2019 IEEE International Conference on Innovative Research and Development (ICIRD)

Performance Analysis of Solar-Powered Submersible

DC Water Pump
Raden Adhitya Ardiansyah
Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas
Indonesia, Kampus Baru UI Depok
16424
Muhammad Luthfi
Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas
Indonesia, Kampus Baru UI Depok
16424
Chairul Hudaya*
Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas
Indonesia, Kampus Baru UI Depok
16424
*c.hudaya@eng.ui.ac.id

Abstract—In a rural area, where electricity supply is limited, which is used in the second system, and needs more
water accessibility for the society generally becomes a major maintenance.
concern. Here, we proposed the alternative solution which is an However, in this case, we need to know about the
integrated solar-powered water pump system using the DC performance of the pump itself when implementing in a rural
concept. We investigated the optimum condition and the power area for a long time in the second system. Optimization helps to
conversion before and after the installation of photovoltaic (PV) utilize the electrical power system economically and efficiently
panels. The correlation between the total water lift and flow rate
in operating solar-powered pump which is develop sizing is
has been determined as one the parameter designing the PV panel
integration by assuming the total water lift as independent
necessary. We used a water pump with DC systems to get less
variables (H0, H1, H2, and H3 with 1-meter increment) and the loss compared to pump with AC systems that need an inverter to
electrical power as a dependent variable (the power supply only change DC power from photovoltaic (PV) to AC power (pump
comes from battery). Using these schemes, we calculated the load) [5, 6]. For creating the system in a more portable size, the
efficiency of these four different conditions were 2.73%, 12.21%, submersible pump has been chosen because it uses less energy
18.44%, and 15.34%, respectively. Meanwhile, after PV panel for moving water into the pump and it is easy to install.
integration in which the total head H1 =1.33 meter as dependent
We investigate a DC-based solar pump system to be
variables and PV modules as independent variables, the efficiency
implemented for household scale applications. It was expected
of the submersible Water DC pump powered by a PV module of
4x30 Wp and 6x30 Wp reached 11.92% and 11.78% subsequently.
that a designed system, in the case of photovoltaic (PV)
integration, was suitable for a specific demand. This designed
Keywords— Submersible Pumps; Solar-Powered; Renewable scheme allows us to adjust the cost of building up the entire
Energy; Direct Current Systems system by calculating the total head and its capacity. There are
two essential parameters that need to be known. First, the total
I. INTRODUCTION head needs to be known to determine the flow rate and the
Water accessibility is mandatory for society because water is electrical power needed to operate the DC solar pump normally.
one of the key components of life support. With the increased These two factors are very useful to estimate the efficiency of
population growth, demand for water accessibility and the system. Further analysis of these factors enabling us to build
electrification for rural areas are also increased. One of the a DC-based solar system more efficiently such as reducing the
solutions is by using renewable energy as an energy source. We cost [7, 8].
proposed a solar-powered pump where it will be used for II. EXPERIMENTAL WORKS
providing water in remote areas. The main advantages of solar-
powered pump systems are less maintenance, ease of
installation, portable, reliability, and flexibility of water usage
on a small scale. Solar-powered pump mainly consists of
photovoltaic (PV) array, inverter, and controller, motor, pump,
and water storage tank [1-4].
There are two types of system configuration. First,
photovoltaic (PV) connects directly to the pump and second,
photovoltaic (PV) connects to the battery before it connects to
the pump. The first system is able to pump water only during
the day times or the availability of the sun. Meanwhile, the
second system is able to pump water anytime when needed
because solar power that comes from PV functioned as charging
electrical power to the battery. Generally, most of the
implementation used is the first type system for optimal cost
Fig 1. Configuration of Solar-Powered Submersible DC Water Pump
analysis because nowadays, the battery is quite expensive,

