Development of Solar PV Charge Controller System for Rural Application

Abstract

In recent year many intelligent techniques and approaches have been introduced in photovoltaic (PV) system for the utilisation of free harvest renewable energy. The modern day power system is undergoing rapid and dynamic metamorphosis from the legacy system, in the direction of an intelligent power system. The use of renewable energy resources as rural electrification at the distribution level is on the rise alongside advances in the efficiency of associated technologies and automation of the power sector. This paper presents a cost effective solar charge controller (SCC) using programmable intelligent controller (PIC) to control and coordinate the functions properly. The source code for the PIC microcontroller will be written in C to obtain accurate and efficient disconnecting or reconnecting action automatically. Accordingly, battery can be disconnected from solar cell when overcharging and reconnected while under discharging. The proposed charge controller is equipped with Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) to display the battery charging status and amount of current flown from solar cell to load via microcontroller. The Details of design for the construction of SCC using crystal oscillator, optocoupler, Dusk-Down sensor and an In-build digital voltmeter, are presented. The construction, operation and experimental result of our proposed smart solar charge controller indicates that it is more cost effective, reliable and functions properly.