2022 International Conference for Advancement in Technology (ICONAT)

Goa, India. Jan 21-22, 2022

Standalone Microgrid: A Sustainable Option for

Energy Handling
1st Harsh Verdhan Singh Dhawan 2nd Archana Tamrakar
B.Tech. Student, EED Assistant Professor, EED
Rewa Engineering College Rewa Engineering College
Rewa, India Rewa, India
harshvdhawan@gmail.com archanatamrakar83@gmail.com
2022 International Conference for Advancement in Technology (ICONAT) | 978-1-6654-2577-3/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICONAT53423.2022.9725965

Abstract—In due course of time with the advancement and

awareness, both towards technology as well as environment,
we find ourselves trying everyday to get to more and more
sustainable ways and ecofriendly methods to live our lives. A REGULATED POWER SYSTEM

possible solution is standalone or off-grid microgrid. Standalone

micro-grid reduces the load on grid. In this way, we can reduce GENERATION

energy generation by conventional ways which will eventually

decrease carbon emission to the environment. In this paper we
have modelled a standalone microgrid for Rewa Engineering

POWER FLOW
MONEY FLOW
College and will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
TRANMISSION
standalone microgrid based on the model.
Index Terms—Standalone, microgrid, sustainable, solar, iso-
lated

I. I NTRODUCTION DISTRIBUTION

In earlier times, when we didn’t have much choice for

different modes and methods to generate electricity at small DEREGULATED POWER SYSTEM
levels, the process of energy to reach at every place was
simple. The whole process could be divided in three stages,
namely generation, transmission and distribution. Generation GENERATION

refers to making electrical energy from various methods. This

generation of electricity is mostly done at thermal and hydro

POWER FLOW
MONEY FLOW

power plant in India. Second stage is the transmission, which

TRANMISSION
is the process of transmitting the produced energy over large
area and distribution is the final stage of delivering the energy
to the consumers or load. This was the old structure of the
power system and is known as the regulated system [1]. DISTRIBUTION

Now, we have many small scale ways to generate energy

like solar power, diesel generators, wind mills etc. We can
use these methods to generate energy at the distribution end.
In this way, we can go the extra mile which is distributed
generation, shown in Fig. 1. As the name suggests, it is the Fig. 1. Regulated (Previous) and Deregulated (New) System
step where energy is generated at the distribution end [2], [3].
This leads us to the concept of decentralized group of energy
sources and loads known as microgrid. The energy produced can be a considerable option for the sustainability. In this paper
at distribution end can either be transmitted back through the we will design a model of standalone microgrid for Rewa
transmission channel and can be used at other loads or can be Engineering College, Rewa and analyse the outcome to see
used near site of generation making it self energy sufficient. the advantage of one over other.
The former is termed as on-grid or grid connected whereas the
II. G RID C ONNECTED AND S TANDALONE S YSTEM
latter is known as off-grid or standalone or isolated microgrid.
The grid connected microgrid are considered more reliable On-grid or grid connected microgrid has a capability to
but the standalone microgrid can be more sustainable and import as well as export electrical power. When the generation
environmental friendly. With proper design we can improve inside the microgrid by the sources is more than the demands
the reliability of standalone system and the standalone system by the load, it delivers surplus power to the grid. It acts as

978-1-6654-2577-3/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE 1

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a small generator providing power to the grid. On the other
hand, when the demand is high compared to the generation, the
microgrid extracts power from the grid, acting as a load to the
grid. This kind of microgrid is generally cheaper as the storage
element of the system, which is battery, is not needed as the
system can directly give the power to the grid. This microgrid
can also be more reliable as it can take power from the grid if
it’s own generation is low. But the grid connected microgrid
is not always good. The microgrid is dependent on the grid. Fig. 2. Power output of the four units.
Major sources of energy generated for the grid are currently
conventional sources and they emit a lot of carbon in the
environment. On an average, 1 unit generated by conventional The output of the four installed units is recorded by the
methods results in emission of about 1kg of carbon. This inverter and depicted by graph in Fig. 2. Unit 1 and unit 2 are
carbon is the major cause of global warming and hence is of 30kVA. Unit 3 and unit 4 are of 20kVA respectively.
very harmful.
Other drawbacks of grid connected microgrid include en-
ergy wastage during off-grid moments. The generation tries to
match the grid power to establish synchronization. So when
the grid power is down for the reasons like load shading, the DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM OF
generation in the microgrid also become zero. Hence energy R.E.C. REWA
loss occurs. Also in case of weak grid, where the supply rating
is far from the actual rated value, similar energy wastage
occurs. This happens due to limitations of inverter so the PCC

inverter can’t match grid power when the power rating is

deviated too much from it’s rated value. These moments when
the system fails to provide power to the grid are termed as off-
grid moments. It can be observed in the output power readings
from a grid connected microgrid.
Whereas standalone microgrid which is also known as off-
ELECTRICAL
grid or isolated microgrid can be more efficient in it’s own way PWD
CIVIL PWD
PV SYSTEM

as the generated energy does not have to match with grid. This SOLAR
70 KVA

way it can overcome the losses due to off-grid moments. The MECHANICAL
DEPT WORKSHOP

requirement of power electronics converters are also reduced

and so is the loss in those converters due to their efficiency
ELECTRONIC
CIVIL DEPT.
[4]. DEPT

