Stand Alone PV System for Remote Cell Site in Swat Valley

Waqas A. Imtiaz1, Kamran Hafeez2

1,2

Department of Electrical Engineering, IQRA National University, Peshawar, Pakistan

ABSTRACT
Cost effective and reliable power solutions for remote base stations are very helpful in the growth of cellular technology in the far off regions. However remote areas in Pakistan either lack the availability of grid station to power base stations or experience prolonged power shortages. One solution to overcome this problem is the use conventional of diesel generators; however this solution requires high fuel consumption, extensive maintenance and high delivery cost, which makes its operation highly expensive and less efficient. Now a day Hybrid Solar-Wind energy systems are proposed for cell sites in order to compensate the accessibility of power from grids, but the availability of renewable energy resources at cell site is an important factor to develop the required hybrid system. This paper presents the design idea of PV-SOLAR system along with diesel generator as a backup source to provide an economical energy system for remote base stations. Feasibility of the proposed design is checked via HOMER software. Results have shown that the proposed system is efficient, and cost effective as compared to proposed Hybrid-Solar/wind systems.

Keywords PV-Solar, Renewable energy, Base Stations

I. INTRODUCTION
Rural areas of developing countries like Pakistan are often ignored from the expansion of GSM networks. Such areas of either have no electricity, or experience extensive power shortages which greatly affect the performance and hence, expansion of telecommunication networks. These factors stop network operators to expand their networks into rural areas because Base Transceiver Systems (BTS) requires a continuous supply of power for its efficient operation. Some network operators are expanding their networks with help of diesel generators, in order to augment the extensive power shortages. While the initial price of such systems is comparatively low, diesel generators operated sites introduces problems like: 1. High operation and maintenance cost. 2. Harmful effect on the environment.

Fossil fuels continue to supply much of the energy used worldwide, with the associated harmful emissions causing local, regional and global environmental problems. Projections to 2050 indicate that the world energy demand may increase dramatically, effecting most of the developing countries. It is feared that these levels of energy productions and uses are not only difficult to achieve from current energy sources, but also not sustainable. RES are considered one of the potential measures to meet the challenges of ever increasing energy use and related environmental concerns. Powering remote equipment using a small renewable energy system that is not connected to the electricity grid, called stand-alone system, makes economic sense and has a limited environmental impact. In remote locations, standalone systems can be more cost-effective than extending a power line from the electricity grid. These systems are also used in cases, when independence from the power provider is required or when a commitment to non-polluting energy sources is desired. Successful stand-alone systems generally take advantage of a combination of techniques and technologies to generate reliable power, reduce costs, and minimized inconvenience. Recent research and development of Renewable energy sources have shown excellent potential as a form of contribution to conventional power generation systems [2]. In order to meet sustained load demands of mobile base station during varying natural conditions, different energy sources and converters need to be integrated with each other for extended usage of alternative energy [3]. In paper [3][4] a solar-wind hybrid power for a rural cell site is proposed which shows that by using hybrid power the diesel consumption at cell sites can be drastically reduced by over 90%, but the availability of renewable energy resources at mobile base station sites is an important factor to develop the hybrid system. Most cell sites in remote hilly areas of Pakistan lags the availability of wind, capable enough to provide the required operation, that is why, this paper proposes a standalone power systems (SAPS) model combined with a diesel generator to provide an effective and less expensive energy solution for a cell site located in a hilly areas of Pakistan i.e. swat valley.

II. BACKGROUND
The Cell site is a term primarily used for a site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed on a radio mast or tower to create a cell in a cellular network. A cell site is composed of a tower for mounting antennas, one or more sets of transmitter/receivers (transceivers or TRX), signal processors, control electronics, a GPS receiver and Backup electrical power sources, and sheltering to store the ground based equipments. In some countries it is also referred as Base Transceiver Station (BTS) or just base station. The term "base station site" might

better reflect the increasing co-location of multiple mobile operators, and therefore multiple base stations, at a single site. Even a site hosting just a single mobile operator may house multiple base stations, each to serve a different air interface technology like GSM or CDMA. Primary source of power to these cell sites is the grid EB power; whenever it is not available, diesel generators are turned on to provide the required operation. In an indoor site, major portion (around 60%) of the power is consumed by the air conditioners to maintain the shelter temperature below 35o Celsius as required by the BTS electronics and control equipments. In case of outdoor BTS this cooling power is reduced to around 30% for operating the forced ventilation system. The regulated DC power is consumed by BTS and Microwave equipments; a substantial portion is also consumed for charging the large battery banks [3].

Figure.2: Wind power potential of swat, NWFP Table.1 Average daily radiation data for selected site

Months January February March April May June July August September October November December Average

Figure.1: Typical Cell site

III. STUDY AREA

Availability of renewable energy resources is a crucial factor in efficient operation of the cell sites. A cell site located at Manglawar Swat valley having Lat.34.807, Long.72.4367 is selected as case study. Hourly solar irradiation data for manglower is collected via HOMER. Scaling was done on these data to consider the long-term average annual resource i.e. 4.951kW h/m2/d. In summer solar power at the selected site is comparatively higher than winter season. In rainy season clearness index and solar power availability is lower than summer and winter season. Table 1 show that the average yearly solar irradiation for Manglower is 4.951kW h/m2/d, which is greater than the minimum solar irradiation for solar panels to operate efficiently i.e. . Depending on the location of BTS, wind energy can generate significant amount of energy. However wind power is poorly available at our selected cell site. As is it clear from figure 2 that the wind energy available at swat region ranges from poor to fairly marginal which is not sufficient to provide the required power. So the only renewable energy source available to efficiently operate the BTS is solar energy, with backup diesel generators.

