Design and Analysis of Stand-alone DC Powered Photovoltaic System: (The Case of Multi-Service Access Gateway in Adama)

Abstract

The ability to use renewable energy resources has been grown continuously over the past few decades due to global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels. These fundamental things have initiated researchers to do scientific research into it. Multi-Service Access Gateway (MSAG) are one of the access layers of telecom services in the country specifically for the wired cellphones and internet applications as an example. The device usually supplied from the main grid system. Due to power fluctuation and interruption, it may not give services to the customer. Solar energy is an alternative solution to replace the dependency of the main grid supply. However, it needs an appropriate control of the system voltage and requires energy storages. In this research thesis, the design and analysis of stand-alone solar powered Multi-Service Access Gateway for Ethio-telecom was carried out using MATLAB and HOMER softwares. In this regard, the components of standalone photovoltaic based MSAG system such as, Photovoltaic panel, DC-DC boost converter with regulator, DC-DC bidirectional converter, battery modeling, and cable sizes are carefully sized to design the system. In addition, the total cost per kWh is also determined both in mathematical and HOMER software and its result is $0.258/kWh. To achieve this the mathematical modeling of the PV, DC-DC converters, and battery system has been done. In order to truck the maximum power, an MPPT based on P&O algorithm is applied. For regulating the voltage in the DC-DC converter a PID controller is used. Also, for the implementation purpose the energy demand of deferable load 80.34kWh/day with peak load of 4.06kW has been involved during HOMER optimization. Furthermore, a detailed electrical characteristic of 48V PV array with 3 series and 51 parallel configurations was determined on I-V and P-V plane by taking manufacturer?��?s data sheet of the PV module as input.