Design and Development of a Hybrid DC-DC Converter for Solar-Battery-Based Standalone Milk Vending Machine

Dairying has become a major secondary source of income for several rural families. The easily perishable nature of milk increases the spoilage of the product and reduces the dairy farms' productivity in rural areas due to power supply shortage issues. In order to overcome the inaccessibility of proper preservation strategies, this chapter proposed a hybrid DC-DC converter for a solar battery-powered milk vending machine. This proposed system can work continuously and provides an uninterrupted power supply to maintain the milk quality at an optimum level. Moreover, the proposed system utilized a novel converter to reduce the number of power conversion stages and compact the system. Besides, the proposed converter can achieve a higher gain ratio with fewer components. Furthermore, a proper algorithmic-based control scheme has been implemented to maintain effective power flow management. Finally, to verify the feasibility and performance of the system, detailed results are obtained at different dynamic conditions, and various case studies are presented in this chapter.

Measurement of Impedance of AGM Solar Battery for RAPS Applications

The paper deals with the measurement of the cell impedance parameters during discharging and charging of the AGM 200Ah 6V Sun Power lead acid battery. Real and imaginary part of impedance of the battery were measured by PEIS method. Results of the impedance changes during discharging and charging were plot to Nyquist diagrams. Important values - ohmic resistance RS, charge transfer resistance RCT, double layer capacity CDL and Warburg coefficient σ were found during discharging and charging of the solar battery.

A Market-Driven Management Model for Renewable-Powered Undergrid Mini-Grids

Renewable-powered “undergrid mini-grids” (UMGs) are instrumental for electrification in developing countries. An UMG can be installed under a—possibly unreliable— main grid to improve the local reliability or the main grid may “arrive” and connect to a previously isolated mini-grid. Minimising costs is key to reducing risks associated with UMG development. This article presents a novel market-logic strategy for the optimal operation of UMGs that can incorporate multiple types of controllable loads, customer smart curtailment based on reliability requirements, storage management, and exports to and imports from a main grid, which is subject to failure. The formulation results in a mixed-integer linear programming model (MILP) and assumes accurate predictions of the following uncertain parameters: grid spot prices, outages of the main grid, solar availability and demand profiles. An AC hybrid solar-battery-diesel UMG configuration from Nigeria is used as a case example, and numerical simulations are presented. The load-following (LF) and cycle-charging (CC) strategies are compared with our predictive strategy and HOMER Pro’s Predictive dispatch. Results prove the generality and adequacy of the market-logic dispatch model and help assess the relevance of outages of the main grid and of spot prices above the other uncertain input factors. Comparison results show that the proposed market-logic operation approach performs better in terms of cost minimisation, higher renewable fraction and lower diesel use with respect to the conventional LF and CC operating strategies.

ESTIMATION OF THE ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF AN INVESTMENT PROJECT FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF SOLAR PANELS IN BUILDINGS OF AN ADMINISTRATIVE QUARTER IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF PLATEAU (CÔTE D’IVOIRE)

The use of renewable energy sources is a topical direction in the development of the energy industry in the modern world. However, when investing, choosing the optimal strategy is essential to keep costs down. The goal is to evaluate the efficiency of using solar panels parallel to the electric grid for the plateau municipality, the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire. The objectives of the study in this regard are to determine the strategy to the greatest extent, affecting the reduction of the investment cost when introducing a solar battery project, the calculation of economic indicators that allow us to assess the risks when making decisions to implement the investment. For the assessment, a technique is presented that differs from the existing complex taking into account specific indicators (average annual insolation, efficiency of solar panels, temperature coefficient, price of 1 M ^ 2 solar panels, transportation costs, cost of installation work, depreciation period, maintenance costs, property tax, the cost of training employees. The methodology includes the author’s recommendations, taking into account the specific features of determining the indicators of the annual economic effect, NPV. IRR, DPP for a solar battery project. A comparative analysis of an autonomous SES and operating in parallel with the electric grid. Conclusions: SES in parallel with a network of solar power plants. reduces the cost of the project investment, and also hinders the payback period of the project.