2004 E E E International Conference on Electric Utility Deregulation, Restructuring and Power Technologies (DRPT2004) April 2004 Hong Kong

A Grid-connected PV-ECS System with Load

Leveling Function Taking into Account
Solar Energy Estimation
M. H. Rahman, Non-Member, K. Nakamura, Non-Member, and S. Yamashiro, Member, IEEE

Abstract-In this work, a small grid-connected distributed higher power density and longer lifetime and some other
generation system with load leveling function has been de- advantages over lead-acid battery. In our proposed system
veloped using PV panel and ECS. The system can produce energy will be bought from grid line and stored in EDLCs
power by PV panel, store energy from grid line and PV during the lower demand of load and will be supplied to
panel when the load demand is low, and finally supply the load when its demand is high. Thus the system will keep
stored energy to load during the peak demand. To level the the grid power as flat as possible, which is called load
daily load properly, it is necessary to know how much power
leveling. Moreover it will generate power by PV panel
will be generated by the PV panel tomorrow. Hence a proce-
dure has also been devised to estimate the output power of during sunny days and supply to the load or charge the
PV panel by calculating solar radiation. The accuracy of the ECS.
calculated soar radiation and PV output power has been In order to level the load properly, we have to set how
verified by practically measured data. Everyday we have to much power will be taken from grid line tomorrow. To do
declare, how much power will be taken from the grid line that it is necessary to know tomorrow’s available output
tomorrow, for proper functioning of the system. With an aim of the PV panel. So a procedure has been developed to
to set the optimum value of grid power, to level the load
estimate the PV output power by calculating the solar
properly and to use 100% output power of PV panel, a simu-
lation program has also been developed. Finally the per- radiation with the help of Hottel’s and Liu-Jordan’s equa-
formance of our system has been studied for several days in tions. With the help of a program, capable to simulate the
different weather conditions, using the estimated output of operation of the system, the optimum value of grid power
the PV panel and the simulation program. has been determined by trial and error method. Perform-
ance study of the system is being pursued to determine
Index Terms-Distributed Generation, ECS (Energy Ca- and to analyze the viability of the system, load leveling
pacitor System), EDLC (Electronic Double Layer Capaci-
tor), Load leveling, and PV (Photo Voltaic).
capability, the specific characteristics of ECS as storage
device and the performance of PV panel as a renewable
I. INTRODUCTION energy source.
11. CONSTRUCTION O F THESYSTEM
A LL over the world, the peak demand load is increas-
ing and the load factor of utility is decreasing year
after year. A promising solution to this problem is
A simplified block diagram in Fig.1 shows the con-
struction of our system and each of the units is described
distributed power generation system with load leveling briefly in the following subheadings.
function. Several practical and simulation works have
been done regarding load leveling by using PV panel 9 modules prs innnw
andor storage devices [ 13, [2]. In this work, we have also
developed a small grid connected distributed system with
load leveling technique based on solar energy and a new
storage device, called ECS (Energy Capacitor System).
PV panel is pollution free, maintenance free, long last-
ing. So photovoltaic power generation is spreading stead-
ily and desired PV panel is coming out from the architec-
tural limitations. We have also incorporated the PV panel
with our system to generate power from solar energy as a
distributed system. EDLC (Electronic Double Layer Ca-
pacitor) of large capacitance, called ultra or super capaci-
tors, are used here for their outstanding advantages [l]. LCOntrO!..?.Y>!~.E.l
ECS (now also renamed as ECaSS [3]), which is the com- Fig. I . Block diagram of the system
bination of EDLCs and electronic circuits, can be charged
and discharged quickly with high energy efficiency, has A. PVPanel
It consists of 9 modules connected serially and there
This work was supported financially by the ‘Grant-in-Aid for Scien- are 42 solar cells in series per module. Each cell has an
tific Research (B)’ of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

0-7803-8237-4/04/$17.0002004IEEE
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2004 IEEE International Conference on Electric Utility Deregulation, Restructuring and Power Technologies (DRPT2004) April 2004 Hong Kong