978-1-5386-5283-1/18/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

 To get a better picture of the effect of electrical power on the closed to 0% SOC. The location implemented in Jakarta (March
entire system operation, Fig. 1 illustrates the schematic diagram to April 2019) with 106.872983 Longitude, 6.284884 Latitude
of the DC-based pump embedded with a PV panel. The system during 09.00-14.00 WIB when the sun is at its peak.
model is constructed by PV panels (n x 30 Wp PV modules
Polycrystalline) and battery (VRLA 20 Ah) as power supply, To estimate the electrical power being generated by PV
submersible DC pump (12 V), and solar charge controller modules. E.q 2 is used:
(MPPT T20) as its interface system [9]. To ensure the system
works properly, the DC water pump should be supplied by a Pin =GxA (2)
steady electrical power source and the availability of water is ௉௢௨௧
 = x 100% (3)
sufficient enough to stimulate the real condition. In detail, the ୔୧୬
DC pump performance test was carried out by duplicating such Pout =  x Pin (4)
situation where the water supply continuously circulated.
Where, G = Water discharge (m3/s)
We examined two methods to analyze the performance of
Pin = Power Input (Watt)
the DC pump which configurated with and without PV panel as
an additional power source with battery. There are 4 tools that  = Pump Efficiency (%)
we used, first, Multimeter Data-Log to see VSOC and VDOD; A = Area (m)
second, Watt Meter to observe the power from PV panel, Pout = Power Output (Watt)
battery, and DC pump; third, Flow Meter to see water flow rate III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
through the pipe, and; fourth Solar Power Meter to see intensity
of solar radiation as solar power [10-14]. A. DC Pump without PV Panel Support
A. DC Pump without PV Panel Support The battery was selected according to the DC pump
In the first scenario where DC pump is not supported by the specification in its datasheet where it is chosen to accommodate
PV panel, to determine the correlation between total head and 2-3 hours DC pump operation in the absence of PV modules
flow rate, we have to classified the parameter into two categories support. The SOC of VRLA battery could be monitored through
where total head as the independent variables (H0, H1, H2 and its operational voltage which proportionally decreased to the
H3, approximately 1-meter increment, that of 0.27 m, 1.33 m, battery capacity.
2.36 m, 3.41 m) and electrical power source as the dependent
variable (power supply only comes from battery). The Initial battery current is around 6 A to operate the DC
pump which will continuously run until reaching out the
To observe the performance of these scenarios, the DC pump maximum current of the DC pump within the first 10 minutes.
is continuously operated by discharging the battery closed to 0%
After reaching out to these conditions, the current is steadily
State of Charge (SOC). In this case, the battery which has been
decreased by the time as can be seen Fig. 2a.
used has as criteria of the highest of 13.8 V (100% SOC) and
10.8 V (100% Depth of Discharge (DOD)).
To calculate the pump efficiency, E.q. 1 is used:
୕୶ୌ౪౥౪౗ౢ ୶୥୶஡
= ୔୭୵ୣ୰୔୳୫୮
(1)

Where, Q = Water discharge (m3/s)

 = Water Density (997 Kg/m3)
 = Pump Efficiency (%)
H = Total Head (m)
g = Gravity (9.807 m/s2)

*Total head (H) is calculated by summing up the value of static

head (Hs), dynamic head (Hd), and joint head (Hj)

B. DC Pump with PV Panel Support

In the second scenario where DC pump is supported by the
PV panel, to determine the correlation between additional
electrical power source and flow rate, we have to classified the
parameter into two categories where PV modules as the
independent variables power (4x30 Wp and 6x30 Wp) and the
dependent variable is H1 = 1.33 m.
To examine the performance of these scenarios, we used the
same methods as the first scenario to discharging the battery
Fig 2. Current in Time (A) Battery (B) Submersible DC Pump
 In Fig. 2, we clearly distinguished the readout current of the water leakage at junction pipe and the mechanical friction
measurement between battery output (Fig.2a) and DC pump of flow rate meter between the inlet water and the rotator.
consumption (Fig.2b). We suspected that this deviation caused
by energy loss due to wiring the component.

