If applicable, page number will go here after aggregating all papers

Proceedings of the International Symposium on

Sustainable Systems and Technologies, v2 (2014)


Design of Sustainable, Efficient, Safe and Economically Viable
Solution for Solar Street Lighting System

RakeshBabu Panguloori, Philips Research, INDIA, rakeshbabu.panguloori@philips.com
PriyaRanjan Mishra, Philips Research, INDIA, mishra.priyaranjan@philips.com


Abstract. The combination of solar and LED lighting has enabled interest in the municipalities
and governing authorities to consider solar LED lighting as economical and as an efficient
choice to lighten streets. Stand-alone/decentralized solar solutions are very popular for these
applications. However, these solutions suffer from poor performance due to dust accumulation
and difficulty in accessing PV panels for regular maintenance. Further, these solutions need
design change in poles mechanical structure, often built with customized PV panels and also
oversized to take care of no-sunshine days i.e. 37 days. To overcome these drawbacks,
centralized 230V AC or 48V DC systems have been installed in the field. However, 230V AC or
48V DC systems are inefficient either due to multiple power conversions in the power delivery
path or higher distribution losses resulting in higher panel and battery capacities and hence
higher cost. This paper proposes unique power architecture i.e. Centralized DC solar street
lighting system on 220V DC distribution line, which is 1520% more energy efficient than
inverter based AC centralized solution. This efficiency gain will greatly reduce solar and battery
component sizes and hence system capital cost. Further there is also possibility for grid
interconnectivity, which will further lead to reduction in battery capacity and hence payback
period will be lowered. AC grid system needs accurate prediction system to optimize green
energy utilization. With AC backup, centralized system can be designed with only 25%50%
oversizing against 300%500% in conventional system. Similarly to reduce the cost of
electronics, Dual Function Converter (DFC) has been proposed. This results in reduction of
number of components, footprint and controller size in centralized system by nearly 50% and
enhances reliability by a factor of 2. The proposed solution results in lower solar array and
battery capacities, smaller electronics footprints and lower demand of material resource in street
lighting poles.






Proceedings of the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technologies (ISSN 2329-9169) is
published annually by the Sustainable Conoscente Network. Melissa Bilec and Jun-Ki Choi, co-editors.
ISSSTNetwork@gmail.com.

Copyright 2014 by RakeshBabu Panguloori, PriyaRanjan Mishra Licensed under CC-BY 3.0.

Cite as:
Design of Sustainable, Efficient, Safe and Economically Viable Solution for Solar Street Lighting System. Proc.
ISSST, RakeshBabu Panguloori, PriyaRanjan Mishra
Design of Sustainable, Efficient, Safe and Economically Viable Solution for Solar Street Lighting System
If applicable, page number will go here after aggregating all papers
Introduction. Solar energy has particular relevance in remote and rural areas, alone in India
more than 290 million people live without access to electricity [1]. Solar energy is the cost-
effective option for India to reduce energy scarcity without having to extend national grid
services to provide a reliable and secure energy supply to remote areas [2]. India's national
solar mission has targeted to deploy 20 million solar lighting systems for rural areas by 2022 [3].
Most of these solutions are well popular as decentralized systems or stand-alone systems.
Providing street lighting is one of the most important and expensive responsibilities of a
municipality/city administration to improve safety and comfort for both vehicular traffic and
pedestrians. It also provides enhanced sense of security for motorists giving maximum road
visibility. Existing solar street lighting solutions are less efficient and hence demand higher
investments on PV Panel and Storage elements. There is need of energy efficient technologies,
innovative design and optimized power architecture to reduce solar street lighting costs
substantially, which in-turn will help municipalities to expand their services by providing lighting
in low-income and other under-served areas. The Energy Research Institute (TERI) India, has
reported that by the introduction of LEDs, cost reduction of 2530% is possible because of
reduced panel size, freight and storage cost [4].
Stand-alone/decentralized solar solutions [5] are very popular for these applications. However,
these solutions suffer from poor performance in the long run due to dust accumulation [6] and
difficulty in accessing PV panels for regular maintenance. Further, these solutions need design
change in poles mechanical structure and oversized to take care of no-sun shine days i.e. 37
days. Furthermore as the solar panel efficiency and LED lumen efficacy are improving day-by-
day, optimal system sizing for different geographies (primarily solar panel capacity and battery
capacity) becomes challenging. Many times such system needs customized solar panels
resulting in further increase in cost of solar system.
To overcome these drawbacks, centralized systems have been installed in the field. The
centralized systems can be either 230AC [7] or 220VDC [8] or 48V DC [9] systems. 48V DC
system is generally avoided for street lighting over long distribution line to limit distribution
power losses. Power architecture of a typical centralized system is shown in Figure 1.