area of 15cmxlScm and can produce 0.6V and 7.8A at a
specified standard condition (25”C, Air mass 1.5 and So-
lar density lkW/m2). The nominal open circuit output
voltage of each module is 24.9V and short circuit current
is 7.69A. The peak output of the panel is 1296W at MPP
(Im=7.2A Vm=18OV).
B. Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT)
To extract maximum power from PV panel an MPPT is
used in our system. The MPPT always matches the dy-
namic impedance of PV panel with the fixed load resis-
tance. The microprocessor based MPPT, used in this sys-
tem, has maximum efficiency of 99% and capacity
1ooow.
C. Energy Capacitor System (ECS)
The EDLC bank consists of four capacitor modules
and each module has 36 series connected EDLCs and
seven such strings in parallel. The specifications of the
EDLCs used are given in Table I. The maximum voltage
panel, and as a charger when power is bought from grid
line to charge ECS. The dc inputloutput of the PCS is 90-
18OV and ac input/output is 100-11OV 50Hz. The effi-
ciency of this PCS is very high, about 95% and capacity is
1OOOW. Total harmonic distortion is less than 0.3%. The
peak harmonic component in the inverter mode is third
harmonic, whose amplitude is -30dB and in the charging
mode the same is also the third one whose amplitude is
25dB [SI.
E. Control Unit
The control unit consists of an interfacing circuit, a
data acquisition system and a microcomputer. The com-
puter controls the entire system through the interfacing
circuit. The data acquisition system (Agilent 34970A) has
an integrated type 20-bit ADC and can access data from
20 channels by time division multiplexing. The computer
reads different data through this data acquisition system.
The whole procedure is done with the help of a program,
designed by LabView.

1 I 1);;r I
TABLE I
OF EDLC
SPECIFICATIONS F. Load Unit
The load is a resistive room heater of variable power,

1
Items Capacitance Int. resistance
(F) (rny) which consists of six resistive coils and each coil is con-
Min. value 2565.0 26.2 nected to the system by relays. The control unit can con-
Max. value 2766.0 19.9 53.1 nect or disconnect the coils to the system by these relays.
AVP.value
~ ~~
2669.0 15.5 41.3 The minimum value of this load is 50W and the maximum
value is 1150W, but within this range the value can be set
of each module is 90V and capacitance is 505.5F. The to any integer multiple of SOW.
maximum capacitance of the combination of the modules
Is 505.5F and storage capacity is 2275Wh. To increase the 111. OPERATION SCHEME OF THESYSTEM
storage capability and to yield a large energy output, elec-
tronic circuits called parallel monitors and current pumps, Everyday the system starts at 7:OOam. During daytime
are used with the capacitors [4]. (7:OOam to 18:OOpm) power will be generated by PV
panel and the load demand will be fulfilled by the PV
To keep the capacitor voltage within the input range of
PCS, the modules are charged and discharged in two dif-
power, ECS power and a preset amount of grid power. If
no power is produced by the panel, the last two will meet
ferent combinations using switches SI, S1 and Ss as shown
the load demand. During night (18:OOpm to 7:OOam)
in Fig. 2. At the beginning of discharging the banks are
when the load demand is very low, the same amount of
connected as Fig. 2,@) and the output voltage is 180V.
grid power will be taken but the extra power will be used
When the output voltage drops to 90V the banks are arra-
to charge the ECS. Thus the system will perform the func-
T

cI
nIC
t
tion of load leveling’by taking always the same amount of
grid power. Here emphasis is given on to charge the ECS
fully during night when the power is cheaper and dis-
charge fully during day when the power is costly, for eco-
Tc
‘T3- C
nomical assistance of the users.

Fig. 2. Switching combinations of ECS
nged as Fig. 2,(b) and the voltage rises to 18OV again.
During charging the combinations are used in reverse
way.
D. Power Conversion System (PCS)
In this work an Error Tracking Mode-Pulse Width
Modulation (ETM-PWM) PCS [5] is used. It is a bi-
directional and efficient converter. It will work as an in-
verter when power is supplied to load from ECS and PV
PROCEDURE OF P v OUTPUT
Iv. ESTIMATION
To estimate the output power of PV panel, we have to
know the amount of solar energy incident on, efficiency
and the area of the panel. The procedure to calculate the
daily solar radiation is described below.
A. Calculation of Solar Radiation
Both the beam and diffuse radiations contribute to PV
panel output. The beam radiation of a particular day can
be calculated by extraterrestrial radiation using Hottel’s
equation [6], as given below
T b = a. + ale-wc”
(1)

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2004 IEEE International Conference on Electric Utility Deregulation, Restructuring and Power Technologies (DRPT2004) April 2004 Hong Kong

Where, Tb= Atmospheric transmittance for beam

radiation (Gbn/Gon).
Gbn= Beam radiation on nthday of the year.
OZ = Zenith angle.
ao, al and k are constants; for Kitami their values
are: 0.138344,0.759559 and 0.381446 respectively.
The expression for extraterrestrial radiation [6] is -
to00
800
600
400
Where, Go, = Extraterrestrial radiation on nth 200
0
day of the year.
G,, = Solar constant = 1353 W/m2.
5??0o00000
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

