BATTERY MONITORING SYSTEM FOR A PV

INVERTER WITH SOLAR TRACKING

A PROJECT REPORT

Submitted by

SANGHAVI V (311015105076)

SUJITHA P (311015105093)

YESHMIHA R (311015105104)

in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING

IN

ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

KCG COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY, KARAPAKKAM

ANNA UNIVERSITY: CHENNAI 600 025

APRIL 2019
 BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this report titled “BATTERY MONITORING SYSTEM FOR

A PV INVERTER WITH SOLAR TRACKING” is the bonafide work of

V. SANGHAVI : 311015105087

P. SUJITHA : 311015105090

R.YESHMIHA : 311015105095

who carried out the project work under the supervision.

Signature Of The Hod Signature Of The Supervisor

Dr. T. ANURADHA M.E., Ph.D Mr. A. ARIVANANDHAN M.E.,

Professor and Head, Assistant Professor,

Department of Electrical and Department of Electrical and

Electronics Engineering, Electronics Engineering,

KCG College of Technology, KCG College of Technology,

Karapakkam, Karapakkam,

Chennai – 600097. Chennai – 600097.

Submitted to the project and Viva voice Examination held on ......................

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

 ABSTRACT

There is a growing demand for energy from renewable resources for

sustainable power production. Among the various renewable energies, Solar
energy is an abundant source of renewable energy which makes it a good
solution for increasing power demand. People who live in secluded areas have
limited access to efficient power because it is unavailable or too expensive.
Also, with the rising cost of fossil fuel most people who live in standard-sized
homes are interested in finding alternative energy sources to reduce domestic
electricity cost. Solar energy is the best choice for people living under these
circumstances.

This project aims in effective harness of solar energy and convert it

in a useful form for common domestic appliances. Battery stores the generated
DC power from sunlight and Inverter converts 12volt DC from battery to
230volt AC for supplying home appliances. This systems mainly allows
determination of how long the battery will last under given loads and predicts
battery voltage under certain discharge conditions. It also prevents the discharge
of battery by cutting off the supply to loads using Relay operation. This
measurement will tell in real time the remaining charge of the battery and
expected run time of required loads to be ON. The solar panel is designed with
sun tracking mechanism that directs the panel towards the area of high sunlight
intensity using LDR and stepper motor control. This work is made by
programming in Arduino Nano microcontroller. The results are further analysed
and implemented as a hardware setup.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We wish to place on record our deep sense of gratitude to our honourable

Chairperson Dr. Elizabeth Verghese for providing well equipped labs and
libraries to get our knowledge enhanced in our project. We express our thanks
to our beloved Director Dr. Annie Jacob and our Principal Dr. Prabakaran for
their worthy encouragements in making this project a successful one.

We express our sincere thanks to our HOD Dr. T. Anuradha.

Her inspiration and guidance have contributed in a large measure in developing
our spectrum of power. We also thank Ms. V. Suganya, Project Coordinator,
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering for her valuable guidance
in this work.

We would like to express our whole hearted gratitude to our

project guide Mr.Arivanandhan for his valuable guidance in helping us to
reflect in the right perspective and her continuous encouragement and support
helped us till the end of the project.

We owe our thanks to all the staff members and friends who
rendered their help in our endeavour. We specially thank our parents for their
unfailing support and encouragement throughout the journey of our graduation.
CHAPTER PAGE
TITLE
NO. NO.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT Ii

LIST OF TABLES iii

LIST OF FIGURES iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 GENERAL
1.2 OBJECTIVES
1.3 LITERATURE SURVEY
1.4 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

2 SYSTEM DESIGN
2.1 PROPOSED METHOD
2.2 BLOCK DIAGRAM
2.3 DESIGN SPECIFICATION
2.4 COMPONENTS DESCRIPTION

3 SOURCES DESCRIPTION
3.1 SOLAR PANEL
3.1.1 WORKING
3.1.2 SPECIFICATION
3.2 BATTERY
3.2.1 WORKING
3.2.2 SPECIFICATION
CHAPTER PAGE
TITLE
NO. NO.
3.3 INVERTER
3.3.1 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
3.3.2 WORKING

