Design and Implementation of a Switching

Converters Based Power System for Regions Victim

to Frequent Power Outage
Dhiman Chowdhury, Student Member, IEEE, Md. Feroz Hossain, Mohammad Sharif Miah, Md. Marzan Hossain,
Md. Nazim Uddin Sheikh, Md. Mostafijur Rahman and Md. Mehedi Hasan
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208, U.S.A.
E-mail: dhiman@email.sc.edu

Abstract—This paper documents a design and implication of proposed in this paper which aims at feeding 230 V ac to
an efficient and low cost power electronic converters based power the low power utility loads not exceeding 250 w. The energy
supply system to the localities which are prone to frequent resource for the overall system is a battery of 12 V which
power outage and poor on-grid voltage regulation. The proposed
system offers a grid integrated power circuit producing 230 V is to fed into a power inverter circuit to generate ac power
ac (mains R.M.S. voltage in Bangladesh and South Asia) from signal. The developed power supply system is grid connected
a 12 V dc source. The presented system consists of a grid which yields to the consistent charging process of the battery
interfaced battery charging unit which incorporates a 230 V-to- and an automatic transfer application of the power delivery
12 V step down transformer and a rectifier fed dc link step up towards load between the mains line and the developed power
(24 V) converter. The battery charging unit comprises galvanic
isolation and a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) controlled Boost system. The load is generally connected to the mains supply
converter to ensure protection and a suitable charging voltage and in case of grid failure, load is automatically connected to
level respectively. The power inverter has been constructed using the developed power system.
semiconductor switches and transformer action for voltage and For certain applications, many power converter topologies
power transformation. During on-grid condition, the receiving- with relevant control mechanisms offering considerable power
end utilities and the converter based power unit are fed power
by the mains line. During off-grid condition, the customized delivery to loads have been reported. In [1] a high voltage
power unit serves the utilities and the transfer from grid to repetitive square wave generator for inverter fed motors has
the customized power unit is automatic and instantaneous. The been presented. To synthesize a 3-level output waveform
transfer application has been substantiated by a changeover relay using a single dc source, a novel multilevel inverter struc-
and there is a switching relay circuit to control and prevent the ture has been proposed in [2]. There are several works to
over-charging phenomenon of the battery. The overall system
has been implemented on a base power of 250 w and the testbed improve the performance of the grid interfaced inverters like
contains load banks of different ratings varying from 60 w-to-192 a hysteresis+Proportional Integral (PI) current controller for
w and a CPU+Display unit rated with 250 w respectively. The PWM inverters has been reported in [3]. In this follow-up, to
system is oriented to supply power in case of outage and thereby minimize harmonics produced by high power inverters, dual
power supply unit has been tested on the basis of duration PWM inverter topology has been proposed in [4].
of considerable power transfer to the loads. The laboratory
assessment and test results corroborate the reliability and cost- For seamless transfer during intentional islanding operations,
effectiveness of the proposed power system. an interactive inverter and its current control algorithm have
Index Terms—Automatic power transfer, changeover relay, been documented in [5]. To efficiently substantiate power
converters, cost effective, frequent power outage, grid integrated transformation from a single dc power source an innovative
power circuit, PWM, reliability, switching circuit Z-series inverter has been presented in [6]. To efficaciously
control single phase grid connected inverters, a modified
I. I NTRODUCTION hysteresis PWM strategy and a discontinuous PWM technique
There are many regions in the world which are subject have been reported in [7] and [8] respectively.
to regular events of grid power failure and disruption and Practical implication of indirect current control algorithm
especially in South Asia, the coastal and hilly localities in optimized for utility interactive inverters has been presented
Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Myanmar face frequent power in [9]. To mitigate voltage disturbances of grid connected
outage and poor voltage regulation and high transmission PWM voltage source inverters, a novel control scheme has
losses. Power electronic converters can provide alternate and been proposed in [10]. A nonlinear PWM controlled grid tied
sustainable solution to grid power unavailability for supporting photovoltaic inverter circuit with limited inductor current has
electrical utilities. A framework of a switching converters been presented in [11]. To design and analyze a small power
based reliable and cost reasonable power system has been system infrastructure, different theoretical and application

