DESIGN AND CONTROL OF CONVERTERS FOR SOLAR WATER PUMPING APPLICATION

Abstract

This thesis presents designing and modelling of water pumping system powered by solar energy and comprising of BLDC motor drive. It manifests the performance comparison between Zeta, Sepic and Cuk converter based output conditioning of SPV array as well. As the solar insolation level is not constant, SPV array output is controlled using Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) along DC-DC converter in order to ensure maximum power usage from SPV array. MPPT is implemented using Incremental Conductance (INC)

algorithm along with Zeta, Sepic and Cuk converters to power BLDC motor drive. The DC- DC converters along with the entire simulation are analyzed for peak insolation level as well

as varying insolation level and comparison has been performed on the basis of performance characteristics. The BLDC motor is fed using a six-pulse converter which is controlled using Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) technique which facilitate maximization of efficiency of whole system. The simulation results are obtained from model created in MATLAB (Simulink) environment.