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Development of Bidirectional Net Meter in Grid

Connected Solar PV System for Domestic
Consumers

Conference Paper · April 2016

DOI: 10.1109/ICEETS.2016.7582897

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 Development of Bidirectional Net Meter in Grid Connected Solar PV
System for Domestic Consumers
K. Maharaja, P. Pradeep Balaji, S. Sangeetha, M. Elakkiya
maharaja.eee@srit.org, pradeepbalaji.eee@srit.org, sangeetha.eee@srit.org, elakkiya.eee@srit.org
Abstract— Solar energy is inexhaustible, available
abundant in nature and free from pollution. The solar
photovoltaic (PV) systems are a perfect solution for urban
residential areas since the system is noiseless. The main
problem with solar energy is its intermittency. In order to have
reliable power, storage batteries are required in case of off-
grid system thus it increases the overall cost of a system. In
case of grid connected solar PV system the demand can be
satisfied by using solar energy and the energy drawn from grid
without using batteries. In this system, if the solar PV panel
produce surplus power, then that has to be supplied to the grid
and the exported surplus power must be accounted. The
energy meter has to account for imported power from the grid
to consumer system and the exported power from the
consumer system to grid. In this paper bidirectional net meter
in grid connected solar PV system for domestic consumers is
proposed that keeps track of the difference between the
electricity imported from grid and the surplus energy or
exported electricity to grid. The proposed bidirectional net
meter consists of voltage and current measurement circuit
which measures the instantaneous voltage and current
respectively. It consists of arduino uno which acts as the
processing unit and LCD display to display the net energy at
regular intervals. Experimental results show the accuracy in
calculating the net energy of the system.
Keywords—Solar energy; solar photovoltaic systems; net
meter; net energy
I. INTRODUCTION
Energy is considered to be an important commodity for
development of any country. The world’s economic growth
is placing enormous demand on its energy resources. The
energy gap between generation and demand has to be
balanced by incorporating renewable power generation to an
existing conventional power generation. The technological
innovation and environmental incentives are changing the
face of electricity generation and transmission. Centralized
generating facilities are giving way to smaller, more
distributed generation partially due to the loss of traditional
economics of scale. Most emerging technologies such as
micro turbines, photovoltaic, fuel cells and wind energy
conversion system have lower emissions have the potential
to have lower cost negating traditional economies of scale
[1]-[2].
Renewable power generation has become an ultimatum
in recent years. In recent times many energy experts,
scientists, engineers and activists actively promote a 100%
renewable energy vision. The recent reports suggest that, we
have already used almost 2/3 of our carbon budget and at
the current projected rate; this entire budget will be used by
the year 2040. So it is essential that we move rapidly
towards a renewable energy. The solar photovoltaic (PV)
978-1-4673-9925-8/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
generation is becoming more important as a renewable
energy source since it offers many advantages such as no
fuel cost, no noise, no pollution and less maintenance [3]-
[4]. Net energy metering requires the meter to measure two
quantities, (i) Energy delivered by the Electric Distribution
Company to the consumer (Imported energy) and (ii)
Energy delivered by the consumer to the Electric
Distribution Company (Exported energy). In this paper,
bidirectional net meter is developed to calculate to display
the difference between imported and exported energy [5]-
[6].
II. SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS
A. Solar PV technology
The applications of Solar PV power systems can be split
into four main categories:
Off - grid domestic;
Off - grid non-domestic;
Grid - connected distributed;
Grid - connected centralized.
The main components of a PV power plant are PV
modules, mounting (or tracking) systems, inverters and
transformers. Solar PV modules are made up of PV cells,