III. E XISTING D ISTRIBUTION S YSTEM IN R EWA ELECTRICAL CHEMISTRY

DEPT DEPT.
E NGINEERING C OLLEGE
SOLAR
30 KVA
In Rewa Engineering College, a 100kVA on-grid solar PRINCIPAL
SBI BANK
power plant is installed. At the point of common coupling OFFICE

(PCC), a 100kVA, pole mounted 11kV/0.415kV distribution

transformer is installed. The 100kVA solar plant comprises of
four units. Two units of 30kVA each and a unit of 20kVA is
connected to the bus-bar of Civil department and one units of
20kVA each is connected to bus-bar of Electrical department.
These units generate direct current which has to be con-
verted to sine-wave alternating current before it can be fed to
the grid. For the conversion of generated DC to AC, an on-grid
inverter is used. This inverter takes the grid power as reference
and tries to match it while converting the DC generated from
the solar panels to AC. Hence the AC we get after conversion
is exactly same as the grid current, which means that the peak
value is same, zero-crossings of sine wave occurs at same time
in grid current and the current we get from inverter. This has to
be done for establishing synchronization, which is necessary
before the energy can be fed to the grid.
PCC - POINT OF COMMON COUPLING
PV - PHOTO VOLTAIC SYSTEM
Fig. 3. Existing distribution system in Rewa Engineering College.
So the energy generated by the installed solar plant is fed
to the grid and the college takes energy from the grid for it’s
own utilization. This import and export energy is measured in
units (where 1 units = 1kWh), by the net meter installed in the
college premises. The single line diagram of existing system
is shown in Fig. 3. The units connected at same bus-bar is
replaced by a single block for easy understanding of existing
system.

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 In the graph (Fig. 2), the off-grid moments can be seen. The
sampling time for the graph is 1 hour so when the duration
of the off-grid moment is 1 hour long, average generation at Decentralized Model of
the time is zero and can be seen clearly when line hits zero Off-Grid System
even during day time. On the other hand, when the duration of
off-grid moment is lesser, we get some average value but the
moment still cause generation to be lesser than what it should
DC Type Single Phase AC Three Phase AC
be. This is the reason of various dips seen in the graph many Off-grid Type Off-grid Type Off-grid
times. System System System

During the off-grid moments, actually the solar panel is

getting sun-rays and hence generating electricity but the in- For DC Type For light AC For laboratory
verter failed to convert generated DC to AC. The reasons loads loads equipments and heavy
AC loads
of inverter failure can be different but they include weak-
grid, load shading at grid, fluctuations in grid power, etc. As
discussed earlier, the inverter is on-grid type which tries to
match the output to the reference and reference is grid power.
In case of load shading, the inverter has no reference so it Fig. 4. Decentralized Model of Off Grid System
fails to convert any current. Similarly when fluctuations occur,
reference value is sometimes too much deviated and inverter even if fault occurs in only one of it’s cell. Monitoring and
fails due to it’s limitation of handling such high deviations. maintenance of decentralized system is also easy as compared
Hence the generated energy is not being utilized. This is one to centralized system.
of the disadvantages observed in the grid-connected system. In proposed decentralized system, the classified categories
The inverter installed in Rewa Engineering College records can be further elaborated as follows:
such events in event-log and we have seen many such off-grid 1) Classrooms with DC load: In classrooms where we can
moments in it. To overcome this, we want to go off-grid. use brush-less DC (BLDC) motor fans, DC LED bulbs and
IV. P ROPOSED M ODEL OF S TANDALONE M ICROGRID IN other DC equipments, we do not really need AC power. Since
C OLLEGE the generation from the solar panel is naturally DC, we can
directly use DC power. This will also improve efficiency of
Decentralized off-grid system can be used at college cam- the system due to the fact that DC distribution is more efficient
pus, which means that instead of one big plant powering than AC distribution system. [5], [6].
the whole college premises, a bunch of small systems can 2) Rooms with AC load: Mostly single phase AC will be
power different departments and areas classified in different needed here.
categories. In the off-grid system we do not need to match the 3) Laboratory: Here, three phase AC power is needed for
generated current to anything. Hence the inverter used in off- the laboratory equipments.
grid system do not need reference to convert the generated DC 4) Solar Water Heaters and Solar Water Purifiers: We can
to AC. So in this system, as long as the units are getting sun- directly use the generated solar power with solar water heaters
rays, they will produce electricity and the inverter will work all and purifiers. This will increase the efficiency by reducing
the time and complete energy generated by the system can be conversion losses and directly using solar power generated.
utilized. This way we will overcome the above stated drawback
of on-grid system. Although we will need battery for backup TABLE I
as we will be completely dependent on the solar energy in L OAD C ALCULATION OF AN AVERAGE ROOM
case of our off-grid system and we can not generate that in
Name of Power Qty. Working Total Daily
night time. The backup in batteries will fulfil the need in night appliance (in Watt) Hours Power Energy
time or whenever we are not getting sun-rays. Basic idea of (in Watt) (in kWh)
the proposed decentralized system is illustrated in Fig. 4. LED 18 6 6 108 648
Tubelight
By using the decentralized model, we can reduce the cost, Fan 60 4 6 240 1440
as this model will be comprised of various small rating Socket (for
sub-systems ranging from 1kW to 30kW as per need. This mobile 18 1 2 18 36
charger)
will eliminate the requirement of large equipments which are Socket (for
costly. The replacement of one or few units of proposed model, laptop 65 1 1 65 65
if needed, can be done easily and would not cost much. charger)
Total 431 2189
The decentralized model has other advantages as well. This
includes better reliability, since the chance of complete system
failure at once is very low. Even if one sub-system fails to We have done a survey at Rewa Engineering College to
deliver power, the whole model will not be compromised. In find the electrical load demand of college and also evaluated
case of single large system, the complete PV-array can fail the scope of implementation of model in the college premises.

