Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles

An Opportunity for India

Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IITM

ashok@tenet.res.in
 In first week of December 2015
When whole of IITM had no power for 75 hours
• Even 1 MW solar plant at IITM failed to provide any power
– There was one home which continued to have lights
and fans and cell-phone / lap-top charger
• 125W solar panel + 1 kWh battery (50% can be used)
• Two tube-lights were used regularly + bulb and fan
occasionally + laptop charged / discharged fully 15 times +
cell phone charging
• Fails to add up
– Solar DC Inverterless
• Full DC wiring, all Loads DC, solar and battery connected on
DC line, input grid power converted to DC

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 2

Decentralised Solar Power at Homes
Solar DC
• Solar PV gives DC Power
– But load is AC
– Needs a DC-AC convertor

DC-AC • Now if we add a battery

– Battery stores only DC
• Require a AC-DC convertor for
AC Load charging
Grid • Require a DC-AC convertor
during discharging

• For low power, each convertor

AC-DC DC-AC

can have 10 to 15% loss

– Solar with battery may have up
Battery
to 45% loss + battery loss

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 3

 And it gets Worse
• As one realises that home-load is moving towards DC
Fans AC fan BLDC fan
Volume prices
At full Speed 72W 30W similar for fans

At speed 1 60W 9W
Lighting CFL Tube light LED tube
At Max. Intensity 36W 15W
At Lowest Intensity NA 4W LED tube life much longer (DC
powering enhances reliability)
• All Electronics devices work on low-voltage DC
– TV (LED/LCD), laptops. Cell-phones, speaker-phones, tablets, speakers
• AC to DC conversion has losses from 20% to 50% in each device

• Even the refrigerators, air-conditioners, washing machine in future will be

BLDC motors

• Use of DC-powered and energy-efficient devices

– Consumption down by 50%

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 4

Move to Solar-DC at Home Premises

• Home Micro-grid connecting

Solar – Solar Panel
– Battery
– DC Appliances
• Highly efficient usage of Power
48VDC
– Low-power from grid alone converted from
AC-DC (Designed to have minimal losses)
48VDC
Load
• 48V DC chosen due to
AC-DC
grid – Safety considerations
– Lower cable losses compared to 12V/24V
DC systems
48VDC • But design non-trivial
– Solar MPPT voltage varies
battery – Battery needs independent charge voltage
– Load is at some fixed voltage
– DC-DC converters will add similar losses

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 5

 Solar-DC Inverterless
125W panels Designed as an expandable
• Upto 500W possible product, still keeping losses low

125W to 500W 48V DC

(and possibly 150W
uninterrupted AC) Power
with BLE prepaid recharge

230V AC

Special 1 kWh VRLA battery

with 1600 cycles for 50%
Monitored using DoD
Bluetooth • Up to 5 kWh possible

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 6

Appliances
LED Bulb Cell phone Charger/Socket
• 5W instead of 30W bulb • DC charger with USB port

LED Tube light

• 15W - dimmable to 4W, instead of 36W
fluorescent tube
BLDC Fan
• 30W instead of 72W AC fan
• 9W at lowest speed Remote Control for Fan &
Tube light
Cost: ₹20000 for 125W SP + • ON/OFF and for dimming
1 kWh Battery
Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 7
Products in pipeline
DC-powered 19” Colour TV Solar Water-stove
• Consumes 30W along with • Still experimental
set-top box at 48V DC • Will require at least
500W solar power
• Pilot to be carried out

DC Desert Cooler DC 100L

• Consumes 60W Refrigerator
instead of 180W • In design
AC cooler

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 8

 Deployment in Rajasthan
• Electrifying 4000 off-grid
homes with support from
Ministry of Power
(Government of India), Rural
Electrification Corporation
(REC), and Jodhpur Vidyut
Vitran Nigam Ltd (JDVVNL)

• Deployment started with

Bhoom Ji ka Gaon, December
2015: tough terrain, no road
connectivity, sandstorms, lack
of local resources

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 9

 A home at Bap, Rajasthan
• Monitoring performance through Blue-tooth
– Paramount in design tuning