which are most commonly manufactured from silicon but
other materials are also available. Cells can be based on
either wafers (manufactured by cutting wafers from a solid
ingot block of material) or “thin film” deposition of material
over low cost substrates. In general, silicon-based crystalline
wafers provide high efficiency solar cells but are relatively
costly to manufacture, whereas thin film cells provide a
cheaper alternative but are less efficient.
In general, good quality PV modules are expected to have
a useful life of 25 to 30 years, although their performance
will steadily degrade over this period. Selecting the correct
module is of fundamental importance to a PV system,
keeping in mind the numerous internationally accepted
standards. When assessing the quality of a module for any
specific project, it is important to assess its specifications,
certifications and performance record besides the track
record of the manufacturer. PV modules must be mounted
on a structure. This helps to keep them oriented in the
correct direction and provides them with structural support
and protection mounting structures may be either fixed or
tracking. Since fixed tilt mounting systems are simpler,
cheaper and have lower maintenance requirements than
tracking systems, they are the preferred option for countries
with a nascent solar market and with limited indigenous
manufacturers of tracking technology (such as India) [1]-
[2].
PV modules are generally connected together in series to
produce strings of modules of a higher voltage. These
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strings may then be connected together in parallel to positive voltage because the Arduino reads only positive
produce a higher current DC input to the inverters. Inverters voltages. The output from the level shifter is given to the
are solid state electronic devices that convert DC electricity port1of the Arduino. Fig.2 shows the voltage measurement
generated by the PV modules into AC electricity, suitable circuit.
for supply to the grid. In addition, inverters can also perform
a range of functions to maximize the output of a PV plant
[7]-[8]. In general, there are two main classes of inverters:
central inverters and string inverters. Central inverters are
connected to a number of parallel strings of modules. String
inverters are connected to one or more series strings. While
numerous string inverters are required for a large plant,
individual inverters are smaller and more easily maintained
than a central inverter. While central inverters remain the
configuration of choice for most utility-scale PV projects, Fig. 2. Voltage measurement circuit
both configurations have their pros and cons. Central
inverters offer high reliability and ease of installation. String 2) Current Measurement Circuit: The current
inverters, on the other hand, are cheaper to manufacture, measuring circuit consists of an amplifier circuit and level
simpler to maintain and can give enhanced power plant shifter circuit. The output from the current sensor is given to
performance on some sites. the filter circuit to mitigate the ripples and then it is given to
the amplifier circuit. The amplified signal is given to the
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM AND DESCRIPTION
level shifter circuit which is fed to Arduino (A1). Fig.3
Net meter is used to measure the net energy between the shows the current measurement circuit.
grid to load and the excess energy from any renewable
energy sources that fed to the grid [9]-[13]. The proposed
system consists of a voltage and current measuring circuit,
power supply unit, amplifiers (Op-amp IC 741), regulators
(LM 7809) and processing unit. The voltage and current
measuring circuit feeds the corresponding instantaneous
values of voltage and current as an input to Arduino.
Arduino calculates the net energy by using instantaneous
values of voltage and current. The net output energy is
displayed through LCD which is interfaced with Arduino.
Fig.1 shows the block diagram of proposed net meter. Fig. 3. Current Measurement Circuit
3) Power Supply Circuit: The 230V AC supply is
given to the centre tapped step-down transformer. The step-
down transformer converts 230V AC to 9V AC. The bridge
rectifier circuit converts AC to DC. The output from the
bridge rectifier is given to the voltage regulators to get 5V
and 9V respectively.

