Stand-alone PV water pumping system based on high-gain resonant inverter fed induction motor serving two-head for permanent water supply

A vast community of developing countries, like India, is still deprived of a proper water supply system. Such communities often depend on hand-pumps, ponds, and ravines for their daily water needs. Government-subsidized PV-based water pumps have emerged as a boon for such communities. But intermittent nature of solar irradiation and unavailability at night time poses a big challenge. To mitigate this challenge, the present article proposes a stand-alone PV-based induction motor-driven water pumping system serving a dual-head, that is, an overhead storage tank and ground level supply. A single-stage three-phase high-gain resonant inverter (HGRI) is proposed for driving the induction motor. A back-ended wide bandgap (WBG) device-based boost converter is used to extract maximum power from PV by employing the MPPT algorithm. HGRI injects sinusoidal current to the induction motor while operating it through PV power matched modified V/f control algorithm, thus minimizing the torque ripple. HGRI coupled with boost converter provides a high-gain voltage boost at the output; enabling wide input voltage operation, which increases the operability of the system in high as well as low irradiation level. The practicality of the system is validated on a laboratory-developed hardware test bed with a 1.5HP induction motor.

Automated summary

The article introduces a stand-alone PV-based induction motor-driven water pumping system, which aims to provide a reliable water supply solution for water-deprived communities in developing countries. By utilizing a high-gain resonant inverter and boost converter, the system is able to improve efficiency and operability, with validation conducted in a laboratory setting.