IOT Enabled Smart Inverter for Rural Applications

Abstract

In this paper a smart inverter consisting of two user interactive displays suitable for usage in rural schools of India is proposed. The system consists of a battery powered inverter connected to various loads and a user interactive display module. A single phase square wave inverter is used to convert input DC power to AC power. Two separate dashboards are provided:- one for the non-technical user where the only required information such as battery State of Charge (SOC) and duration left for depletion while the other providing information to the technical staff to control and monitor the system for timely maintenance. The system is modelled using MATLAB/Simulink. MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry) protocol is used to display the necessary information from Simulink to the dashboard interface. With the help of the dashboard interface, the user can not only manage the connected loads but also control and monitor the load power drawn, battery percentage & status of the connected devices through web URL or mobile application through which the user can connect/disconnect the loads based on their requirements. In addition to the above mentioned features, the battery is connected to the grid for charging whenever the SOC level decreases below a set threshold. Furthermore, an alert system is proposed to inform the user with the battery charge status constantly. Results are presented to validate the proposed concept.