCC can handle the maximum current of 10 A at 12 V voltage. Results show that the efficiency of the proposed system reaches up to 99.74% during a month of performance testing duration.

Project Objectives

Now a days, vailable MPPT-SCCs in the market are inconvenient, expensive, and antiquated. Their operating process is usually complex for urban and non-technical people. Additionally, no smart data monitoring features were adopted in those controllers. To meet the current demand for energy, an efficient way of energy harvesting and distributing is very important. In modern societies, to meet the balance between supply and demand, sometimes load-shedding or shifting is needed. A standalone solar PV system that is equipped with any kind of backup energy storage, such as a battery, can produce the required power for the loads. Batteries are regarded as the highest effective source for home energy supply in isolated as well as rural regions. Besides, due to the trend of the smart city, smart buildings, smart homes, smart gadgets, and the economical use of electricity without hampering human comfort, a smart device is needed that can harness and distribute the energy in an algorithmic way from the PV system. Therefore, the need for an efficient MPPT-SCC is sensed more than any time.
In this project, an effcient SCC with IoT features is presented. Particularly, a charge controller prototype is designed with a 10-bit PIC16F877A microcontroller, having a flexible and sufficient I/O pin, 8 K flash program memory, and 356 bytes data memory. As a motivation, the prototype is equipped with the IoT platform to send vital data to the webserver for remote monitoring and controlling. The data are continuously sent to the cloud for further analysis and also for monitoring the status of the PV system using the website or mobile apps. These data can also be used to determine any possible faults of either PV system, batteries, or MPPT-SCC. Finally, a modified buck–boost converter is used to effectively deliver the harvested power from the solar panel to the load. The proposed MPPT-SCC is designed with an external device charging unit, real-time data monitoring display, and the IoT-based sensors to redefine the controller with time features. The proposed controller is computationally modeled and simulated with MATLAB/SIMULINK environment, and also, practically implemented with a laboratory set up, to learn its real-time performance improvement over the prominent charge controllers.

Project Implementation Method

The proposed system is divided into two sections. One is a simulation section, and another is an experimental setup. In the experimental setup, a modified buck–boost converter is developed and used. Similarly, in the simulation section, a mathematical model of the buck–boost converter is designed, and the complete system of the proposed design is simulated. The input power source is the 85 W PV module. The state of the input voltage and current is sent to the microcontroller through the corresponding interfaced sensors. A modified buck–boost converter is used as an MPPT controller between the PV panel and battery. The load is connected to the battery. To monitor the system activities, a liquid crystal display (LCD) is connected to the microcontroller. As mentioned before, an IoT communication module is used for the remote monitoring system. In this project, a Bluetooth device is used as an IoT interface communication module, while other modules, such as the global Eslyecsttreomnicsf o20r2m0, 9o,b xi lFeO(RG PSEMER) RmEoVdIEuWle orWi-Fi module, can also be used for IoT connection.

Benefits of the Project

The non-linearity characteristics of solar cells pose a major challenge to harness the maximum power from the solar energy. Particularly, the current–voltage (I–V) and power–voltage (P–V) curves of the solar photovoltaic (PV) system hold a nonlinear property that highly depends on solar irradiance, temperature and load. Based on the fluctuation of
irradiance and temperature, the voltage and current continually vary the expected maximum output power from the PV system. This nonlinear nature of the PV panel brings down the energy conversion ability and boosts the system installation cost. To overcome the hindrance of nonlinearity, PV panels must be operated at maximum power point (MPP) under varying atmospheric circumstances

The proposed system will prove the MPPT technique to extract the maximum power from the PV panel is working efficiently.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The crucial data, such as related PV panel and batteries system voltages, currents, temperatures, input and output power of the charge controller, state of charge of batteries, etc., are collected through IoT-enabled sensors of the charge controller and transferred to the webserver or other resources using the IoT concept. These data then will be available from a smartphone or webpage. In this project, the logged data are transferred to an online service named “Byte stream mode”. This enables the users to monitor the charge controller from the remote area. This device is also compatible with the GSM and Bluetooth modules to directly send warning messages during abnormal situations such as the high temperature of the batteries, etc., to the cellphone. A smartphone is charging through the USB port, while the charge state of the battery is 45%. Incoming PV voltage is 20.7 V, manually measured by the digital multimeter. This USB port is enabled to charge any electronic device without any charger.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry Energy Other Industries IT Core Technology Shared EconomyOther Technologies Internet of Things (IoT), OthersSustainable Development Goals Quality Education, Affordable and Clean Energy, Industry, Innovation and InfrastructureRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	44900
Solar Pannel	Equipment	1	10000	10000
Arduino	Equipment	3	1500	4500
Battery	Equipment	1	3500	3500
Rectifier	Equipment	1	1500	1500
Buck-Boost Converter	Equipment	1	3000	3000
GSM Module	Equipment	1	4000	4000
nodemcu	Equipment	2	1200	2400
Voltage and voltagesensing circuit	Equipment	4	1000	4000
Device charging unit circuit	Equipment	1	2000	2000
Prototype and working model	Miscellaneous	1	10000	10000