Design and development of a stand-alone power supply for a small industrial control system

Design and development of a stand-alone power supply (SAPS) system in remote area, where grid electricity is not available, to continuously powering the process control, monitoring and communication equipment (which constitutes the control system) associated with a diesel powered bore hole pump installation is presented. The study site is located at Oaky Creek No. 1 Coal Mine near Tieri in Central Queensland, Australia, which is a remote area where there is no access to grid electricity; therefore a source of alternative energy generation is required. A standalone power supply using photovoltaic (PV) generators as the energy source was chosen and implemented because on a small scale, PV installations have the characteristics ofcompetitive cost, low maintenance, high reliability and long system life. Methods of sizing and dimensioning system requirements are presented. The performance of the proposed system is simulated using simulation programs known as HOIMER and PVSYST. Equipment for the real life performance measurement was chosen from the local market, installed, commissioned and tested to verify the success of the design method. The results of the simulation verified the sizing design allowing the correct components to be selected with confidence.