Rajeev Sharma DC Microgrids for Electricity Access – Indian experience and way forward

The National Standards Body of India BIS holds the Secretariat of the Indian

National Committee - IEC Participating (P) member in 74 and Observer

(O) member in 79 Committees BIS today managing over 19000 Standards, Electrical Standards historically harmonized

to British Standards and then to IEC Standards

Bureau of Indian Standards

BIS has constituted a new committee ETD 50 on LVDC distribution system SCOPE of Work for BIS LVDC Committee : To prepare standards on : a) LVDC System Requirements, Safety and Installation Guidelines b) LVDC products including electrical wiring accessories and Applications c) Integration of DC Infrastructure d) Non Traditional Distribution Networks/Microgrids

STANDARDISATION ON LVDC in BIS

• Regulators & Government bodies • Academia, Research Institutions • BIS • Public Sector Companies • Industry organizations • Test Laboratories • Consumer Advocacy Groups • Private Sector Industry • Solar and Wind Generation industry

Experts in BIS LVDC Sectional Committee, ETD 50

• Energy alone is not sufficient for creating the conditions for economic growth, but it is certainly necessary. It is impossible to operate a factory, run a shop, grow crops or deliver goods to consumers without using some form of energy.

• Access to electricity is particularly crucial to

human development as electricity is, in practice, indispensable for certain basic activities, such as lighting, refrigeration and the running of household appliances, and cannot easily be replaced by other forms of energy.

Energy and access

Electricity access - Regional aggregates

Region

Population without

electricity

millions

Electrification rate

%

Urban electrificatio

n rate %

Rural electrificatio

n rate %

Developing countries 1,283 76% 91% 64% Africa 622 43% 68% 26% North Africa 1 99% 100% 99% Sub-Saharan Africa 621 32% 59% 16%

Developing Asia 620 83% 95% 74% China 3 100% 100% 100% India 304 75% 94% 67%

Latin America 23 95% 99% 82% Middle East 18 92% 98% 78% Transition economies & OECD 1 100% 100% 100%

WORLD 1,285 82% 94% 68%

•

Top 10 countries with largest number of people without electricity (million)

304

96 82 76 69 64 59 44 38 33

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

• About 304 Million people have absolutely no electricity access − Absence of any facility for education, healthcare or

enterprise, − Absence of hope, leading to serious social issues and

implications • These people living in about 650,000 un-electrified

villages • Direct correlation between lack of electricity and lack of

development • Government mandating rapid electrification, which

cannot be achieved through the conventional grid connectivity,

Government has funds; government needs solutions

Bottom of Pyramid (BOP) in India

• GEOGRAPHY CONSTRAINTS • DEMAND SUPPLY GAP (NOT ENOUGH

GENERATION CAPACITY) • Shortage of conventional resources • Less use of modern or non conventional

energy sources • Theft of electricity and other factors • Problems in distribution and grid

connectivity to the remote areas

CHALLENGES IN ELECTRIFICATION/ ACCESS

• In developed economies, Solar = green energy, reduce fossil fuels, smart grid solutions,

• In developing economies, Solar (and other renewable sources) = Enabling electricity access (leapfrogging technologies)

• India recently increased to an ambitious target for solar • Installed grid interactive renewable power capacity in India as of

March 31, 2017 • Solar power Present installed capacity (MW) 12288.83 Target 2022 (MW) 100,000.00 • This solar and renewables opportunity is huge and can speedily

enable electricity access. • Perfect opportunity to fulfill basic needs of all citizens: 2 LED

lamps, 1 mobile phone charger, small TV set (about 100 Watts to 200 Watts)

Solar and Renewables Opportunity in India

Distributed generation from solar is increasing rapidly which is intrinsically DC.

Superior compatibility with the DC energy storage technique such as battery and fuel cell has drawn recent interest of DC use.

Large number of appliances in households, offices and industries run internally on low voltage DC.

Easier incorporation of distributed generation and back up batteries could be used in an efficient way to supply the DC appliances directly

Why DC ?

• There are many advantages for DC system such that, It does not required DC to AC converter to connect solar energy

• It does not need AC to DC rectification for the devices which run internally on DC which save inherent energy losses

• It reduces the standby energy consumption • Finally it’s safe as it is low voltage.

