PV Balance of Systems –

India Challenges and Global

Benchmarking
 Su-Kam Power Systems
 An Indian MNC in Power back-up
industry
 Focus on 3 verticals – Inverters/UPS,
Batteries & Renewables
 Has 10,000 strong dealers / distributors
across country.
 Manufacturing units – 6; Employees -
2000
 23 Offices in India and one at Dubai.
 Investment from Reliance India Power
Fund (A JV between Reliance and
Tamasek Holdings).
 R&D recognized by CSIR, Govt of
India.
 65 Technology and Design patents in
India and US.
 Export to More than 50 countries.
 India’s Solar Market Classification
Sweet
Range Applications TAM
Spot
Rural Home Lighting,
20 million+ households,
Street Lighting,
Remote Village Electrification
0 - 250W 5-10W Lanterns,
program of MNRE covering
Emergency Lights,
about 10,000 villages
Lighting Retrofits etc

Residential, Small Entire Power back-up

250W-5KW (off-
1KW Commercial, SPV industry market, 4 million
grid)
Pumps inverters per year

Big Commercial,
5 - 50KW (roof- Telecom Towers, 150,000+ rural telecom
3-15KW
top, off-grid) Rural ATMs, Govt. towers, 50,000+ rural ATMs
Buildings

3 - 100KW (roof- 70% of commercial buildings

Big Commercial,
top, grid 3-25KW in 2030 are to be built from
Govt. Buildings
connected) now to 2030.

National Solar Mission –

>100KW, IPP, Independent Power
100KW-1MW 1000MW by 2013,
Grid-connected Plants
20,000MW by 2022
 Solar Applications – DC / Low Power Apps

Solar
Charger
Controller

 Quality of charge controllers are mostly not

good
 Mostly non-PWM. No multi-step charging
 No Temp. compensation of batteries
5” Ceiling Retrofits
 No State of Charge information

Essentially a Cost Vs Performance dilemma!

 Standalone Solar Power Systems for Households
High-efficiency charge
controllers
Low-cost MPPT
Mains
Energy
Source

Energy
Conversion
AC
Solar Distribution
Solar PV Panel for
PV Array Charger
Inverter Load
Controller
Utilization

Loads

Battery

Battery Life – Electronics Life – 10+ yrs

1200-1500 cycles Efficiency – 96%+
@ 60-70% DoD Controlled DoD, Top-up Charging, Equalization

All of above with wider temperature / moisture /

dust / handling tolerances
 Off-grid Solar PV Systems (Telecom, ATM …)
DG EB Grid

Solar panel

SMPS AMF Panel Controller &

Solar Charge GSM/GPRS
Controller Modem

Battery bank Change Over

switch

DCDB ACDB
Inverter

DC Load AC Load

Control & Measurement Bus

Battery Management & High Reliability, N+1 Remote Monitoring,

Control System. Redundancy NOCC Center
High Efficiency Modularity Alerts and Triggers
 Roof-top Grid Connected Systems

Islanding – Creating Grid Stability

Net Metering
Virtual Grid Feed-in Tariff
Grid Availability
DG Set compatibility
 Su-Kam Solar Energy Products
1. Solar Home Lighting System.
2. Stand-alone Solar Power Systems for households.
3. Grid-Connected Solar Power Systems for
household and small establishments
4. Solar Powered Street Lighting Systems.
5. Solar Powered Water Heaters for households
6. Solar Powered Tube-wells.
7. Solar Powering and Management Systems for
Cellular Mobile Towers.
8. Solar Powering and Management Systems for Rural
ATM machines.
Su-Kam’s Completed Project – Rural Solar Home
Lighting Systems

• 1.2 – 3.6W DC Consumption

• 100 - 300 Lumens
Su-Kam’s Ongoing Projects – Solar LED Lighting
Solutions
Essential Features :
•More than 3 days of autonomy
•Automatic Dusk to Dawn Controller (DTDC) / Timer
operation
•Highly efficient charge controller
•Temperature compensated set points
•Weather proof luminaries
•All necessary protection
•UV stabilized bowl and canopy
•Anodized aluminum reflectors

• 7.2 – 14.4W DC
Consumption
• 600-1200 Lumens
 Su-Kam’s Completed Projects –
Standalone Solar Power Systems for Households

PV Module

Mains
LOAD
SCC

Solar Inverter LOAD

Available in 250VA,
400VA, 650VA, 850VA,
1500VA packages!
Battery
 Su-Kam’s Completed Projects –
Standalone Solar Power Systems for Households
Su-Kam’s Ongoing Projects –
MCD Aap Ke Dwaar

Su-Kam Solar PCU Range: 1 to 10 KVA

Solar powering of 2000 Information Kiosks for

Municipal Corporation of Delhi, New Delhi
 Su-Kam’s Completed Projects ...

