Publications

Abstract : One of the major challenges faced by Indian power grid system are the excess use of energy and that results in the imbalance in the power generated and power consumed. The utility regulates the amount of consumption by introducing power cuts and time of use billing methods leading to decrease in the comfort level of consumers. A design for a smart control device, for efficient use of stored renewable energy, is proposed in this paper. The proposed system has a number of aspects. Firstly, this proposed system collects and analyses user consumption data. Dependent on the data the system makes a decision on the source of power to be made available: either renewable power from a battery or power from the grid. The system also calculates the amount of power to be stored, in a storage device. In addition, the system is able to make decisions on who gets priority to continue receiving power in the case of power shortage/failure. We simulated some of the basic system capabilities to switch the source of power depending on: the peak time, consumption of user, and the amount of battery power remaining. The results show that dependency of power from the grid is reduced and by setting priority of device, continuity of service is achieved. Our results indicate that power dependency from the grid can be reduced to 70-80% during peak hours and continuity of service can be achieved for critical devices during power failure.