‘ O Z 2 f E Z : :
But the calculated value using this Hottel’s equation does Time (h)

not agree with the measured values (solar data of 22 years (b) Practically measured radiation (1988-’98)
of Kitami have been taken and compared with the calcu-
lated values). So we have modified Hottel’s equation as Fig. 4. Solar radiation in July
given below.
z b = a. (1 - e-scose7 + a , e ~ c o ~ e ~ B. Estimation of PV Output Power
(3)
Liu and Jordan developed an empirical formula for the Total area, declination and azimuth angle of the PV
transmission co-efficient of diffuse radiation Td [6] as panel installed in our site are 8.505m2, 45”s and 0” re-
shown below. spectively. considering this declination the solar radia-
tion, incident on the panel, is calculated by the above
td= 0.2710 - 0.2939~b (4) mentioned procedure. Finally the PV output power is cal-
Using this Td clear sky diffusion radiation can be calcu- culated by multiplying solar radiation by the area and ef-
lated as TdXG,, but this value also differs from the practi- ficiency of PV panel and efficiency of the MPPT.
cally measured values during sunrise and sunset time. So Considering panel efficiency 11% (at 25OC) and MPPT
we have also modified this empirical formula as given efficiency 90%, the outputs of two typical sunny days
below. have been calculated and compared with the practically
~d=0.2710(1-e-5CoSez)-0.2939~b (5) measured values. These are shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.
Using (2), (3) and (5), clear sky solar radiation for
horizontal surface has been calculated for different
months of the year and compared with the practical val-
ues. The calculated values and practically measured val-
ues for January and July are shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4
respectively. The integrated energies of the calculated
radiation of January and July are 5928WWm’ and
10426WWm’ and that of the practically obtained radia-
tions are 5645-6182Wh/m2 and 9980-10896 WWm’ re-
spectively.

0000000000000000
o ooooooooooooooo
- r m w + m m ~ ~ ~ ~ z ~ z ~ $ ~
O P W a Y O N f E m
Tme (h)
Time (h)
(b) Practically measured
(a) Calculated radiation

Fig. 5 . PV Output power on 1 April 2003

PUam~Nf’Dw~
Time (h)
(b) Practically mcasured radiation (1988-’98)

Fig. 3. Solar radiation in January

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2004 IEEE International Conference on Electric Utility Deregulation, Restructuring and Power Technologies (DRPT2004) April 2004 Hong Kong

Where, ULoad = Energy consumed by load

UGrid= Energy taken from grid line
Upv = Energy produced by PV panel.
The energy of the ECS is not included in this equation,
0
0
0
~
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 since it will discharge energy during day and will be
Q a0 0 ~ 0 0~ 0 ~
0 0
~ c o
I Zharged gduring night. We need the hour by hour values of
Time (h) grid power to get the optimum results of load leveling, not
(b) Practically measured only the totayaverage values that can be calculated by (6).
To overcome this difficulty a simulation program has
Fig. 6. PV Output power on 22"d May 2003 I
been developed that can calculate the optimum value of
grid power hour by hour. The power flow pattern devel-
v. PERFORMANCE STUDY OF THESYSTEM oped by this program for a typical sunny day is shown in
Performance of the system as load leveler has been Fig. 8. The values of the grid power, for which the fol-
studied for several days in different weather conditions. lowing results are described, have been optimized using
The arrangements and obtained results are described in this program by trial and error method.
the following subheadings.
A. Load Profiles
Three load profiles have been used to study the per-
formance of our system. These are shown in Fig. 7. First
two loads (Fig. 7,(a)&(b)) are hypothetical and the last
one (Fig. 7,(c)) is a typical residential load pattern. The r.m=--$r.~~k-"uJ
average values, load factors (LF) and load form factors Time (h)
(LFF-the ratio of the total energy above the average Fig. 8. Simulated power flow pattern on 16'h April
power to the daily total energy) of these load pattems are
given in Table 11.
C. Results and Discussion
Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 depict the practically obtained daily
- 1200 7 - 1200 7
power flow pattems of the system for two representative
days; a sunny day and a cloudy day respectively.