978-1-5386-6133-8/18/$31.00 2018 IEEE

 Fig. 1. Layout of the developed converters based power system Fig. 2. Grid tied rectifier fed dc link converter (battery charging circuit)

prospects are supposed to be studied and in this pursuit, several

simulation techniques for small scale standalone systems have and utility loads. Circuit-to-load connection relay, CR2, is the
been articulated in [12]. relay terminal connected to the inverter output and it bridges
This paper subsumes a power supply system in which a the connection between the customized power supply unit and
rectifier fed Boost converter has been structured to provide utility loads. CR1 and CR2 get activated alternatively and in
a suitable charging scope for the battery. There is a PWM general case, CR2 operates when mains power is unavailable.
generation circuit to control the switching operation of the Charger connection relay, CCR, is basically a relay switching
converter. An intelligible relay switching circuit has been circuit to connect the battery terminal to the charger.
designed which determines the connectivity of the battery to Fig.2 presents a rectifier fed dc link converter circuit which
the charger. If the battery voltage is at its rated nominal value, serves as the battery charging unit of the system. There is
the switching circuit disconnects the charger from the battery a step down transformer, T 1, to produce a 12V ac from
to provide over-voltage protection. mains line and then it is followed by a rectifier circuit with a
To test the power supply performance of the customized filter capacitor, Cdc, to produce a 12V unidirectional power
inverter, load banks of regular low power utilities and a critical signal. Then this 12V unidirectional power signal is fed into
load like a computer have been applied to the system. The no- a generic Boost converter circuit to produce a suitable voltage
load voltage, full load voltage, frequency of operation, voltage for charging the system battery. General purpose low and
waveform and duration of power supply sufficient to ensure medium power batteries should be charged by sources of 1.5-
maximum utility output have been evaluated. The cost incurred to-2 times voltage of their respective nominal ratings. In the
for implementing a laboratory prototype is 26.96 $ which proposed system, a battery rated with the nominal operating
asserts the cost effectiveness of the presented power system. voltage of 12V , 7.5A − h capacity and 9V cut-off voltage
An overview of the presented power supply system along has been used. The Boost converter has been controlled by a
with the design considerations and components’ specifications, fixed duty ratio (50%) PWM signal and it generates 24V dc to
laboratory end-results and their depiction, performance param- suitably charge the battery. The converter has been designed to
eters along with the overall cost analysis are documented in work in continuous conduction mode (CCM) maintaining the
this paper section-by-section. average inductor current is greater than the ripple component
of the inductor current and the values of inductance and
II. D ESCRIPTION OF THE D EVELOPED P OWER S UPPLY capacitance have been selected in a manner that the operation
S YSTEM never exits the boundary of critical conduction mode.
A grid interfaced power electronic converters based supply The specifications of the charger components are enlisted in
system has been presented in this paper with intelligible Table-I.
transfer switching operation from mains line to the customized The fixed duty ratio switching pulses to control the oper-
power circuit to feed utility loads in case of grid power failure. ation of Boost converter has been generated by analog IC
The switching operation has been implemented by changeover SG3525 which produces two alternating pulses of the same
relays following a DPDT switching structure. There is also frequency of 40kHz. In regard to maintain the trade-off
a relay switching circuit to disconnect the charger from the between switching loss and conduction loss of a switching
battery terminal in the state of its full rated operating voltage converter, 40kHz switching frequency has been optimized in
level so that battery can be protected from being over-charged the proposed system. The specific switching pulse generation
and over-heated. The overall power system has been designed circuit is presented in Fig.3. The battery voltage is used for
for supporting areas prone to regular grid failure events. biasing the PWM generation circuit.
In Fig.1, the power system layout has been presented. Direct The developed power inverter circuit which produces 230V
connection relay, CR1, is the relay terminal connected to the square wave ac from battery is shown in Fig.4. The design
mains power and it bridges the connection between grid line works using the switching characteristics of power semicon-
 TABLE I
S PECIFICATIONS OF THE C HARGER C OMPONENTS

Component Specifications
Name
Vgrid 230 V (mains R.M.S. voltage)
T1 230 V-to-12 V, 50 Hz iron core step-down
transformer with a turns ratio of v1
v2
= n1
n2
D1, D2, D3 & D4 GP60-005, 1000 V, 6 A power diodes
Cdc 47 µF, 50 V electrolytic capacitor
Lc 0.95 mH inductor made on a powder core
Qc IRFZ44N MOSFET with an absolute maxi-
mum on-resistance, Ron =17.5 mΩ and max-
imum drain current, ID = 49A
Do GP60-005, 1000 V, 6 A power diode
Co 10 µF, 160 V electrolytic capacitor
Vb 12 V battery voltage

Fig. 3. 40 kHz PWM signal generation circuit using SG3525

ductor devices and power transfer application of transformer.