4 CONTROLLER DESCRIPTION
4.1 ARDUINO NANO
4.1.1 PIN DIAGRAM
4.1.2 SPECIFICATION
4.2 VOLTAGE SENSOR
4.2.1 WORKING
4.3 CURRENT SENSOR
4.3.1 WORKING
4.4 RELAY
4.5 LCD

5 TRACKING MECHANISM
5.1 SOLAR TRACKING BLOCK DIAGRAM
5.1.1 STEPPER MOTOR & DRIVE
5.1.2 LDR
5.2 FLOW CHART OF SOLAR TRACKING
5.3 OPERATION

6 HARDWARE CONFIGURATION
6.1 POWER CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
6.2 WORKING
6.3 COST ESTIMATION
CHAPTER PAGE
TITLE
NO. NO.
7 METHODOLOGY
7.1 MONITORING & DISPLAY FLOWCHART
7.2 CALCULATIONS
7.3 ARDUINO PROGRAM

8 CONCLUSION AND RESULT

9.1 OUTPUT RESULT
9.2 CONCLUSION
9.3 FUTURE WORK
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENERAL

1.2 OBJECTIVES

The main objective of this project is to meet those difficulties faced by

the farmers in their field. By automating the works in the agricultural fields,

 The irrigational works can be completed properly on time and there

won’t be any drag or delay in irrigating the fields.
 Required amount of water level is alone sent to a particular crop
and the excess amount of water is automatically drained out.
 It helps in draining out the unnecessary or excess amount of water
from the fields in the time of heavy rain or floods, because of
soaking of plants in the water overnight may cause decomposition
which in turn will affect the yield.
 It improves the irrigational features and controls over the pesticide
flow to the crops also.
 Using PLC is an added advantage because the life expectancy of
PLC is high and the output will also be efficient.

Thus, by implementing this project farmers works can be reduced and

effective outgrowth can be obtained.

1.3 LITERATURE SURVEY

 1. “Design and development of dc-dc buck converter for photovoltaic
application” IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable
Energy 2012, 3-5 July 2012, Bali, Indonesia.

2. P. C. M. Bernardo, Z.M.A.Peixoto, L. V. B. Machado Neto, “A high

efficient micro-controlled buck converter with maximum power point
tracking for photovoltaic systems”, International Conference on
Renewable Energies and Power Quality (ICREPQ’09) Spain, April 2009.

3. M.Veerachary, “Fourth-order buck converter for maximum power

point tracking applications”, IEEE Trans. On Aerospace and Electronic
Systems, vol. 47, NO. 2, April 2011.

4. “IOT based smart crop-field monitoring and automation irrigation

system”, Proceedings of the Second ICISC 2018 IEEE Xplore Compliant
- Part Number:CFP18J06-ART, ISBN:978-1-5386-0807-4;DVD Part
Number:CFP18J06DVD, ISBN:978-1-5386-0806-7.

5. S. R. Nandurkar, V. R. Thool, R. C. Thool, “Design and development of

precision agriculture system using wireless sensor network”, IEEE
International Conference on Automation, Control, Energy and Systems
(ACES), 2014.

Joaquín Gutiérrez, Juan Francisco Villa-Medina, Alejandra NietoGaribay, and

Miguel Ángel Porta-Gándara, “Automated irrigation system using a il;wireless
 CHAPTER 2

SYSTEM DESIGN

2.1 PROPOSED METHOD

In our project we propose a system to determine how long the battery will
last under given loads and predicts battery voltage under certain discharge
conditions. It also prevents the discharge of battery by cutting off the supply
of loads by using Relay operation. This measurement will tell in real time
the remaining charge of the battery and expected run time of loads to be ON.

