| Work Detail |
A team of university researchers from Ecuador propose in a study the viability of photovoltaic pumping applied to the need to capture and distribute water in a rural population that lacks access to the conventional electrical network.
A multidisciplinary research team whose members come from different Ecuadorian universities have proposed to study the appropriate technologies to develop a photovoltaic pumping system for its future implementation in rural areas of Ecuador, based on a centrifugal pump, induction motor, variable speed drive, and powered by a photovoltaic array.
In the study " A sustainable and efficient alternative for water pumping in electrically isolated rural areas of Ecuador " (A sustainable and efficient alternative for water pumping in electrically isolated rural areas of Ecuador), published in Science Direct , they state that in the country South American "approximately 3% of the rural population lacks access to the conventional electrical network, so photovoltaic pumping systems can satisfy the need to capture and distribute water without emitting greenhouse gases."
For their work, among other aspects, they have used the modeling and simulation of the Simulink/MATLAB R2019B system, in addition to studying "two methods of tracking the maximum power point, the perturb and observe algorithm and the artificial neural network algorithm" .
In this regard, they maintain that "the simulation results show that when the technique of tracking the maximum power point of the artificial neural network is used, the system behaves better, being faster in the transitions and presenting less oscillations in the state stationary".
Among the conclusions, they explain that the modeling and simulation study was carried out using Matlab/Simulink R2019b and that a VSD was used as the main component for the control of electrical power.
Meanwhile, to control the flow of the pump, based on the maximum power extracted from the photovoltaic array, an integrated control system was implemented, consisting of an MPPT algorithm, a PI voltage regulator, a PI slip compensator, a controller constant V/f and a spatial vector modulation modulator.
In addition, two MPPT techniques based on P&O and RNA algorithms were tested, in which the simulation results showed that the RNA-MPPT technique was faster in the transient state and reduced oscillations in the steady state.
Finally, they conclude that “under the best irradiance (700 W/m2) and temperature (25 °C) conditions, the PVPS supplies 100% of its capacity (125 gpm). In the worst conditions of irradiance (150 W/m2) and temperature (40 °C), the PVPS supplies 40% of its capacity (50 gpm). However, the pumping system continues to supply water even with unfavorable levels of irradiance and temperature”. |
