Ecosense Refurbished Renewable Energy Lab at Anna University, Chennai

Anna University is one of the most sought out university in India. It is established with the mission to produce students who are intellectually and technically equipped with well defined knowledge, skills and ethics who are creative thinkers, inspiring leaders and contributing citizens.

Ecosense installed Renewable energy Lab at Anna University, Institute of Energy Studies in 2014 and on the request of university Ecosense refurbished the lab again in December 2021 and redemonstrated the system.

1.Solar PV Training and Research System

This system enables user to learn about Solar PV standalone technology. Using this system, a user gains knowledge in three different fields of Solar PV standalone system:

a) Physical Characteristics of Solar PV Panels: I-V, P-V characteristics, series and parallel connections of solar panels, effect of irradiation, effect of temperature, effect of shadow, effect of tilting panels, effect of geographical locations etc.

b) Components and Assembly of standalone system: Use of blocking diode, use of bypass diode, use of 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.

2. Solar PV Grid Tied Training System

Ecosense’s Solar Grid Connected Training system enables user to learn about Solar Grid -tied technology. Using this system, a user gains knowledge of connecting an auxiliary grid (Solar PV) to the main grid, its essential components and transfer of power between the two grids. Using this system user gains knowledge in the following areas:

1) Effect of different types of loads on Electrical Grid
2) Effect of capacitance and inductance in Transmission lines
3) Interfacing requirement of an auxiliary Grid to main grid
4) Concept of anti-islanding

3. Solar PV Emulator System

Ecosense’s PV Emulator can be understood as a variable Solar PV panel where a user can define the parameters of Solar panel and see its working in real time. It is essentially a DC supply which simulates the characteristics of a solar panel. PV Emulator allows to alter the characteristics of a PV panel in real-time and user can also see shading effects up to 4 peaks. This system facilitates a user to conduct research in the field of Solar PV.

4. 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.

5 Wind Turbine Emulator system

Wind turbine emulator mimics the behaviour of wind turbine for hardware level simulations. This system has a DC motor coupled with the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator, speed of which is controlled as per the speed reference calculated by solving the mathematical model of wind turbine. Researcher can execute the mathematical models of their newly developed or modified wind turbine and can simulate the speed/power of profile of turbine on hardware environment directly for different wind speeds & pitch angle.

Redemonstration Conducted

After refurbishing the lab redemonstration o the systems were conducted. The demonstration was focussed on educating and training the scholars and technicians in Renewable Technology who will further train thousands of students and professional to start their career or business in this very field.

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