MPPT
Charge
Controller
48 V
PV
Array
LED
Driver
P
LED
LED
Driver
P
LED
LED
Driver
P
LED
LED
Driver
P
LED
Bus
Converter
1
st
pole
2
nd
pole
N
th
pole
(N-1)
th
pole
Distribution bus
230V AC / 220V DC


Figure 1: Power architecture of N-pole centralized PV street lighting system

In centralized system, solar energy is stored in a 48V battery bank through MPPT charge
controller and the stored energy is boosted to higher voltage typically 230V AC or 220V DC for
power distribution. It is typically designed on a 48V battery bank for a group of 20 street poles
spread across 12 kilometers. The bus converter will be an inverter in case of AC centralized
RakeshBabu Panguloori et al.
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system and a simple DC-DC converter (single switch boost or LLC resonant converter) in case
of DC centralized system. Various papers [10, 11] in literature clearly demonstrate benefits of
solar integrated DC distribution for various applications. In Figure 1, the power efficiency of bus
converter plays major role in determining the overall system efficiency. In [8], it is shown that DC
centralized PV street lighting system is 1520% more energy efficient than inverter based AC
centralized solution. Higher energy efficiency of DC centralized system over conventional 230V
AC system will meet the same watt hour load per day with reduced solar and battery component
sizes. This will greatly reduce system capital cost. In centralized system for weak-grid areas,
there is also possibility for grid interconnectivity in future, which will further lead to reduction in
battery capacity and hence further lower payback period. The grid interconnectivity enables the
user to have maximum 1 day autonomy against 3-5 days in non AC backup system. In addition
system designer are not constrained to design system based on lowest insolation data but they
can work on average or higher insolation data. There is secondary benefit also; as the
centralized system can be guarded within the fenced boundary to minimize the risks of theft and
sabotage [12, 13]. It is also easy to operate and maintain centralized system by cleaning panels
at regular intervals which is nearly impossible to carryout in decentralized system.

From Figure 1, it is seen that there are two power modules (MPPT charge controller and bus
converter) in the system. For street lighting application, these two power modules operate in
non-overlapping time intervals, thus providing scope for optimization. This paper proposes Dual
Function Converter (DFC) concept to reduce electronic component count and cost. In grid
integrated conventional solar systems, AC charging starts whenever the battery voltage reaches
below threshold limit say voltage representing 50% of state of charge (SOC). This helps to keep
the battery in healthy state, but most of time it results in wastage of green energy and many
times it may not meet total energy requirement to supplement through whole night period. To
avoid wastage of solar energy, another approach is to wait till 12 hours before noon, say 10AM,
and if SOC is less than 50% then start charging from grid. This result in better utilization of solar
energy however, many times it is not sufficient to meet the cumulative load requirement from
dusk to dawn with the enabling of delayed grid back-up charging. Also, it requires higher
capacity AC charger to charge the battery quickly as available time is only 67 hrs before
sunset, which means, higher capacity AC charger is needed in conventional AC coupled solar
systems. Therefore prediction system with grid backup can be employed to enable usage of low
capacity AC charger e.g. 0.05C or 0.08C along with optimizing solar and battery component
sizes. The prediction algorithm estimates the amount of grid backup per day accurately based
on weekly solar insolation data, load profile and grid availability. Block level illustration of the
proposed concept is shown in Figure 2.
Battery charge
management &
MPPT
DC bus
regulation
48V
Battery
Solar
Prediction system
Battery
status
Solar Insolation
& Temperature
230V 1
AC Grid
Mains
Charger
Dual Function Converter
MPPT + battery
charge management
during day
220V DC
DC bus
regulation
during night


Figure 2: Prediction based DC Centralized solar street lighting system with Dual Function Converter
Design of Sustainable, Efficient, Safe and Economically Viable Solution for Solar Street Lighting System
If applicable, page number will go here after aggregating all papers

Hypothesis (or Research Question). Hypothesis of this research work is system cost can be
reduced by optimizing solar and battery capacities through a means of efficient energy usage.
Further optimization on control electronics through dual function converter concept decreases
component count leading to higher system reliability.

Investigative Method. A typical DC centralized solar street lighting system constitutes PV
array, battery, MPPT charge controller and Bus converter. The most common voltage levels of a
medium scale solar street lighting system with 48V battery bank are shown in Figure 3.
Blocking diode is generally used to prevent battery discharge through PV array during night.
Load ON/OFF control is performed automatically based on solar voltage/charging current or
astronomical clock. From dawn till dusk, the MPPT charge controller charges the battery from
PV array by performing MPPT and charge management. Bus converter is used to control the
DC bus voltage, which works as boost converter and steps-up the battery voltage (ex. 48V DC)
to DC bus voltage (ex. 220V DC) during night. From dusk to dawn, all the lighting loads are
powered from 220V DC bus.

