Solar Powered Irrigation Pumps with Optimum Power Transfer
Suruchi Sharma, S. Rajendran
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar, India
(suruchi.sharma@iitgn.ac.in, rajendran@iitgn.ac.in)
Abstract - This paper presents the technical, financial
and agro-economic aspects of solar powered irrigation
pumps. The scheme consists of a PV array, followed by a
boost converter for tracking the maximum power point and
for impedance matching purpose. The output from the boost
converter is fed to a three phase inverter and then to an
induction motor-pump set. Rate of flow of water is decided
by V/f control of induction motor to provide the optimum
power output for a particular head. The pump output is
controlled in order to set a MPPT tracking at the solar panel
output. Few important crops that are grown all over the
world are being examined taking into account the
evapotranspiration, seepage and percolation losses. Utmost
care has been taken so that the overall cost of the system is
low by not considering any storage devices.
Keywords- Agriculture, boost converter, induction
motor, inverter, irrigation pumps, renewable energy, solar
energy, V/f control
I. INTRODUCTION
Agricultural sector is considered as the core sector for
any economy and the basic requirement for agriculture is
an efficient irrigation system. Farmers depend on the grid
supply to irrigate their fields and hence rendered helpless
in spite of having adequate power connections because of
the frequent power shut downs and highly unreliable
power supply in most parts of the country. The problem
gets worsened especially when farmers are growing crops
like paddy which requires a large amount of water to
grow. Therefore, the idea is to utilize the abundant
availability of solar power by installing solar PV plants in
farms which can meet the energy needs of the farmers for
irrigating their lands.
The concept of influence of varying head on V/f
relationship is proposed in [1] where a new optimum V/f
relationship is proposed for different heads and a
microcontroller based controller is used to carry out load
matching. A significant challenge was to improve the
efficiency of the system when insolation and temperature
vary from the nominal is discussed in [2] which improves
the system stability. The use of dc motors over induction
motor is proposed in [3] because in induction motors, one
more stage is increased because of inverters. A smart
irrigation system has been proposed in [4] where moisture
sensor is installed which detects the water requirement of
the crop by sensing the moisture content of the soil
thereby providing water accordingly and preventing over
flooding. V/f method of speed control is done in [5] by
taking speed
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as the reference to drive the solar powered induction
motor drive. A comparison has been drawn between
proportional
integral (PI) controllers and V/f method of speed control
in [6]. In recent years, many studies have been conducted
for the optimum design of solar powered irrigation
pumps. In this paper, all the aspects of solar powered
induction pumps are discussed ranging from the technical,
financial and also the agro-economic aspects. Induction
motor is used instead of the dc motor as squirrel cage
motors are cost effective, highly reliable and maintenance
free. A comparison is done for the use of MPPT algorithm
and different types of pump sets as well. Also, different
types of crops that are predominant to different parts of
India like rice in northern India, sugarcane in southern
India, gram in western India and jute eastern India are
chosen and examined. A detailed analysis of the type of
soil, seepage and percolation losses, evapotranspiration
losses, water requirement by the crop to grow to the full
length for the above mentioned crops is done. This data
doesn’t account for the water that is available due to
precipitation thereby considering the extreme conditions.
The losses which are dominant to head are also taken into
consideration. Corresponding to this data, the discharge of
water is calculated for a day by implementing the control
to obtain maximum power output possible depending
upon the speed at which rotor operates which is decided
by the V/f control. The model is simulated in MATLAB
to match the water requirement with the water that is
made available through the design that is done.
II. BACKGROUND
A. Components
The block diagram of the integrated system is shown
in fig. 1. The important components that are used to
realize the solar powered irrigation pumps are discussed
below-
Fig.1. Block diagram of solar powered irrigation pumps
1) Solar PV Array: Solar energy from the module is
the main source of power to the system. The PV block in
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 Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE PES GTD Asia
Simulink consists of solar irradiation and temperature as
its inputs. The data used for simulation is provided by
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar for the
month of April and the skies remain clear in Gandhinagar