6 KW Hybrid Solar Powering

of Telecom Site in Uganda Power Back-up
for
Telecom

Major Clients:
 Su-Kam’s Ongoing Projects –
Solar Powering of ATM Machines

State Bank of Patiala ATM, Sangrur, Punjab – Turnkey

Solution for Hybrid Solar-Grid powering.
Su-Kam’s Completed Projects ...

40 KW Solar Inverter at Brahma Kumaris Ashram, Manesar

Three Phase Solar Inverter Range with Grid Charging: 10 to 100 KW
 Su-Kam’s Ongoing Projects –
Grid-Connected Solar Power Systems for
household and small establishments

Grid-tied Solar Inverter

Grid-tied Solar Inverter Available

from 3 KW – 10 KW
 Su-Kam Solar Products
Solar Panels Solar HF Inverters Solar Charge Solar Power Conditioning
Controllers Units (PCU)

SMF Battery Solar Inverter 3P Solar Inverter 1P Monitoring Software

(7.2 – 200AH) (till 100KW) (till 10KW)
Su-Kam’s Valued Clients
 Testing Standards / Accreditation Agencies
Testing Accreditation
NABL, Solar Energy Center,
Fraunhofer Institute, Intertek
G83/1 Engineering Recommendation
For Small Scale Embedded Generator
Main focus on
 Power Quality Parameters
 Voltage & Frequency Range
 Flicker, DC injection
 Harmonics and PF
Loss of Mains test
Under / Over Voltage: 207V / 264V
Under / Over Frequency: 47Hz /
50.5Hz
Customize the PV Inverter testing standards for India
IEC PV BoS Standards
PV Systems - Characteristics of
the Utility Interface. <10KW
IEC PV systems connected to low
61727 voltage grid.
Safety of Static Inverters.
Comparable to UL 1741.
IEC Mechanical and Electrical
62109 safety aspects
Testing procedure of Islanding
IEC Prevention Methods for Utility-
62116 Interactive PV Inverters
Electrical Installations of
IEC Buildings: Requirements for
60364 Solar PV power supply systems
 Focus on new technologies
• Multi-string inverters - a single inverter to
convert power input from several module
strings, reducing inverter costs for PV
systems.
• Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) for
each string, ensuring maximum energy
yield.
• Modularity and N+1 redundancy
• Improve MTBF to give better reliability
• Improved Higher KVA product range.
• Minor KVA adjustments in the lower end
inverters.
• HF Solar Inverters
• Micro inverters for maximizing the
efficiency.
• Grid Interactive solar Inverters to be a part
of the solar Power generation play – will be
the dominant business in the coming years
 Solar Inverter – R&D, Future Needs
R&D:
 “Center of Excellence in PV” at IIT-Mumbai - Network of CoEs
 MNRE’s PV Research Council – Industry Experts, Scientists,
Researchers, Reps …
 CIIE at IIM, Ahmadabad
 Innumerable Solar start-ups
Future Needs:
 Need to create critical mass of researchers
 Fill the link between lab to plant
 Pre-competitive collaborative research thru’ open domain or
consortium model
 Cost Effective Power Electronics – MPPTs, Micro Inverters.
 Special Focus on Batteries and storage technologies
 Innovative solutions – esp. Business models …
1st Generation – Early adoption, Technology proofing. 2nd Generation –
Repeatability, Efficiency. 3rd Generation – Scaling-up.
 Summing Up …
OPPORTUNITY:
• India’s National Solar Mission: To set up a capacity of solar
power generation of 20000 MW by 2022
• Seen as the long term solution to India’s power deficit
• Total Capital Outlay at Today’s Prices for adding 20,000MW
Capacity is INR 4 lakh crores (USD 90 Billion)!
• Share of Electronics (Balance of System) alone will be Rs
80000 Crores (US $20 Billion)!

CHALLENGES:
• Need unique solution for India for grid-tie inverters. Grid is unstable and isn’t
available most of the time. Doesn’t comply to any of the known specifications.
• Need Solar Charge Controllers that can take advantage of the existing Inverters /
HUPS that are already installed for off-grid applications.
• Need low-cost, high-efficiency charge controllers (MPPT?) that can work with wide-
variety of batteries.
• Inverters (Solar / Otherwise) are still designed with chips designed for motor control
application. Need Inverter specific solution (Input PFC, Battery
monitoring/algorithms, Charge current/mains sense, Power device drivers etc)
Thanks