1500 , 7Plaad

(a) Load-1 Time (h) (b) Load-2 Time (h)

h 1200 7
2. 900
& 600
2 300 0
o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
o o o o o o o o o o o
L O f . m z " z ~ g ' " ' o m "
cm-m uJt-m-m-muJ
?7-.-.-.-" Time (h)
(a) Load-1
Time (h)
(c) Load-3
1200
Fig. 7. Load profiles
2& 600
TABLE I1 a 300
PARAMETER VALUES OF LOADPROFILES
0
Load Average Value (W) LFF (%) LF (Yo) 0 0
l0 c 0m
0 0 0
- ~ ?m
0
0
h
?
0 0
m0 - 0
0
0 0 0
0
0
0 ~ ~ ~
Load- I 525.0 35.32 50.0 - r . - . - r "

(b) Load-2 Time ( h )

Load - 2 537.5 15.46 53.75
Load - 3 529.17 17.56 52.92
1200
5
B. Setting Technique of Grid Power -k 1000
800
600
To level the grid power properly, we have to set it to 400
n ZOO
an optimum value. Although for a sunny day it is possible 0

to estimate the PV output power, it is not so easy to calcu-

late the optimum value of grid power. We can try to find (c) Load-3
Time (h)
this value considering the following daily energy equa-
tion.
Fig. 9. Daily power flow pattems in sunny day
Total u L o a d + Total Loss = Total U G ~+Total
, ~ Upv (6)

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2004 IEEE Intemational Conference on Electric Utility Deregulation, Restructuring and Power Technologies (DRPT2004) April 2004 Hong Kong

g-
1200
--> 200
150
800
600
900 400 2
Z 600
-
b 100 200
o
Z
$
23 5
I

300 50
-200 a
0

(a) Load-I Time (h) (a) Load-I Time (h)

200, 600
400
12cQ 2 150 200 g
g
gm
-Q
g
100

50
0
-200
:
B
400 a
a0300
0

(b) Load-2 Time (h)

200 1000
2 150 500
% 100

5 50 a0
0 -500
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
"g~5?~2g~~~"g
7 r r - r "

(c) Load-3 lime

(h)
(c) Load-3 Time (h)

Fig. 11, Charging and discharging pattems of ECS in sunny day

Fig. 10. Daily power flow pattems in cloudy day
and discharging patterns of load-3 show that the ECS is
If we compare the powers consumed by the loads with the fully charged during night and fully discharged at evening
simulated load profiles (Fig. 7), we find that the con- both in sunny and cloudy days. Charging and discharging
sumed powers are a little bit greater than the simulated efficiencies are also shown in Table 111.
powers and there are some fluctuations. This is due to the
variation of line voltage.
As shown in Fig. 9 ((a) & (b)), in sunny days 100% of
PV output power has been used by the system and the 200 400

grid power remains flat for all day long. But for the load-3 z 150 200
p
(Fig. 9,(c)), although 100% of PV output power has been
used, the grid power is not flat all over the day.
-
g
100

50
0
-200
-400 a
g
5

This problem can be solved by changing the operation

scheme of section 111.
In cloudy days PV output power is very low, hence we
have to take higher power from grid line compared to the
sunny days. Although it is possible to level the grid power 200, 700
-5
T

fully for load-2 (Fig. lO,(b)), but due to the higher de-
mand of Load- l and lower demand of Load-3 during day-
-
5' 150 500
300
Q 100 100 2
time, it is not so easy to level the grid power properly. 2 50
-100 2
-300
This problem can be overcome by increasing the capacity 0 4 ,$, , , , , ,
0 0 0 0
:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , L
0
-500
of ECS.
"
The performance of the system as load leveler is sum- Time (h)
(b) Load-2
marized in Table 111 and the efficiencies of different units
are shown in Table IV.
The charging and discharging patterns of the ECS in 200 900

sunny and cloudy days are shown in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 2 150 600 -
300 5
respectively. As shown in the figures of load-1, charging .p. 100 0 :

and discharging pattems are same, fully discharged during 2 50

-300
-600 a
day and fully charged during night (it is important for
economical issue). For load-2, the ECS is fully charged
and discharged in cloudy day but not in the sunny day. It
is possible to do that also for sunny day but the grid
power will not be so flat in that case. Again the charging Fig. 12. Charging and discharging pattems of ECS in cloudy day