The gates and bases of the switching devices are driven by
respective voltage and current quantities fed by the associated
resistive and capacitive branches.
The components’ specifications of the developed power in-
verter are enlisted in Table-II.
For automatic power transfer switching feature, changeover
electromechanical relay of DPDT configuration has been uti-
lized. A generic relay has two switching terminals and one
moving pole to switch from one terminal to another. In this
DPDT relay, the normally closed (NC) terminals are connected
to the inverter output terminals and the normally open (NO)
terminals are connected to the mains line terminals. The
moving poles are connected to the load terminals. In the de-
energized state, which means mains power is off, the load
terminals are connected to the NC or inverter output terminals.
In the energized state, which means mains power is available,
Fig. 4. Customized power inverter circuit to produce 230 V ac from the
the load terminals get automatically connected to the NO or battery
mains line terminals. Thereby the automatic power transfer is
transpired. The relay used in the proposed design has a transfer
rate of 3 − 5ms with a maximum current rating of 30A and a
maximum operating voltage of 250V . In Fig.5, the connection
of the changeover relay terminals is presented.
To control the charging flow process to the battery, a com-
parator circuit has been developed where reference voltage,
V ref , kept at 12V , is fed from the rectifier output and it is
connected to a non-inverted port and battery voltage, V bat
is connected to an inverted port of an op-amp, LM324. The
difference voltage, vdif f is [V ref −V bat] and the comparator
output voltage, V comp is −V sat = V − = 0, if V bat ≥ V ref
and is +V sat = V + = 12V , if V bat < V ref ; here V sat is
the saturation voltage. Fig.6 shows the comparator circuit. Fig. 5. Configuration of the changeover relay for automatic transfer switching
The comparator circuit is followed by a relay switching circuit from the mains power to the developed power supply system
of which the input is the comparator output voltage. When
V comp = 0V , there is no current flowing through the relay
and its pole, which is connected to the battery, is open to N-channel enhancement type MOSFET-IRF250. The biasing,
disconnect the battery from the charger’s terminal. When V dd, is fed from the rectifier output. Dr is a general purpose
V comp = 12V , a current flows through the relay to close the diode to freewheel the current. The anti-parallel diode, Dq
switch and the battery is connected to the charger. Fig.7 shows provides an alternate current path for the switch conduction
the relay switching circuit. The switch control device, Q, is an current and Cq = 1nF is used for snubber application.
 TABLE II
S PECIFICATIONS OF THE P OWER I NVERTER C OMPONENTS

Component Name Specifications

Vb 12 V battery voltage
M1 & M2 IRFZ44N MOSFETs with an absolute maxi-
mum on-resistance, Ron =17.5 mΩ and max-
imum drain current, ID = 49A
R1 & R2 680 Ω resistors
R11 & R22 12 kΩ resistors
C1 & C2 2.2 µF, 220 V electrolytic capacitors
B1 & B2 2N2222 low power bipolar transistors with
an absolute maximum collector current,
Ic = 800mA and a maximum dc current
gain, hF E = 300
T2 12 V-to-230 V, 400 w, 50 Hz iron core step- Fig. 8. Laboratory prototype of the power supply system
V1
up transformer with a turns ratio of V 2
=
N1
N2
Load load banks comprising utilities like incandes-
cent bulbs, CFLs, fan and critical load like
computer with variable power ratings from
60 w to 250 w