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 10

 Users Response
• “Apne Vidyarthiyon ko ghar ka
kaam dene laga hu. Khush hu
ki is baar garmiyon mein bhi
bachhe mann laga kar padhai
karenge.”
- Masterji
• “Sab ko utshah se apne ghar
ka Solar system dikhata hu ji,
hamare ghar mein bhi pankha,
light aur remote hai”
- Dunga Ram
• feedback:
https://youtu.be/NF6EgdRsBXk

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 11

Motivation for going Solar Inverterless
• It is a Solar + power back-up, but far more
efficient
– as 100 Watts DC
• Can support 3 lights + 2 fans + cell-phone charging
• Or 3 lights + 1 fan + TV (24” LED/LCD) + cell-phone
charging
– Solar Panel and Batteries have to be appropriately
sized
• Devices can be added as required

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 12

 Small AC / DC Home Power Costs
Device Numbers Operation
deployed hrs/ day Cost / day includes depreciation and
Tubelights 2 6 interest for solar panel and battery
Fans 2 12 assuming grid costs of ₹5 per unit
Bulbs 2 10
Air coolers Small Home
- - AC Home DC Home
Phones 1 4
Energy/ Cost Battery solar Energy Cost Battery solar
Laptops - -
day per Size panel / day per Size panel
TV 1 10
kWh day ₹ kWh Wp kWh day ₹ kWh Wp
AC Grid + 0 LS 3.16 15.79 1.21 6.04
AC Grid + Battery + 4h LS 3.63 31.35 2.11 1.28 10.22 0.61 125
off-grid + Battery + Solar 5.60 71.44 6.7 1375 1.28 15.85 1.78 375
AC +Battery + Solar + 4h LS 3.67 30.53 1.9 125 1.24 8.66 0.45 125

Off-grid home costs with solar-DC (₹15.85 per day) becomes comparable to
costs of on-grid AC homes with no power-cuts (₹15.79 per day). If one uses AC
wiring with DC appliances, costs for off-grid home shoots up to ₹24.24 per day.

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 13

 Even for grid-connected home
• Solar-DC Inverterless + DC power line at home + DC
appliances can be huge savings

• Further, 500W solar power with DC appliances can take

care of most essential loads in middle class homes
– Except washing machines, mixers / grinders, air-conditioners
– Small power drawn from grid: reduces power-bill
– 240M homes: average 500W solar (50 sqft), will produce nearly
• 240M x 0.5 kw x 1600 solar hours a year = 190,000 GWh per year
• Close to total Domestic consumption in a year

• India can become the most green nation

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 14

 UDC Innovation
• Issues
– Acceptance among people for technology and DC
– Lack of standardization and availability of Home appliances

• What it Needs? Instead of Push  create a Market

PULL

• UDC Innovation aimed to create such a market PULL by

– Providing a limited Power DC line at each home from
existing AC distribution grid in addition to existing AC line
– During Load shedding, AC line is cut-off, but DC line is kept
ON
• Making the DC line free of Load-shedding

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 15

 Addition of a DC Power line at each Home

Unlimited Pow er existing

230Vac line
TRANSFORMER

33KV 11 KV M
• DT Normal: 230V

New Limited Power DC

line at 48V

UDPM
Substation

Home

 Substation charges feeders with 11kV Distribution Line

 Distribution transformer steps down voltage to 230V in each of the three
phases
 UDPM at home allows using present AC line and a limited power DC line

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 11

16
Load shedding: 90% power cut – Brown-out

Brown-out
Control
230Vac line: cut-off
during Brow n-out
TRANSFORMER

Normal: 230V
• DT
33KV 11 KV

Brown-out •
Brown-out: 90V
Limited Pow er DC
supply at 48V:
Some 10%
Uninterrupted
of pow er UDPM
Tap or Step-down
transformer (0.4) Home
4.4 KV
Substation
No change in DT or distribution lines

 Brown-out: continue feeding 10% power to Distribution Line

 Substation feeds 11kV in normal and with 4.4kV in brown-out condition (only 10%) on DL
 Distribution transformer steps down voltage to 230V in normal / 90V in brown-out condition
 UDPM detects voltage drop to 90V: cuts off AC line but continues feeding 48V DC
 10% BO Power small enough to be made available even during worst power-shortage

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 17

A free of Load Shedding line at homes
• Will now induce customers to use DC power
line and appliances
– As DC appliances become acceptable and
customers see power-savings and reliability
• Will add more and more appliances