The solar panel is designed with sun tracking mechanism that directs the
panel towards the area of high intensity sunlight using LDR and stepper
motor control. This control mechanism and determination of battery voltage
under certain discharge conditions, and the run time of loads can be done by
the programming in Arduino Nano micro-controller. And finally the
resultant data’s are collected, processed and displayed.

2.2 BLOCK DIAGRAM

2.4 DESIGN SPECIFICATION

COMPONENTS SPECIFICATION QUANTITY

SOLAR PANEL
CHARGE CONTROLLER
BATTERY
INVERTER
LAMPS
LCD
STEPPER MOTOR
MOTOR DRIVE
VOLTAGE SENSOR
CURRENT SENSOR
LDR

2.3 COMPONENTS DESCRIPTION

Photovoltaic System

Photovoltaic is the area of technology and research related to the use of

solar cells in order to the use of solar cells in order to covert energy directly into
electrical energy. Due to the increasing demand for clean energy sources, the
production of solar cells and PV arrays increased significantly has in recent
years. Solar cells generate DC current from light , where it is used to power
devices to recharge a battery.

Charge Controller

A charge controller or a charge regulator limits the rate at which electric

current is added to or drawn from electric batteries. It prevents the overcharging
and may protect against over voltage, which can reduce battery performance or
lifespan, and may pose a safety risk.

Battery

Lead acid batteries have the ability to supply high surge currents such that
the cells maintains relatively large power to weight ratio. These features, along
with their low cost, make them attractive for use in storing the absorbed power
to provide the high current required by the various devices.

Inverter

An inverter converts the DC electricity from sources such as batteries, solar

panels, or fuel cells to AC electricity. The electricity can be at any required
voltage , in particukar it operate AC equipment designed for mains operation, or
rectified to produce DC at any desired voltage.

Lamps

Arduino

Keeping in mind the economic constraints and the simplicity of the system,
Arduino Nano has been used used which abates the program complexity.
Arduino sense the voltage and current through analog pins. With the help of
these value, Arduino program calculates the resultant output.

Stepper motor

Stepper motors are commonly used in precision positioning control

applications, five characteristics of the stepper motor have been considered
while choosing stepper motor for the solar tracker prototype
 Stepper motor is brushless, load independent, has open loop positioning
capability, good holding torque and excellent response characteristics.

Light Dependent Resistor

An LDR is a component that has a variable resistance that changes with light
intensity that falls upon it. This allows them to be used in light sensing circuits.
The most common type of LDR has a resistance that falls with an increase in
the light intensity falling upon the device.

Liquid Crystal Display

A liquid crystal display is a flat-panel display or other electronically, instead

using a backlight or reflector to produce images in colour or rmonochrome.
modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid
crystals. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly
 CHAPTER 3

SOURCE DESCRIPTION

3.1 SOLAR PANEL

3.1.1

3.1.2

3.2 BATTERY

3.2.1

3.2.2

3.3 INVERTER

3.3.1

3.3.2
 CHAPTER 4

CONTROLLER DESCRIPTION

4.1 ARDUINO NANO

4.1.1

4.1.2

4.2 VOTAGE SENSOR

4.2.1

4.2.2

4.3 CURRENT SENSOR

4.3.1

4.3.2

4.4 RELAY

4.5 LCD
 CHAPTER 5

TRACKING MECHANISM

5.1 SOLAR TRACKING BLOCK DIAGRAM

5.1.1 STEPPER MOTOR AND DRIVE

5.1.2 LDR

5.2 FLOWCHART OF SOLAR TRACKING

5.3 OPERATION
 CHAPTER 6

HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

6.1 POWER CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

6.2 WORKING

6.3 COST ESTIMATION

 CHAPTER 7

METHODOLOGY

7.1 MONITORING & DISPLAY FLOWCHART

7.2 CALCULATION

7.3 ARDUINO PROGRAM

 CHAPTER 8

CONCLUSION AND RESULT

8.1 OUTPUT RESULT

8.2 CONCLUSION

8.3FUTURE WORK