Fig. 9. Unfiltered output voltage of the rectifier

Fig. 6. Comparator circuit to determine the input of the charge controller of

the battery

Fig. 10. Generated PWM switching pulses

tion purpose, heat sinks have been used in the design of the
converters. For viewing the performance characteristics of the
proposed system, digital oscilloscope has been utilized.
Fig.9 presents the output power signal from the rectifier. This
Fig. 7. Relay switching circuit to control the charging process of the battery is the unfiltered version of the rectifier output containing
ripples. Fig.10 presents the generated PWM switching pulses
of 40kHz to control the operation of the Boost converter. Any
III. L ABORATORY R ESULTS AND A NALYSIS of these two pulses can be used for the switching application.
The developed power electronic converters based power Fig.11, Fig.12, Fig.13 and Fig.14 show the output voltage
supply system has been tested in the laboratory in terms of shapes of the power inverter for loads rated with 60w, 100w,
its practical load supportive features and duration of power 132w and 192w respectively. The experimentally obtained
supply for the respective maximum utilities. output voltage shapes are square wave signals.
In Fig.8, a laboratory prototype is shown. There is a cooling Table-III consists of the evaluated performance parameters
fan attached to the system prototype to annihilate the internal of the implemented system in terms of the inverter output
heat produced by the circuit components. For thermal protec- voltages for different loads and power supply durations in
Fig. 11. Performance observation for a 60 w utility: (a) Incandescent bulb (1); Fig. 13. Performance observation for a 132 w utility: (a) Incandescent bulb
(b) Load voltage waveform [picture is subject to a limited camera resolution] (1) + CFL (1); (b) Load voltage waveform [picture is subject to a limited
camera resolution]

Fig. 12. Performance observation for a 100 w utility: (a) Incandescent

bulb (1); (b) Load voltage waveform [picture is subject to a limited camera Fig. 14. Performance observation for a 192 w utility: (a) Incandescent bulb
resolution] (2) + CFL (1); (b) Load voltage waveform [picture is subject to a limited
camera resolution]

minutes for maximum utilities. Here maximum utility for a TABLE III
light is considered to be its full brightness level to 80% of P ERFORMANCE E VALUATION OF THE P ROPOSED P OWER S YSTEM FOR
the full brightness level and for a fan is considered to be D IFFERENT LOADS WITH A N O -L OAD I NVERTER VOLTAGE ,
Vno−load = 230V AND O PERATING F REQUENCY, f = 50Hz
its full rated speed to 80% of the full rated speed. For a
light, the brightness level has been determined according to Load Type (Quantity) Load Inverter Output Power Supply Du-
a viewer’s eyesight comfort level and for a fan, the speed has Power Voltage in Full ration for Maxi-
Rating (w) Load State, Vload mum Utility (Min-
been determined using a speedometer. For a critical load, a (V) utes)
computer comprising a CPU and a HD display unit has been Incandescent Bulb (1) 60 165 98
tested for back-up power supply and the developed system has Incandescent Bulb (1) 100 146 72
Incandescent Bulb (1) 132 133 57
provided a power back-up of 2 minutes to the computer. + CFL (1)
The cost effectiveness is a prominent feature of the presented Incandescent Bulb (2) 192 120 46
power supply system. The overall cost estimation has been + CFL (1)
enumerated in Table-IV which shows the total expense in- Fan (1) 100 139 63
CPU+Display unit (1) 250 104 02
curred is below 27 $. The customized power system is objected
to serve the regions facing frequent power failure and poor
voltage regulation. Such reasonable price of the developed
TABLE IV
system certainly enacts as a considerable alternative to grid C OST A LLOCATION OF THE D EVELOPED S YSTEM
power for feeding regular low power utility loads for a specific
time period. Subsystem Expenditure ($)
Battery 7.67
Charger & its Controller 5.45
IV. C ONCLUSION Inverter 10.20
Relay & Switching Circuit 3.64
A power electronic switching converters based power supply Total 26.96
system to feed utilities in the regions facing regular power
failure and inconsiderable voltage regulation is articulated
in this paper. The system layout consists of automatic and
efficient transfer switching application which substantiates The charging system is grid connected and is controlled by a
switching between the mains line and the customized power PWM switching pulse whereas the inverter circuit uses the
circuit. There is a battery charging system and a power inverter passive switching operations of semiconductor devices and
circuit to constitute the power block of the proposed system. power transformation capability of a specified transformer.
There is an intelligible relay circuit to control and prevent
the over-charging phenomenon of the battery. The laboratory
results affirm the reliable power delivery of this system to
the general low power required utilities. The overall cost
estimation of the system ascertains the cost effectiveness and
economic feasibility of the proposed work.
V. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors acknowledge Department of Electrical and Elec-
tronics Engineering (EEE), Daffodil International University,
Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh, for the financial support and labo-
ratory facilities to develop the proposed power supply system.
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