in this month. The maximum irradiation and temperature
recorded in April was 934 / and 37.8°C. The
maximum power is tracked at 1000 / and 25°C.
2) Boost Converter: The output from the solar PV is
fed to dc-dc boost converter whose duty cycle is
controlled by tracking the maximum power point.
Incremental conductance method is used to track
maximum power point because of some inherent
advantages like speed, accuracy and non-oscillatory
motion about maximum power point over Perturb and
Observe Method. But this method is only implemented in
simulation. In actual practice, maximum power point is
maintained constant by varying the load. The relationship
between output and input voltage is given by-
= (1)
( )
where D is the duty ratio obtained from Incremental
Conductance method and this duty is converted to provide
pulses to drive the boost converter. The impedance
matching relationship is given by –
= (1 − )
where in this case is of the induction motor and
is of the solar panels on the input side.
3) Three phase inverter: The output from the boost
converter is connected to a dc link capacitor. This is done
to alleviate the voltage ripples at the input side of the
inverter. The pulses are given to inverter by means of V/f
control of induction motor.
4) Three phase induction motor: The induction motor
is coupled to the pump set which is a constant torque-
variable power drive. Rate of discharge depends upon a
number of factors like head, pressure, friction, etc.
5) Controlling action: Voltage and current are
obtained from the boost converter. The voltage so
obtained acts as an input to the three phase inverter via dc
link capacitor. The current so obtained depends upon the
load connected at the pump end. Once current drawn by
the pump is equal to the current delivered by the MPPT,
impedance matching is done and maximum power is
being obtained. The torque and speed control is done with
the help of V/f control of induction motor and by varying
the delivery at the pump end i.e. flow is regulated. This
frequency determines the speed at which induction motor
will operate.
6) Selection of pump set: The different types of
pumps [7] which are generally used in irrigation is
discussed below-
• Displacement Pump: This pump is used when a thick
liquid has to be moved and moves water by displacement.
• Submersible Pump: It is installed under water.
This pump doesn’t require any prime mover as these
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pumps are already under water. If water falls below the
level of the pump, then the pump burns away and boring
has to be done again to place the pump where water is
available.
• Centrifugal Pump: This pump uses an impeller
whose work is to spin the water rapidly in a housing,
chamber or casing. Water through these pumps flows with
the help of centrifugal force. The case is filled with water
and the pump is quickly turned on for priming the pumps.
Water in the pump is necessary as this pump sucks water
and not air.
Designing of the motor and pump set includes the
head, discharge, rating, power factor and efficiency and
ambient temperature. The summers in India have ambient
temperature of 35 to 40°C with [8] dry humidity. The heat
which is dissipated by the motors is very poor. So pump
sets have to be designed for such rough weather
conditions. Mono-block centrifugal pumps are generally
used wherein all the rotating parts are mounted on a
common shaft so efficiency improves as there is a less
loss of energy. Also, the effective cost reduces while
using a centrifugal pump as boring has to be done again
and again if water level falls in case of a submersible
pump. The pump will also burn out if water level falls
below the pump and installation has to be done again
which in turn increases cost.
(2)
B. Evaluation of head (H) offered at the field
An irrigation system has to overcome certain
elements of pressure which includes pressure required for
different devices like sprinklers, spray head and drippers.
Head also depends upon the suction and elevation lift.
Head offered to the flow of water is given by-
= + (5)
The head losses can be further categorized as [9] follows-
1) Head loss due to friction: It mainly depends upon
the flow rate, diameter of the pipe, length of the pipe and
the amount of roughness. Darey-Weisbach method is used
to find the head loss due to friction.
2) Head loss due to bends/valves/change in pipe area:
This loss can be neglected in case of long pipes but for
small scale agriculture units, these losses are comparable
to the friction losses.
Water is mainly needed to meet the demands of
evaporation, transpiration and metabolic needs of the
plant which are lumped together in one category called
the consumptive use [10] (CU). Generally, we neglect the
metabolic requirements as it is very less and we are left
with evapotranspiration losses (ET) The data might vary
depending upon the amount of precipitation.
= + (6)
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where WR is the water requirement and IR is irrigation E. Required Flow Rate

