Emergency power supply enabling solar PV integration with battery storage and wireless interface

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents a detailed investigation of an emergency power supply that enables solar photovoltaic (PV) power integration with a battery energy storage system (BESS) and a wireless interface. Through the utilisation of solar PV-based generation and BESS with wireless/contactless power transmission, the proposed method offers an easy-to-setup and flexible alternative solution for the emergency power supply (EPS) for household appliances and wireless electric vehicle (EV) charging for all weather conditions. During bad weather conditions, the battery acts as the main power supply and can be charged from the solar PV panel and during rainy days, it can be charged from the grid by the proposed wireless interface for emergency use. The proposed system is analysed by mathematical modelling, focusing on the interface of the solar PV, BESS, and load, with inductive power transfer (IPT) as a wireless power transfer (WPT) method. The simulation and a scaled-down experimental prototype are built to demonstrate that the proposed system enables wireless power transfer with PV and BESS, and easy installation can be achieved by just placing the primary charging coil of the proposed power supply close to the wireless charging pad that is available in the existing system for e.g. EV charging. The results show that the load voltage is kept constant at 48 V against the varying input characteristic of the solar panel which is the solar irradiance ranging from 20% to 100% and output characteristics of the load of the proposed integrated system with variation of 20–50%, respectively. Moreover, the wireless power transfer efficiency across the inductive coils is maintained at about 97% under these variations.