PV-Diesel Hybrid Solutions: An Interview with Rahul Sharma from Solar-Log™ India
What is the need for PV-Diesel Hybrid Solutions?
As per International Energy Agency (IEA), the global energy demand will grow approximately 60% by 2030. Over the last two decades, more than 1 billion people in developing nations gained access to energy such as coal, electricity, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas.
However, there are still approx. more than 2 billion people worldwide who have no access to electricity. This number represents nearly one third of the global population. Today, it is estimated that 56% of the world’s rural population does not have access to energy services.
In many regions of the world, mainly in isolated remote locations or rural communities, power grids are either inadequate or non-existent. Thus, industrial consumers often ensure their power supply through alternate source of generation i.e. mostly with diesel gensets which usually increase the costs of energy generation (due to various factors like high diesel costs, diesel transportation or storage costs in remote regions, operation & maintenance of diesel generators etc.) which is also not environment friendly.
At the same time, Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are experiencing a world-wide rapid take-up due to their rapidly reducing cost and climate-friendly attributes in the past few years. So, this simply makes sense to combine PV and diesel systems so that solar irradiation – which is both abundant and free – can profitably be used at maximize as an energy source in industrial applications.
What is a photovoltaic diesel hybrid system & how it works?
PV-Diesel hybrid power systems combines solar power from a photovoltaic system with another power generating energy source i.e. diesel generators or diesel gensets. A photovoltaic diesel hybrid system basically consists of a PV system, diesel gensets and intelligent energy management to ensure that the amount of solar energy fed into the system exactly matches the load demand at that time.
Basically, the PV system complements the diesel gensets. It can supply additional energy when loads are high or relieve the genset to minimize its fuel consumption.
What solution Solar-Log™ is offering for PV-Diesel Hybrid system?
The Solar-Log™ hybrid eControl-Box is used for PV-Diesel hybrid plants where it manages in-parallel operations of a photovoltaic system and a diesel generator. This box can also be used in situations where it is not allowed to feed any power back to the grid as the protection system.
The PV-Diesel hybrid eControl-Box is a solution that allows an actual follow up of the production and consumption of a site and a management of the PV production as per two predefined scenarios:
-Grid operating
-Generator operating
- On grid situation, the eControl box will always allow the grid to provide a minimum draw during the PV production.
A normal draw from the grid is normally set to 14% of the PV plant capacity. This draw is used as a buffer which will prevent power from the PV system being injected into the grid.
When the grid supplies more power than the value defined in this setting, the Solar-Log™ will begin to ramp up the power output from the PV system.
Based on a hysteresis value, the system will manage the production to respect this limitation.
With the Solar-Log™ WEB “Commercial Edition” and using an external meter like the Solar-Log™ PRO 380 or PRO 380CT, you can easily see the minimum draw and check if the limitation has been respected.
- In generator use, the eControl-Box will be the conductor of the installation and will make sure, that the PV production will only be the difference between the minimum threshold configured for the genset (advice 40%) and the consumption.
A normal draw from the genset is normally set to 40% of the genset capacity to achieve better reliability & fuel efficiency. As with the grid, this draw is used as a buffer which will prevent power from the PV system being injected into the genset.
In case the PV production or the consumption is changing too quickly for inverters or logger to react, and if the draw is going close to 0, the box will switch on an emergency break to prevent any injection to the generator.
The hybrid eControl-Box switches back to normal mode after all parameters returned to normal conditions.
What is the operating principle for Solar-Log™ PV-Diesel Hybrid eControl Box?
The hybrid eControl-Box has been developed to manage photovoltaic systems and diesel generators parallel in one system. One part of the device manages the photovoltaic system output to zero export in direction generator and/ or grid, if required. As backup protection is an additional reverse power protection in place, which would disconnect the photovoltaic system in case of a reverse power.
The communication with the inverters runs via a 16 step 4-bit digital signal through the Solar-Log™ PM+ series device which is (like all other Solar-Log™ Data Loggers) compatible with 100 inverter brands, relating to 1.700 inverter models as well as lot more component manufacturers like meters, storage systems, heating elements, heat pumps, ….
What are the advantages of using Solar-Log hybrid eControl Box solution in PV-Diesel Hybrid Plants?
The Solar-Log hybrid eControl Box solution provides numerous advantages for photovoltaic diesel hybrid systems:
- The major advantage of the system is, that it always ensures maximum use of PV plant to fulfil the load requirement provided the minimum draw set-points from Grid/Genset which results in reduced cost & more efficient use of power sources.
- It also acts as a protection to avoid the back feeding into grid or reverse power conditions in Gensets.
- It helps to achieve better fuel efficiency & reliable performance of diesel-genset by maintain minimum draw set-point to advice 40%; which also helps to reduces the CO2 emission & pollution
- All-in-one pre-wired solution for injection ban or hybrid (PV-Diesel/Grid) installations, delivered mounted and cabled in an IP65 protection box with included electrical protections.
Apart from PV-Diesel Hybrid eControl Box System; what else Solar-Log™ is offering to Indian Market?
Solar-Log™ Hardware/ Data Loggers:
(Solar-Log™ 250- suitable for monitoring of PV Plant rating up to 10 kWp, max. 1 inverter)
(Solar-Log™ 300-suitable for monitoring of PV Plant rating up to 15 kWp or 30 KWp with upgrade licence),
(Solar-Log™ 1200- suitable for monitoring of PV Plant rating up to 100 kWp or 250 KWp with upgrade licence)
and (Solar-Log™ 2000– suitable for PV Plant rating up to 2000 KWp).
Solar-Log™ ™ WEB “Commercial Edition”:
Installers and service providers can offer plant owners service contracts tailored to their individual needs and projects, centrally managing the plant in real time with remote access.
Demo: demo.solarlog-web.com
Solar-Log™ Sensors & other accessories:
Sensor Basic & Sensor Box Professional (which delivers the irradiance values as well as the module temperature), Sensor Box professional plus with optional accessories like wind sensor & ambient temperature sensor (Sensor Box Professional Plus also has the option to connect an ambient temperature sensor and window sensor in addition to inbuilt irradiation & module temperature sensor).
Feed-In Management Solution:
“X%” Regulation: The function “X Percent Fixed Regulation” with the calculation of self-consumption offers an innovative solution to minimize losses that result from the fixed regulation.
Zero Export limitation: Solar-Log™ will ensure that no amount of power will feed-in to grid.
Solar-Log™ APP:
The Solar-Log™ App visualizes: plant information yield overview (day / month / year / total), consumption overview (day / month / year / total), CO² overview (total), current values, slideshow mode, sub-consumer view etc. over the Android/ iOS devices.