Daily Radiation (kWh/m2/d) 2.976 3.800 4.887 5.945 6.989 7.112 6.333 5.505 5.393 4.523 3.450 2.461 4.951

IV. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE The power supply system of solar base station consists of various elements which all contribute to energy saving along with efficient operation. The system architecture proposed to overcome the expensive diesel generator solution is shown in figure. Solar energy is mostly useful for application with low DC-power demand i.e. less than 2kW [7]. That is why the load demand of cell site is selected to be and 48 . Figure 3 shows the proposed hybrid station contains components like solar panels, diesel generator for backup power supply, batteries for uninterrupted supply of power to BTS equipments from solar panels and converters to convert DC power supply to AC supply.

VI. RESULTS
HOMER eliminates all infeasible combinations and ranks the feasible systems according to increasing net present cost. It also allows a number of parameters to be displayed against the sensitivity variables for identifying an optimal system type. Simulation results in figure 4 shows that the PV-System can provide the necessary operation with minimum net present cost. Figure shows that total NPC for PV operated base station is 234,067 $. Optimization results from HOMER shows that the best optimal combinations of energy system components are 6 kW PV-Array, 2 kW generator, 8 200Ah batteries and 4 kW converters. It is also clear from figure that the expenditure of a standalone diesel generator system is 315,467 $, which is comparatively higher than that of a PV system. The Monthly Average Electricity Production of solar energy system for mobile telephony base station is also shown in Figure 5. In this system the total production of electrical energy is fulfilled by the combination of 48% PV and rest of 52% by generators. Hence this system can be used to minimize the use of diesel generators for base station operation. It is also observed that as we increase the size of PV array, total NPC and average monthly production becomes more feasible, however it will require a lot of space and comparatively high maintenance cost. Besides low NPC, PV systems have an added advantage of being environment friendly. Simulation results in figure 6 shows that carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides emissions in a PV-system backed up by a diesel generator are much less than that of a standalone diesel generator system. Figure.4: Optimization results with NPC

Figure.3: System architecture of PV system for BTS Ratings, capital, replacement costs, operations and maintenance (O & M) cost for every component is presented in Table 2. Generator is used along with solar panels to ensure continues supply of power in case of clouds, rain and night. Batteries provide a constant supply from panels to the base stations. Prices for every component of the system are proposed after a careful survey of the available components in the local market under an expert supervision. Table.2 Specifications of proposed system components Component Rating Capital Replacement O & M ($) ($) ($) ($) Solar Panel 1 kW 2,500 2,000 50 200 Ah Battery 350 300 50 Generator 1 kW 500 350 1/hr Converter 1 kW 250 200 50

V. SIMULATION ANALYSIS
HOMER is an abbreviation of Hybrid Optimization Model for Electrical Renewable. This micro power optimization model simulates the operation of a system by making energy balance calculations for each of the 8,760 hours in a year. HOMER performs these energy balance calculations and system cost calculations for each system configuration considered. Simulation results a list of all of the possible system sizes, sorted by Net Present Cost (NPC) [4]. For thorough analysis of the proposed system, various possibilities and component sizes are tested to find a suitable and cost efficient solution. Table 3 shows the components and their sizes considered during the simulation. Table.3: Considered sizes of system components Component Size Solar Panel 0, 2, 4, 6 kW Battery Generator Converter 0,2,4,6,8 Strings/ 4 batteries per string 0,2,4,6 kW 0,2,4,6,8,10,12 kW Figure.5: Monthly average electrical production

[5]. Prabodh Bajpai, Prakshan N. P., N. K. Kishore, Renewable Hybrid Stand-alon Telecom Power System Modeling and Analysis, VEICET, IIT Kharagpu. [6] "GWEC, Global Wind Energy Outlook". Gwec.net. http://www.gwec.net/index.php?id=181&L=0%B4. [7] Gunter Schmitt, The Green Base Station, 4th International Conference on Telecommunication Energy Special Conference (TELESCON), 2009. [8] http://www.pmd.gov.pk/wind/Wind_Project_files/Page6 94.html.

Figure.6: Emissions with and without PV System

VII. CONCLUSION
More than 10 crore people use mobile phones across Pakistan and majority of these users live in remote areas of Pakistan. To provide vast and better network services mobile operators needs to install new base stations. Power is main issue for remote or isolated areas base station, because grid extension is not feasible. Power shortage is also a main issue in such areas. Use of renewable energy in such sites can provide a feasible solution, however proposed solar/wind system might not work well as most areas in Pakistan lack sufficient supply of wind. Standalone solar system can provide a viable solution. Alternate power solutions are not commonly used in mobile telecommunication system today but are actively evaluated for remote and isolated areas over worldwide. Pre-feasibility study of Manglower shows that the solar energy system alone is the most viable power solution for mobile base station in remote areas of Pakistan, lacking wind energy. Although the net present cost is high but the running and maintenance cost are very low as compared to the diesel generator power solution. Powering of the base station via PV system also reduces the amount of carbon and other harmful gases. Thus the solar energy system with diesel backup is an efficient replacement of standalone diesel generator system for many challenging sites.

VI.

REFERENCES

[1]. Pragya Nema, R.K. Nema, Soraj Rangnekar, PVSolar/wind Hybrid Energy System for GSM/CDMA Type Mobile Telephony Base Station, International Journal of Energy and Enviroment, Volume 1, Issue 2, pp.359-366, 2010. [2] C. Boccaletti, G. Fabbri, E. Santini Innovative Solutions for Stand Alone System Powering [3]. Pragya Nema R.K. Nema Saroj Rangnekar PV-solar / wind hybrid energy system for GSM/CDMA type mobile telephony base station [4]. Dr Allabaksh Naikodi Solar-Wind Hybrid Power for Rural Indian Cell Sites