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On the basis of this, we have prepared a table taking the load
of one common room. Table. I, where we can see the load
demand (in Watt). The average daily energy consumption is
also estimated and shown in the same table.
A 1kW sub-system can power two rooms of comparable
size. A block diagram of the proposed model is shown in
Fig. 5. Similarly for larger rooms where load demand is also
higher, we can distribute our sub-systems accordingly. For
example, a single sub-system will be sufficient for big rooms
of about double size. Laboratories will need sub-system of
larger rating.
Battery Sizing
500 VA / 24V 431 WATT 2189 WATT HR.
Panel
Inverter
Load
335W X 3 NO
local level, but also at global level. The proposed model can
hence be a contribution for a better and greener future.
R EFERENCES
[1] N. K. Sharma, P. K. Tiwari and Y. R. Sood, ”Current status, policies
and future perspectives of Indian power sector moving towards deregu-
lation,” 2012 IEEE Students’ Conference on Electrical, Electronics and
Computer Science, 2012, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/SCEECS.2012.6184730.
[2] S. B. Raikar and K. M. Jagtap, ”Role of Deregulation in Power Sector
and Its Status in India,” 2018 National Power Engineering Conference
(NPEC), 2018, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/NPEC.2018.8476714.
[3] R. N. Lahiri, A. Sinha, S. Chowdhury and S. P. Chowdhury, ”Pri-
vatization of power distribution utility in India through restructuring
and reformation,” IEEE PES General Meeting, 2010, pp. 1-5, doi:
10.1109/PES.2010.5589613.
[4] V. Narayanan, S. Kewat and B. Singh, “Standalone PV-BES-DG Based
Microgrid with Power Quality Improvements,” 2019 IEEE International
Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering and 2019 IEEE
Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Europe (EEEIC / I&CPS
Europe), 2019, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/EEEIC.2019.8783251.
[5] P. Paajanen, T. Kaipia and J. Partanen, ”DC supply of low-voltage
electricity appliances in residential buildings,” CIRED 2009 - 20th
International Conference and Exhibition on Electricity Distribution - Part
1, 2009, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1049/cp.2009.0925.
[6] Amin, Mohammad Amin and Yasir Arafat. “Feasibility study of low
voltage DC house and compatible home appliance design.” (2011).

Battery

150 AN
24 V

Fig. 5. Block diagram of proposed model

V. D ISCUSSION
Based on proposed model and survey done at Rewa Engi-
neering College, we can say that the proposed idea, although
being efficient and eco-friendly had certain limitations at the
execution level. Some examples being high AC power demand
in laboratories and server room which needs big batteries as
heavy backup, which will prove to be costly. For that, we
suggest to use this standalone system as a complimentary to
the existing on-grid PV system.
We see the advertisements promoting to switch-off every
single fan, if not in use. In such conditions even half of
the power supply if met through the proposed standalone
system will prove to be a smart move for the betterment and
sustainability.
VI. C ONCLUSION
Standalone system requires proper maintenance, but with
that and appropriate design, standalone microgrid can for sure
be more efficient and it can overcome the undersides of on-grid
system, like grid dependency which causes off-grid moments
whenever grid is weak further causing inverter failure and
hence generation loss. Although it is found that complete
isolation from the grid will be very costly, but as suggested
in this paper, the decentralized model for the selected sites of
college premises can be cost efficient and sustainable approach
toward energy handling. This will be beneficial not only at

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