409
2004 IEEE International Conference on Electric Utility Deregulation, Restructuring and Power Technologies (DRPT2004) April 2004 Hong Kong
Days Items I
Load-I Load-2 Load-3
LFF without PV-ECS 32.5% 114.73% 17.93%
From Table IV, we find that the highest efficiencies of
MPPT, PCS(inv), PCS(char) and ECS are 98.5%, 92.5%,
81.4% and 89.3% in sunny days and in cloudy days
92.3%, 85.2%, 78.5% and 89.7% respectively. In case of
PCS actual efficiency is higher than the values shown
here, since it consumes 30W of energy by itself. Also the
charging and discharging efficiencies of ECS are higher,
since the sensing and switching circuits in it consume
some power. For some load patterns the efficiencies of
PCS(char) and the ECS have not been calculated, since
for these loads the ECS was not charged and discharged
fully. The overall efficiency of the system in sunny and
cloudy days is 92%-95% and 90%-92% respectively.
TABLE IV
OF DIFFERENTUNITS OF THESYSTEM
EFFICIENCIES
VI. CONCLUSION
As shown in Table 111, the LFF with PV-ECS is
smaller than that without PV-ECS and the LF with PV-
ECS is higher than that without PV-ECS for both in
sunny and cloudy days for all load patterns (except for
Load-3 on sunny day). As we can estimate the power
generated by the PV panel in sunny days, it is possible to
make the grid power very flat (good load leveling sys-
tem). But for the partially cloudy days it is not possible to
make the grid power flat properly as it is not so easy to
estimate the PV output power correctly. Again for some
load patterns it is not possible to level the grid power
even in sunny days (Fig. 9,(c)). As discussed before, for
these load patterns load leveling function can be realized
by using an appropriate operation scheme. This is our
future work.
Finally the system has an important economical con-
tribution for the users. It can produce power from solar
energy, which is cost free, and can use cheaper power
during peak demand, by charging the ECS during off
peak.
410
VII. REFERENCES
Romny Om, S. Yamashiro, R. K. Mazumder, K. Nakamura, K.
Mitsui, M. Yamagishi, M. Okamura, “Design and performance
cvaluation of grid connected PV-ECS system with load leveling
function,” Transactions of IEE Japan. Vol. 121-B(9), pp.1112-
11 19,2001.
S. Machida, T. Tani, “Introduction effect of the load leveling sys-
tem with solar ccll and storage battery,” Transactions of IEE Ja-
pan, Vol. 122-B(1), pp.37-46,2003.
M. Okamura, “EDLCs and Storage Systcm”, Nikkan Kogyo Shin-
bun, 1999 (in Japanese).
M. Okamura, “A new capacitor-clectronics power storage”, Proc.
o~EJ‘S-I~,VOI. 6H-01(1), 1996.
M. Oshima, E. Masada, “A single-phase PCS with a novel con-
stantly sampled current-regulated PWM scheme” IEEE Truizsac-
tion on Power Electronics, Vol. 14(5), pp. 823-830, Scp. 1999.
J. A. Duffe and W. A. Beckman, Solar Engineering of Thermal
Processes, New York: John Willcy and Sons, 1980.
VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
M. H. Rahman was born in Dhaka, Bang-
ladesh, on March 10, 1970. He received his
B. Sc. (Honors) degree and M. Sc. degree
in 1994 and 1996 respectively from the
Dept. of Applied Physics and Electronics,
the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is
an Assistant Professor of the same depart-
ment. Now he is working as a Ph. D. stu-
dent in Kitami Institute of Technology,
Japan. His rcsearch work concems Distrib-
uted Generation Systcm and Photo Voltaic.
He is a student member of IEEJ, BASSP
and Bangladesh Electronic Society.
K. Nakamura received his Bachelor De-
grce in Electrical Enginecring (B.E) from
Kitami Institute of Technology in 1980. At
the same year, he joined the Kitami Institute
of Technology as a technical associate and
then became research assistant in 1994. His
rcscarch mainly conccms on an evaluation
of a power system planning, the devclop-
ment of new type of cnergy storage devices
and the evaluation of the photovoltaic sys-
tem for residences. He is a mcmbcr of Japan
Solar Encrgy Society.
S. Yamashiro received his B.E, M.E. and
Dr. Eng. From Hokkaido University in
1963, 1967 and 1976 respectively. In
1971, he joined Kitami Institute of Tech-
nology as an associate profcssor and bc-
came a professor of the Department of
Electrical and Electronic Engincering in
1978 where he is currently working. In
1979, he was a visiting rescarchcr at Pur-
due University, U.S.A., and University of
London, U.K. His research mainly con-
cerns the power system engineering. He is
a mcmbcr of Japan Solar Encrgy Society,
thc Institutc of Electrical Facility Engi-
neers of Japan, and the Thermal and Nu-
clear Power Engineering Society. He is also a member of IEEE