– When Limited power provided by UDC gets

exhausted, will be willing to add solar-DC

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 18

When Indian cities are talking about overcoming air-pollution

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 19

 Rational for going Electric
• India does not have much oil
– Our oil imports are rising continuously and hurting
Indian economy very badly
– No solution in sight in short, medium or long-term

• Our cities and towns are highly congested

– As middle class increases, vehicle population
continuously grow
– Highly polluting urban India

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 20

 How ready are we with EV?
• For any vehicle, compare the
cost of mechanical (IC Engine)
drive-train (MDT) with electrical
cost drive-train without batteries
IC-engine (EDT)
Drive-train
– Along with associated
subsystems
• MDT cost goes up year after
year (inflation)
• EDT cost goes down year after
Electrical year (R&D, Moore’s law and SW)
Drive-train
– Sometime in recent times it
crosses each other
– Gap is to only increase year
Year after year
Recent
Battery should be treated as fuel

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 21

 Cost of Fuel
• Petrol cost per Km increases year
after year (at least till last year)
– Though enhanced fuel-efficiency
through R&D helps slow this
cost
Petrol cost
• Total cost of battery per Km (life- per Km
time depreciation, interest,
maintenance and charging of
battery) keeps coming down
– Battery R&D enhancing charge-
discharge cycles and reducing costs
continuously Battery plus
– Likely to only accelerate charging cost
per Km
• Crossover took place sometime
back
Year
Li-Ion Battery costs are falling 8% per annum

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 22

 The nay-sayers
• But do we not have shortage of electricity?
– No significant off-peak hour shortage of electricity
• Electricity generation continuously increasing
• Need to discourage EV charging during peak hours
– India has huge solar potential to charge EV in day time

• Do electric-generation plants not pollute?

– Power generator pollutes much less than a vehicle for every Km even today
– Much easier to manage reduced pollution in large electric plants as compared
to in every vehicle
• Technology can be further improved to reduce emissions
– Power pollution is not in most congested areas

• Disposal of battery
– Technologies fast evolving for battery-reuse and end of life safe disposal

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 23

 Benefits Power Industry
• Introduce Time of day • Slow-chargers at home
Metering for Vehicles – AC chargers: typically
– Can enable significant off- from 15A single phase
take of power during night – Takes 7 hours for full
time and off-peak hours battery life
– Helps in Load Balancing and
reduce peaking • Fast Chargers at Public
• Tariff for day time charging at
commercial rates Places
– Charge in 45 minutes
• Use Solar Chargers during – Need High Voltage DC
day time or pay high day Chargers
time costs

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 24

 What is Ready in India
• Use of Li-Ion Advanced
battery
– 3000 charge-discharge cycles
• 2-wheelers / 3-wheelers
(several players)
• Make in India Push
– 2 / 4-door e-Rewa: small car
– e-Verito: 110 kms per charge
• About 10 kms range for 1 kW
– e-Maximo: 8-seater shared-
taxi / goods vehicle

• Need push for

– Small buses
– Large Buses (may have to be
hybrid to begin with)

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 25

 R&D Required
• Development of Motors: BLDC, SR-motors
– Drive for motors
– Can enhance 10 to 15% efficiency
• Batteries
– Battery Cell: Chemistry
– Cell to Pack Design: Physics, Mechanics, Electronics
• Innovative Cell-packaging: Plate Thickness, interconnections,
thermal management
• BMS and Charging / discharging
– Partial charge – discharge, precise SOC and SOH monitoring
• Second Use of Battery
• Light-weight Materials, Integration
Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 26
 Why did all this become possible today?

• Cost Point: But why did the cost point become

comparable to AC now?
• Clues
– Power Electronics Integrated Circuits
– Digitisation of signal processing in power
– Coupling / transformers break the bound of 50 Hz
• Can now operate at 5000 Hz as easily
• Potential to impact all kinds of Industries
tomorrow?

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 27

 What Can we Achieve
• 50% of Power produced using Solar by 2030
– Decentralised solar and DC micro-grids to play important
role

• Most Transport using Electric Power by 2030

• Climate Change debate will be turned up-side down

– Huge opportunity for Make in India

Solar-DC and Electric Vehicles: An opportunity for India 28