Dual input autonomous solar photovoltaic powered motor drive system for industrial applications

Present day industrialization faces a major challenge of power shortage which adversely affects the industrial production due to energy crisis. Governments devised various schemes to support renewable energy generation in order to supplement the conventional energy resources; a range of incentives, subsidies, soft loans, and tax credits are introduced to increase power capacity through renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, and biomass. This paper emphasizes on a photovoltaic and battery fed autonomous induction motor drive system suitable for small scale industries which were either suffering due to long power outages or inaccessibility of grid power. The two sources are suitably integrated through a DC-DC converter system and then connected to a multilevel inverter. A battery charger is integrated with the system which ensures near-full battery voltage always and improves reliability of the system. The proposed scheme is presented with different modes of operation and also experimented with a real time application. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.