Fig. 1. Block diagram

A. Electrical Circuits Fig 4. Power Supply Circuit

1) Voltage Measurement Circuit: The AC supply is

given to the 12-0-12 transformer with the current rating of 1
amps. In voltage measuring circuit, a step-down transformer
converts 230V AC to 12V AC. The input of 12V AC is
given to the potential divider circuit to reduce the voltage to
5V AC. The 5V AC is given to the level shifter to get the
4) Processing Unit: The Arduino is an interactive
system that through the use of hardware and software can
interact with its environment. The proposed system uses
Arduino (Type of ATmega 328) as processing unit. The
input to the Arduino is fed from voltage and current

47
measuring circuit which process the input data and a) Test performance - From Grid to Load: When the
calculates the net output energy by using appropriate energy is transferred from grid to load (import) the energy is
software coding. The output of Arduino is displayed calculated and updated for every 4 seconds. The updated
through LCD which is interfaced with Arduino. Table 1 value is displayed through LCD. The recorded energy is
shows the specifications of Arduino (Atmega 328) noted and listed below in Table II. Fig.6 shows the plot
between imported energy and time.
TABLE I. SPECIFICATIONS OF ARDUINO
TABLE II. ENERGY MEASURED - FROM GRID TO LOAD
Microcontroller ATmega 328
S. No. Time (Sec) Energy (Wh)
Operating Voltage 5V 1 60 1.01
2 120 2.00
Input Voltage
7-12V 3 180 2.99
(recommended)
4 240 3.98
Input Voltage (limits) 6-20V 5 300 4.99

14 (of which 6 provide PWM

Digital I/O Pins
output)
Analog Input Pins 6
DC Current per I/O Pin 40 mA
DC Current for 3.3V
50 mA
Pin
32 KB (ATmega328) of which 2
Flash Memory
KB used by bootloader
Fig. 6. Plot for Imported Energy
SRAM 2 KB (ATmega328) a) Test Performance – From Solar panel to Grid: To
EEPROM 1 KB (ATmega328) test the proposed system to calculating export of energy
from solar to grid, the load of 60 W is considered as grid
Clock Speed 16 MHz and instead of solar grid is considered as source of supply.
when the energy is transferred from solar to grid (export)
the energy delivered is calculated and subtracted from the
IV. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS import and displayed is listed below in Table III. Fig.7
shows the plot between exported energy and time.
A 60 W incandescent lamp is considered as the load.
When it is switched on by the supply either with grid or
TABLE III. ENERGY MEASURED - FROM SOLAR PANEL TO GRID
with solar, the voltage and current is measured and fed to
the Arduino. The energy is calculated and displayed at S. No. Time (Sec) Energy (Wh)
regular intervals of 4 seconds in LCD. Fig.5 shows the 1 60 4.01
overall hardware setup of proposed bidirectional net meter. 2 120 3.03
3 180 2.05
4 240 1.02
5 300 0.01

Fig .5. Overall Hardware Setup

Fig. 7. Plot for Exported Energy

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 V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the hardware configuration of net meter in
grid connected solar PV system for domestic consumers has
been designed and successfully implemented to calculate the
net difference between imported and exported energy. This
proposed model is simple to build with good accuracy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank SNR Sons Charitable
Trust, Dr. R. Joseph Xavier, Principal and Sri Ramakrishna
Institute of Technology for their support and
encouragement. We would like to thank Ms. K. Mekala, Ms.
R. Nagananthini, Ms. K. Pradeepha and Ms. S. Sathya for
their valuable contribution in completion of the project.
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Mr. K. Maharaja has obtained his B.E
degree in Electrical and Electronics
Engineering from Anna University,
Chennai in 2010. He received his M.E in
Power Systems Engineering from Anna
University, Chennai in 2012. At present he
is working as an Assistant Professor in
Department of EEE at Sri Ramakrishna Institute of
Technology, Coimbatore. His area of research area includes
renewable energy and Microgrid.
Mr. P. Pradeep Balaji has obtained his B.E
degree in Electrical and Electronics
Engineering from Anna University,
Chennai in 2011. He received his M.E in
Power Systems Engineering from Anna
University, Chennai in 2014. At present he
is working as an Assistant Professor in
Department of EEE at Sri Ramakrishna Institute of
Technology, Coimbatore. His area of research includes
power system reliability and renewable energy.
Ms. S. Sangeetha has obtained her BE
degree in Electrical and Electronics
Engineering from Bharath Institute of
Science and Technology, Tamilnadu in
2001. She received her ME in Power
Systems Engineering from Sona
College of Technology, Tamilnadu in
2006. At present she is working as an Assistant Professor in
Department of EEE at Sri Ramakrishna Institute of
Technology, Coimbatore. She is pursuing her Ph.D in the
field of renewable energy.
Ms. M. Elakkiya has obtained her BE
degree in Electrical and Electronics
Engineering from Anna University,
Chennai in 2013. She received her ME in
Power Systems Engineering from Anna
University, Chennai in 2015. At present
she is working as an Assistant Professor in
Department of EEE at Sri Ramakrishna Institute of
Technology, Coimbatore. Her area of research includes
power systems.
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