Fig 5. Flow Rate in Time Submersible DC Water Pump

The efficiency calculation depends on the water flow rate,

the total head value, and the DC pump power consumption
which is represented by the pump performance curve (PPC).
Even though the actual water flow rate is quite different from
the DC pump datasheet, it still is able to estimate the PPC to
recommend the operational total head range based on its
maximum efficiency. The result of efficiency evaluation for
various total head values as independent variables indicates the
recommended total head of 2.36 m of H2 to achieve the
maximum efficiency of 18.44% (Fig.5a). The efficiency graph
emphasizes that the maximum efficiency of the DC pump lies
somewhere in between the maximum and the minimum value
of the total head and the flow rate. It means that the maximum
Fig 3. Voltage in Time (A) Battery (B) Submersible DC Water Pump
set up of the total head the efficiency closed to zero because the
water flow rate reaches its minimum value and vice versa. In
The voltage assessment of either the battery or the DC pump
general, the electrical power, which is consumed by the DC
reveals the identical trends in the current measurement. The
pump, deviates below 2% from the power source (battery).
voltage is linearly decreased by the time without load variation
that appeared to be a similar value as shown in Fig. 3. In
Battery capacity (either SOC or DOD) could be monitored
addition, it can be concluded that the DC pump power
by its operational voltage as voltage setting of SCCs (Fig.5b).
consumption follows the same tendency (Fig.4a).
VSOC value is one indicator that identifies the battery under
normal conditions, and it is still feasible to use the battery VSOC
after using the 5th and 10th examination within the tolerance
limit as compared to Power Sonic Battery-test (about 13.8 V
VSOC and 11.5 V VDOD).

Fig 4. Power in Time Submersible DC Water Pump

The output of the DC pump is proportional to the total head

and reciprocal to the flow rate. It proves that total head inversely
with flow rate as shown in Fig.4b. In practical, the actual flow
rate is likely different to DC pump output (datasheet) because Fig 6. Recommendation Operation Submersible DC Water Pump
B. DC Pump with PV Panel Support
Observation is required to know the amount of intensity
during the examination, the higher area solar cell and intensity
affect the capacity of PV panel which is 6 PV modules is better
than 4 PV modules that have more solar power output and
continuation operate systems as shown in Fig.6 and Fig.7. In this
case, the PV panels could replace electrical power source as
charging electricity for the battery.
Fig 7. Solar Radiation and Power Solar Panel in Time (A) 4 Modul Solar
Panel (B) 6 Modul Solar Panel
In the configuration with PV panel, the battery was working
depends on the electrical power source from the PV panel so that
the battery was charging when solar power as its maximum and
vice versa. There are differences in electrical power output both
with 4 PV modules and 6 PV modules (Fig.7). With identical
intensity of 927.1 W/݉ଶ (4 PV modules) and 928.4 W/݉ଶ (6
PV modules), the efficiency of the system was only about
45.58% and 47.59%, respectively. We suspect that low power
output was because of SCC which voltage PV module set up
around 12-13 V from 18-19 V so does affect the PV power.
Meanwhile, the needs for water output increase proportional
to power consumption. However, the total increase of the water
output less than the power consumption which is power pump
consumption increases by 5.16% and the flow rate only
increases by 4%. Eventually, the efficiency would be low
because of output value less than the input value, which reduces
1.25% from in actual value from 4 PV modules to 6 PV modules.
Fig 8. Power in Time (A) 4 Modul Solar Panel
(B) 6 Modul Solar Panel
IV. CONCLUSION
The performance of solar-powered DC water pump has been
evaluated in terms of water flow rate, power and efficiency of
the system. Naturally, DC water pump exhibits low water flow
rate, but it consumes relatively much energy, thus PV power as
additional power supply should be installed to meet the load
needs. The result shows that the system configuration without
PV modules performs shorter operational time than that of
configuration equipped with a PV panel. DC pump systems that
require battery were not a good option to be operated for a long
term operation continuously, except the installed battery or solar
power capacity is higher or equal with the load requirements in
a certain time period. The elevation of the total head of the DC
submersible pump affects significantly to the output flow rate of
the pump. The higher the total head, the lower the flow rate, and
vice versa. The maximum efficiency was achieved at 18.44% at
height of H2 = 2.36 m for DC water pump without PV panel
support. Meanwhile, when the height was further decreased to
H1 = 1.33 m and supported by 4x30 Wp and 6x30 Wp PV
modules, the efficiencies reached 11.92% and 11.78%,
respectively.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We acknowledge the financial support provided by
Universitas Indonesia through the Hibah Publikasi International
Terindeks 9 (PIT9) funding scheme managed by the Directorate
of Research and Community Engagement (DRPM) Universitas
Indonesia.
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