AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA

(Academic planning unit)

UNIVERSITY BOARD OF RESEARCH GRANT

Personal file no : 17851
1a Category of research : Degree

B (i) Degree in view : Phd

(ii) Date of commencement : November 2006

(iii) PG School Admission No : phd/ENG/08936/2006-07

2. Name of applicant: Abubakar Sani Musa

Date of first appointment : September 05, 2005

Nature of appointment : tenure

3 Title of research :photovoltaic Solar power for residential application

4 Department/faculty of applicant: Electrical Engineering

5 Present Post : Lecturer II

6 Qualification and research experience

I B Eng(Electr) 1985

Ii Msc Electrical (power and machine) 1991

7 Name address and Qualification of supervisors

(i) Professor J O Ojo Dept of Electr. Eng ABU zaria

(ii) Professor B G Bajoga Dept of Electr Eng ABU Zaria

(iii) Dr J Y Oricha Dept of ELectr Eng ABU Zaria

8 Are you currently engaged in any other research project? : No

9 Statement of problem and objective:

 Central utility power generation in Nigeria has many problems: Bulk
transmission of power from the remote Central hydro plants and southern thermal
power plant to other parts of the country lead to high transmission losses in the
power generated.Other problems include the restive Niger Delta area where gas
pipelines are vandalized with a crippling effect on the gas power plants. The Central
hydro plants of kainji ,shiroro and jebba also have their problems of low water
levels in their reservoir especially during the dry season.All these problems make it
imperative for the nation to shift focus to distributed generation.When distributed
generation is adopted each area where a particular renewable energy resourse
such as wind solar or microhydro is identified and harnessed to supply the power
need of the immediate surrounding, with a weak grid tie to import or export the
balance power.

One of such renewable energy resource which is readily available is solar

power which can be converted to electric power using photovoltaic solar
modules. A number of power conversion processes transform the photovoltaic
outputs to the form required by the ac grid. The Main objective of this research
work is to make a survey of the existing conversion methods ,converter topology
and arrive at a conversion method and a topology which best suit suite our grid
conditions.

10 Justification

Since the central utility power generation in Nigeria is bedeviled by the

above mentioned problem, it is imperative to seariously consider distributed
generation the most common of which is solar power. Unfortunately the solar
power is highly nonlinear and erratic in nature.Thus every effort must be made to
ensure the maximum utilization of the energy source otherwise a lot of losses will
be incurred. Moreover the actual dc-ac conversion must also be carried out with a
minimum total harmonic distortion to avoid distortion in the power line

11 Methodology

(i) Load asseesment of a typical residential location for the determination

of the minimum

rating of the solar installation. This will include the application of demand and
diversity factors to the available connected load.

(ii) Based on the load requirement , an estimate will be made for the no . of
modules in series
 And in parallel to achieve the desired size of the PV array.

(iii) Using one solar module and a storage battery an experiment will be
conducted to determine

The actual energy derivable from a module. This result will obviously
modify the total no.

Required to build the array.

(iv) Maximum power point tracking circuits will also be included and
experiment in (iii) will be

Repeated to see what changes, if any, Maximum power point tracking

could have on a tropical

PV installation such as in zaria, Nigeria.

(v) The designed PV array will be assembled and the system shall include a
number of deep cycle storage batteries

(vi) The main dc-ac conversion equipment will be designed based on the full
wave H-bridge topology

And controlled based on the Sine wave Triangle pulse width modulation
technique ( PWM).

(vii) The designed PWM converter will be simulated using spice to view its
performance in terms of

Efficiency and total harmonic distortion.

(viii) Actual construction of the power converter will be undertaken and actual
tests will be carried

Out on the unit and results compared with those of simulation.

12 Progress made in research

Having conducted a literature review on the existing power conversion topology

and methods of

Control, I am now at the stage of designing my own power converter which will
incorporate

Maximum power point tracking. It is hoped that a number of publications will be

possible onece the

Research work reaches an advanced stage

13 Proposed duration of the project : 4years

14 Uniqueness of the proposed research:

Power inverters that incorporate Maximum power point tracking and low
harmonic distortion are

Not very common . Such a project when successfully carried out will fill the gap
left in distributed

Power

15 Expected Benefits of the research

As ealier noted , distributed generation which is expected to complement the

problematic

Central power generation is expected to benefit immensely from such a

project. It is expected that

The Department of Electrical Engineering and ABUCONS shall rake millions from
a joint manufacturing

Venture which is possible from a working design.

16 Proposed method of dessimination of the results:

Dessemination of the result s will be through Conferences and publications in

academic journals.
17 Itemized budgets.

(i) Texas Instrument (TM540) dc-dc converter module

N 150,000

With MPPT controls

(ii) Digital Signal Processor(TI45mp) with programming kit

N100,000

(iii) PSpice simulating soft ware

N100,000

(iv) IGBT gate control ICS

N50,000

(v) Stationeries(N500 per rim) N10,000

(vi) Thesis production and photocopy N20,000

18 Other sources of funding : Self

19 Net amount Applied from the university board of research :

N430,000.00

(Four hundred and thirty thousand Naira only)

20 Bibliography

O. OJO “Generalized discontinuous PWM Scheme for 3 Phase voltage

source inverters. IEEE

Trans on power electronics vol 30 pp 55-62”

B.K.Bose “Power electronics and variable frequency drives technology and

application IEEE press

Newyork 1997”
 R Erickson “Fundamentals of power electronics kluwar Academic press, Norwel
USA 2001”

B. K. Bose “Modern power electronics and ac drives prentice hall New jersey
2002.

Muhammad H. Rashid” Power Electronics Circuits devices and applications third

edition prentice hall

India 2005”

21 Major Supervisor’s Recommendation

The request for the research grant is highly recommended

Signature of major supervisor ___________________ Date _________________

Name Professor B G Bajoga

Department of Electrical Engineering

22 Declaration

i I agree that all materials and equipment obtained in the course of this
research

project shall remain the property of Ahmadu Bello University and that the
copyright in respect

of all publications based on the research shall belong to Ahmadu Bello

University Zaria

Signature of applicant_______________ Date _________________________

Ii I also agree that to abide by the regulations of the University Board of

research, if I fail to comply with the regulation ,Busar is authorized to deduct the
research grant from my salary. These regulation
Include :

A Submission of progress report on the research once every 6 months

B Submission of copy of final report to the directorate of Academic planning

at the time indicated

In my research proposal.

23 Signature and Date of Principal research

24 Recommendation of the head of department

_______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Signature of Head of Department ____________________ Date ___________________

Name: Dr M.B. Muazu

Department of Electrical Engineering