requirement.
The end users must know the amount [11] of water to
Water requirement also depends upon the crop factors like
be applied to the crops. Flow rate depends upon the water
variety, growth stage, plant population, the season in
output and the time for which the motor is going to
which plants are grown, duration of the growth of the
operate. Discharge of water from solar powered pumps is
plant, crop management practices like tillage, fertilization,
subjected to change with solar irradiance and temperature.
weeding, etc. For water intensified crops like paddy,
Therefore, we can have a rough estimation of the required
irrigation is required after every 3 days. If paddy is being
flow rate after making certain assumptions like the size of
grown in arid regions, irrigation interval is even lower and
the field, type of crop to be grown, approximate
in moist regions, it is between 4 to 5 days. It also depends
efficiencies of the system, losses incurred, etc.
upon the type of soil and its permeability.
C. Factors affecting evapotranspiration (ET) III. CALCULATIONS

There are basic four categories [10] on which these Assuming the size of the land is 1 acre which is equal
losses depend. These are as follows- to 4046.86 . Assuming the head to be around 50 feet or
• Atmospheric factors 16m where water is available for irrigation. Power input
1) Precipitation to the pump (J/s or W) is given [9] by-
2) Sunshine
( ∗ ∗ ∗ )
3) Wind velocity P= (7)
4) Temperature
5) Relative humidity
where ρ is the density of liquid used which is
• Soil factors
generally water is (kg/ ) , g is the gravity constant
1) Depth of water table
( / ), h is the head in m, Q is the flow rate in litres/s , η
2) Availability of soil moisture
is the efficiency.
3) Vegetative cover
Assuming efficiency of a typical centrifugal pump
• Plant factors
[12] consisting of electric motor = 85%, Mechanical
1) Plant cover
transmission = 98%, Suction and delivery pipe efficiency
2) Depth of roots
= 85%, Pump itself (Optimum efficiency) = 80%.
3) Geometry of crops
Therefore, approximate efficiency of the system can be
4) Plant morphology
found out to be = 0.85*0.98*0.85*0.80 ~ 0.57
• Water factors
1) Frequency of irrigation Efficiency of a system can’t be assumed to be a
2) Water Quality constant quantity. There is usually an operating condition
under which maximum efficiency is found to exist. For
D. Types of irrigation example, a centrifugal pump always has a certain speed at
a given flow rate and head under which its efficiency is
The different types of irrigation can be categorized as found to be maximum. The data obtained for different
follows- crops from Kisan Diary of Bihar [13] is given in Table 1.
1) Flood Irrigation: Efficiency is very low and is If we choose jute which is a water intensive crop, the per
suitable or water intensive crops like paddy and day requirement of water is 6 cm.
sugarcane.
2) Sprinkler/ Rain Gun’s: It uses only 30-50% of Volume of water = Area of land * Height of water
water used in flood irrigation. It needs some investment = 4046.86 ∗ 6 ∗ 10 = 242.811
but it is very effective.
~ 242811 litres (8)
3) Drip Irrigation: It uses only 10-20% of water
used in flood irrigation. It is suitable for trees and shrubs Assuming an induction motor of 7.5 hp or 5.5 kW
but it can’t be termed a success for water intensive crops. connected to a pump whose performance curves are
The initial investment cost is very high but its efficiency known. The model is simulated with the parameters given
is very high. above and also the assumptions that have been made to
4) Alternative methods: Some creative methods match the water requirements by the jute crop. The
include mist/spray irrigation, wick irrigation, greenhouse diameter of the suction pipe is 80 mm and the diameter of
effect irrigation, bottle irrigation, etc. Other water the delivery pump is 65 mm [14]. The above mentioned
conservation techniques which are very efficient but factors are taken in consideration to efficiently design the
require a lot of investment are hydroponics, aquaponics, power rating of the motor and the pump.
polyhouse, etc.

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 Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE PES GTD Asia

TABLE I
DATA FOR DIFFERENT CROPS OF INDIA

Type of crop State where it is Type of soil Number of Total water ET Seepage+ Per day
grown in India days required requirement (mm/day) Percolation requirement of
for irrigation (cm) (mm/day) water (cm)
[13]
[15] [16][17]

Rice (Rabi) UP, Bihar Alluvial 17-20 100-200 3.58 4.2 7

Sugarcane 7.3(can’t retain much
Tamil Nadu Red soil 5-6 35-42 4.04 6.5
( Kharif) water)
Lateriate
Jute (Kharif) West Bengal 3 18 3.695 3.2 6
Soil
Gram (Rabi) Rajasthan Arid soil 1 5 3.7 5.4 5