On any given day, the operation interval of MPPT charge controller and the Bus converter is
non-overlapping in any outdoor lighting application. To reduce the cost and make the design
compact, both the power modules are integrated in a single power converter called Dual
Function Converter. This is possible by performing simple connection changes at the solar and
load terminals in Figure 3. Node N1 output terminal of the PV array is connected to Node N2
input terminal of the Load ON/OFF control switch. Also as seen in Figure 3, the Bus converter
and the MPPT charge controller are symmetrical to each other with respect to battery bank.
Hence, Bus converter module can be eliminated from the system. The final circuit configuration
with mentioned terminal-connection changes is shown in Figure 4. The dual function converter
works as MPPT charge controller in day time to charge the battery and as Bus converter in night
time to power the distributed lightings connected on street light DC grid. In day time, load
ON/OFF control switch is in OFF position and switch S1 is controlled as buck switch and switch
S2 is controlled as synchronous rectifier switch. Similarly in night time, switch S2 is controlled as
boost switch and switch S1 as boost synchronous rectifier and in this interval the blocking diode
protects the PV array from 220V DC voltage at node vpv. Through the proposed concept, one
complete power module can be saved thus resulting in 50% less component count, lower cost
and a compact design. Reliability of any system depends on the number of components used;
with the proposed approach, reliability of the system would be enhanced by a factor of 2.


L1
vb
C
b
S
1
vpv
S
2
C
pv
PV Array
Battery
S
4
L2
S
3
C
o
60~90V DC 44~56V DC
Blocking
diode
Load ON/
OFF control
220V DC
Distribution bus
To Lighting load
MPPT Charge Controller Bus Converter
N1
N2


Figure 3: Circuit configuration of medium scale DC centralized solar street lighting system
RakeshBabu Panguloori et al.
If applicable, page number will go here after aggregating all papers
L
vb
C
b
S
1
vpv
S
2
C
pv
PV Array
Battery
60~90V DC 44~56V DC
Blocking
diode
Load ON/
OFF control
220V DC
Distribution bus
To Lighting load
Dual Function Converter (DFC)
During day
During night
vsw


Figure 4: Circuit configuration of proposed integrated power module Dual Function Converter

In the proposed work, prediction system has been designed for a typical street lighting
system. The block schematic is given in Figure 5. By knowing the average solar insolation per
day, solar array output power can be calculated. And subsequently battery charging current is
calculated after compensating losses in maximum power point tracker. Using this result; SOC
of the battery at the end of day can be estimated. This knowledge helps in taking decisions for
charging battery from the AC in case of solar is not sufficient and deficit solar energy is matched
by energy from mains AC.
In the typical street lighting application, 48V battery is charged from 600W-2000W solar
panel from morning to evening. Street lighting loads are supplied from the battery during night
time. In case of cloudy days, solar insolation will not be sufficient and battery will be partially
charged depending on the available INSOLATION. In such situation, if accurate INSOLATION is
known in advance, an accurate estimated decision could be taken to charge the battery from AC.


Solar Irradiation
Measurement Unit
Sites Latitude
SOC Based On
Battery Voltage
Solar Irradiation
Prediction Unit
Deficit Energy
Calculation Unit
AC Charging Duty
Cycle
AC Charger ON/OFF
Control Average daily solar
irradiation for the
month
Prediction Processing Unit


Figure 5: Block diagram of the prediction system model



Design of Sustainable, Efficient, Safe and Economically Viable Solution for Solar Street Lighting System
If applicable, page number will go here after aggregating all papers
Results. In Table 1, comparison between DC system and different AC systems is given. It can
be concluded the DC system with DFC has lower footprint and higher efficiency. Thus results in
lower conversion losses and lower cost.

Table 1. Comparison on number of components in various AC, DC systems
System configuration Power
switches
Inductive
components
Control
complexity
Efficiency (%) MPPT charge
controller
Expected
cost
AC system with low
frequency inverter
4 2 Medium 80-85 Separate Low-
medium
AC system with high
frequency inverter
5 2 High 85-94 Separate High
DC system with dual
function converter
2 1 Low 95-97 Not needed Low

In DC system, PFC circuitry in luminaires are not needed, so there is further reduction of
components and hence reliability is increased and cost is decreased. PFC circuitry typically
constitutes 30% of the total components in the LED driver.

With accurate prediction of solar INSOLATION, AC charger capacity can be reduced to as low
as C/20 based on installation site power outage history.

Conclusion. The proposed solution with DFC and prediction system along with DC grid will
find wide application in solar powered outdoor lighting application in general and street lighting
in particular. Cost of whole system will be reduced significantly to increase the penetration of
solar system in the market. It will increase the sustainability of solar products as the reliability
will increase manifold.

Acknowledgements. The authors would like to acknowledge Philips Innovation Campus-India
for providing valuable support and Dr. Narendranath Udupa & Geetha Mahadevaiah for their
encouragement.

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