Utility Grid Assisted Automated Solar PV Powered Energy-Efficient Eco-Friendly Water Pumping System with Improved Power Quality Performance

This work proposes the development of a solar photovoltaic (PV) array powered permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) driven water pumping system. Owing to intermittent nature of solar energy due to continuously varying insolation level, the presented system proposes the introduction of utility grid, which ensures a reliable and uninterrupted operation of water pump. The pump operates at a rated flow rate when integrated to the grid. The power flow from single phase utility grid is facilitated using a boost converter for power factor correction. Along with maintaining the DC link voltage, the boost converter improves the power quality performance in terms of reduced total harmonic distortion and unity power factor operation. An improved orthogonal signal generator (IOSG) is used for extraction of fundamental positive sequence component from the grid voltage. An incremental conductance algorithm is used for extracting maximum power from the PV array. A back emf based sensor-less technique is utilized for estimation of speed and position. The performance of proposed system is experimentally validated for different modes of operation during starting, steady state and varying insolation conditions using a developed laboratory prototype. The performance of the proposed system is also investigated under abnormal grid conditions. The proposed system performs satisfactorily under all operating condition confirming the power quality indices stated under IEEE- 519 standard, while drawing power from the grid.