SRM university is a renowned Private University with multiple campuses within India established with the vision to emerge as a world-class University in creating and disseminating knowledge and providing students a unique learning experience in their chosen field of scholarship that would best serve the society and betterment of mankind.
SRM University, Andhra Pradesh recently ordered Renewable Energy Lab from Ecosense which includes the following equipments:
1. Solar PV Training and Research System
2. Wind Energy Training system
3. Fuel Cell Training System
1. Solar PV Training and Research System
Ecosense’s Solar PV Training and research system enables user to learn about Solar PV standalone technology. Using this system, a user gains knowledge in three fields of Solar PV Standalone system:
a.) Physics of Solar PV Panels — I-V and P-V characteristics, series and parallel connection of solar panels effect of irradiation, effect of temperature, effect of shadow, effect of tilting of panels, effect of geographical location etc.
b.) Components and Assembly of standalone system — use of blocking diode, use of bypass diode, use of solar charge controller, use of solar inverter, difference between MPPT and PWM charge controllers, AC load, DC load, battery charging/ discharging characteristics, assembly of several components and power flow calculations in each branch.
c.) Research in PV systems — Ecosense separately provides a research unit along with standalone experimental system. User can initiate research in the area of maximum power point tracking using this unit. It has provision of providing automatic as well as manual gate signals to charge controller. User can use his/ her own MPPT algorithm with any of the controller to provide manual gate signals.
Ecosense installed Renewable Energy Lab at Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, SRM University, Andhra Pradesh
2. Wind Energy Training System
Wind Energy Training System is a scaled down version of actual standalone Wind Turbine power plant. This system facilitates the students with working and configurable model of wind turbine. This system gives the insight about individual components and consequences of changing the operating points of any wind turbine defined in terms of wind speed and pitch angle. Students can learn concepts like I-V characteristic, cut-off, cut-in speed etc.
This system is developed such that it can work inside a closed laboratory with an artificial wind generating unit, which makes it weather proof. User can access and utilize the system capability at any time of the day without worrying about the actual climatic conditions. This system uses a big fan mounted on top of an Induction motor, the speed of which can be controlled by a Variable Frequency Drive. User can control the speed of motor which further controls the Wind speed using the Variable Frequency Drive. The variable wind speed prompts Wind Turbine to convert Wind Energy into Electrical energy and outputs three phase electrical output. The three-phase electrical output is connected with a three-phase rectifier which converts electrical output from AC to DC. The DC output is then further connected to a Charge controller and Battery. A DC load can be connected at Charge controller output. The Battery is further connected to a home inverter which provides clean useable AC electricity.
Advantages of Wind Energy Training System
Ecosense’s Wind Energy Training System enables students to learn about Wind Turbine technologies in easy and interactive manner. A user can study and understand about the following principles of Wind Energy Generation technology:
• Evaluation of efficiency of charge controller
• Evaluation of the cut-in speed of wind turbine experimentally
• Evaluation of Tip Speed ratio (TSR) at different wind speeds
• Evaluation of coefficient of performance of wind turbine
• Draw the turbine Power versus wind speed curve
• Draw the curve between TSR and coefficient of power
• Draw the power curve of turbine with respect to the rotational speed of rotor at fix wind speeds
• Demonstrate the power analysis at turbine output
• Demonstrate the power analysis at different branches of wind turbine energy system with AC load only
• Demonstrate the power analysis at different branches of wind turbine energy system with DC load only
Ecosense installed Renewable Energy Lab at Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, SRM University, Andhra Pradesh
3. Fuel Cell Training system
Ecosense’s Fuel Cell Training system is a standalone Fuel Cell system, with the output of fuel cell connected to a charge controller. Charge Controller is further connected to a battery bank, an inverter and AC and DC Loads.
The Fuel Cell stack runs on dry hydrogen with 99.995% purity. It receives dry hydrogen from the hydrogen gas cylinder. The generated power can be used directly by a DC Load but as per the V-I characteristics, the voltage reduces as we increase the load, therefore, the power generated by fuel cell system cannot be used directly hence the output is connected to a charge controller which charges the battery and maintain output as per the battery voltage. The battery bank is further connected to an Inverter so that AC loads can be connected to the system.
Learning Outcomes of Ecosense’s Fuel Cell Training System
• Draw Characteristics of fuel cell with the help of resistive load or DC-DC converter
• Output power variation of fuel cell with change in Hydrogen supply
• Evaluate Fuel cell system performance with only DC load connected to the charge controller with battery bank
• Evaluate Fuel cell System performance with only AC load connected to the inverter with battery bank
• Evaluate Output power variation of the fuel cell with a change in temperature.
Advantages of the Fuel Cell Training System
Apart from the standard learning outcomes, a user can also explore the following research options with the system:
• System can be developed as a grid-connected system
• System can be developed as a hybrid grid-connected system
• Using Power Electronics converters instead of the charge controller and inverter, the user can test MPPT algorithms and different control algorithms.
Ecosense installed Renewable Energy Lab at Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, SRM University, Andhra Pradesh
Program Outcome and The Way Forward
After Installation a masters training and demonstration session was conducted by Engineers of Ecosense. During this session, the complete scope, working and research possibilities of the system was discussed. The faculty members enjoyed the demo and training session. They along with students work on the equipment to conduct their research.