Advantages of DC

• Solar PV gives DC Power − But load is AC − Needs a DC-AC converter

• Now if we add a battery − Battery stores only DC

− Require a AC-DC converter for charging − Require a DC-AC converter during discharging

− For low power, each converter can have 10 to 15% loss − Solar with battery may have up to 45% loss + battery loss

Solar-rooftop with AC power problematic for small homes

AC Load

DC-AC

Battery

AC-DC DC-AC

Grid

Solar DC

• And it gets worse as most energy-saving loads are DC − LED lights, fans with BLDC motors, TVs and all electronics are

preferably powered on DC power-line : most future loads are likely to be DC

Fans AC fan BLDC fan At full Speed 72W 30W At speed 1 60W 9W Lighting CFL Tube light LED tube At Max. Intensity 36W 15W At Lowest Intensity NA 4W

DC-powered Appliances Commercialised

LED Bulb • 5W instead of

30W bulb

Cell phone Charger/Socket • DC charger with USB port

BLDC Fan • 30W instead of 72W AC fan • 9W at lowest speed LED Tube light

• 15W - dimmable to 4W, instead of 36W fluorescent tube

Remote Control for Fan & Tube light • ON/OFF and for dimming

•

More DC-powered products becoming available

DC-powered 19” Colour TV • Consumes 30W along with set-top

box at 48V DC

DC Desert Cooler • Consumes 80W

instead of 180W AC cooler

DC Mixer • Consumes 150W,

whereas AC Mixers consume 350W

Pilot 48 LVDC Installations in India 4000 homes in Rajasthan plus 7500 in Assam

Installations in deserts of Phalodi, Rajasthan, India

Village School with LVDC System

A typical home Installation

Village Homes

Description Distance Height of house 10 feet Base of inverterless box to floor

5 feet

10 ft

5 ft

Standardised Installation practice

23

Entirely DC based- at 48 V, 50-60% more efficient than conventional Solar AC system

Equipment in each home: • 125 W solar panel • A specially designed 1kWh battery with 1500-1600 cycles with 50% DoD

(compared to 800 cycles in normal batteries) • Inverter-less controller box • 1 full size DC fan, 1 full size, variable intensity DC LED tubelight, •

Remote for controlling fan and tubelight (on/off and intensity) • 1 DC LED bulb, 1 cellphone charger

Meter Readings from the system over Bluetooth, can be synced with servers

Pre-paid mechanism and Easy recharge process.

Key features

India Current LVDC Projects Name of Place State #HH Total Status

Jodhpur, Jaisalmer Rajasthan 4,000

Beda, Sasaram Bihar 100,000 Started in July 2016

Lakhimpur Assam 10,000 Started in Aug-2016

Karby Anglong Assam 7,200 Started in Sept-2016

Grand Total 121,200

• CSTRI Lab

IIT Madras June 2014

48 LVDC Systems for Offices and Labs CSTRI Lab IIT Madras

• Accessibility of the Consumers − Spread-out homes. Sometimes, home-to-home distances >3km − Many Dhani’s (Un-electrified hamlets) consisting of only 10-15 homes

• Consumer Awareness − Consumers spoke only local dialect. Difficult to communicate − Haven’t seen electricity their entire life time − Need to teach the basics of lighting and electricity

• Difficulty in Terrain − Temp. soaring above 51 degree C in summer. Difficulty in doing installation during

summer time − Sand dunes (esp. in Rajasthan). Accessibility by road difficult

• Post-Installation Service / product delivery − Difficult because of the terrain and accessibility − Regular maintenance check is difficult due to far flung areas

Problems Faced

Terrain Difficulty

User manual (in local language)

• Accessibility of the Consumers − Hired 4 Wheel Drive vehicles where sand-dunes present or where accessibility is difficult − When even 4WD vehicle can’t reach a village home, hand-carry systems

• Consumer Related − Hired local technicians who can communicate with the villagers in the local dialect − Provided a simple to understand user-manual / maintenance procedure for the villagers

• Difficulty in Terrain − Planned and paced installations such that, during peak summer hours, work is paused − Hired and trained local technicians, accustomed to work in that harsh environment

• Consumer List − Reach out to each village ahead of installation − Worked with village head to get the consumer list to DISCOM

• Post-Installation Service / product delivery − Remote monitoring feature added to our Solar-DC system − Hired a team of skilled technicians to go to each home on a regular basis to upload data − Signed MoUs with technical institutes to train technicians to handle 48V DC − Identified local entrepreneurs and appointing them as dealers / distributors

Solutions

THANK YOU