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
A. Discharge of water
The results are obtained for the month of April when
the skies are generally clear. The size of the panels chosen
is 50 .
Fig.2 shows the MATLAB model in Simulink
including solar panels, boost converter, inverter and
induction motor drive with V/f control. Following are the
results obtained when the model is simulated for 903
W/ and temperature is 37.3°C. Fig.3 shows that the
MPPT Power settles down to approximately 5.7 kW when
run at 903 W/ and 37.3°C. Fig.4 shows that around
412 V is available at the input side of the motor.
Corresponding to this voltage we get a frequency as per
V/f control. Fig.5 shows the voltage obtained at the output
of the inverter while Fig.6 shows the current requirements
of the load and from Fig.7. it is clear that the mechanical
power which is available to the pump is given by P = Ʈ*ω
Nm and also the torque and stator current remains
constant because of the implementation of V/f control of
induction motor. The speed and torque comes out to be
1360 rpm and 33 Nm respectively at 903 W/ with
temperature being 37.3°C.
The total time duration to get the required discharge
of water is met in three hours and twenty minutes that is
from 11:00 am in the morning to 2:20 pm in the
afternoon. Table II concludes the data for the jute crop. It
is clearly seen from equation (8) that the total discharge of
water available on simulating the model for
approximately 3-4 hours is sufficient to irrigate the 1acre
land of jute crop which in turn also proves that gram crop
can also be irrigated with this model. For irrigating crops
like sugarcane and rice which are water intensive, extra
demand can be met by precipitation or by operating the
solar powered induction motor pump setup for extra
hours.

Fig.2. Simulink model of solar powered irrigation pumps

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 Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE PES GTD Asia

Fig.6. Input voltage in Volts of the induction motor on simulating the

model at 903 W/ and 37.3°C

Fig.3. MPPT Power in Watts that is tracked on running the model at

903 W/ and 37.3°C

Fig.4. Output voltage of inverter in Volts on simulating the model at 903

W/ and 37.3°C

Fig.5. Stator currents in Amperes of all the three phases of induction

motor on simulating the model at 903 W/ and 37.3°C

Fig. 7. Speed (rpm), electromagnetic torque (Nm) and RMS stator

current (A) of phase ‘a’ of induction motor

TABLE II
RESULTS OBTAINED AFTER SIMULATION

Time Solar MPPT Stator Motor Output Flow rate

(hours) Irradiation Temperature Frequency Speed Discharge
Power Voltage Power (liters/s)
(°C) (Hz) (litres)
(W/ ) (kW) (V) (rpm) (kW) [11]
1100 810 35.8 5.42 384 46.26 1240 4.282 17.58 21096
1120 853 36.2 5.56 400 48.19 1300 4.492 `18.31 21972
1140 886 37.3 5.68 409 49.27 1340 4.628 18.72 22464
1200 (noon) 903 37.3 5.70 412 49.63 1360 4.697 18.86 22632
1220 912 38.4 5.80 415 50.00 1370 4.731 19.00 22800
1240 934 37.8 5.90 424 51.08 1410 4.870 19.41 23292
1300 927 38.1 5.88 419 50.48 1400 4.835 19.18 23016
1320 923 38.2 5.86 414 49.87 1398 4.828 18.95 22740
1340 891 38.7 5.65 410 49.39 1330 4.593 18.77 22524
1400 849 39.2 5.47 392 47.22 1270 4.386 17.94 21528
1420 822 40.5 5.37 371 44.69 1210 4.179 16.98 20376
Total 244440 litres

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 Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE PES GTD Asia
B. Cost analysis
Suppose a farmer installs a 6kW solar PV system
along with a dc-dc converter and solar inverter which will
cost [18] around $8000. The cost of three phase induction
motor with pump set is $1000. Therefore, the total cost is
approximately $9000.
Assuming the farmer operates the solar PV for
irrigation for 5 hours daily. Therefore, the average
number of units used daily are 6kW*5hours = 30 units or
30kWh of energy. Suppose cost of 1 unit is $0.12, so cost
of 30 units will be $3.6 and the total number of days for
which solar energy is available is approximately 300 days.
Therefore, the yearly cost is $1080. So, the payback
period is given by 8.3 years. It is acceptable because the
total life span of the solar panels is 25 years.
V. CONCLUSION
The analysis of solar powered irrigation pumps shows
that the water required for irrigating the crops can be met
from the above design. Once, the water requirement is
met, the water could be diverted to some other land for
some other crop so as to harness the full capacity of solar
power by operating the setup for few extra hours. An
attempt is made to minimize the cost by not using any
battery or storage tank so that it becomes affordable to
farmers. This completes the implementation of the control
at an optimal cost. Based on certain cost assumptions the
return on investment (ROI) is fairly high to be enable the
farmer to recover the cost in 5 to 9 years. Storage tank is
also an option but it will increase the cost drastically.
With the advent of smart grids, power from the inverter
can be fed back to the grid so that the farmer can earn real
money by selling back the excess power to the
government which can be used by industries to power
their machines.
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