Charge Controller

The charge controller regulates the flow of electricity from the PV modules to the battery and the load. The
controller keeps the battery fully charged without overcharging it. When the load is drawing power, the controller
allows charge to flow from the modules into the battery, the load, or both. When the controller senses that the
battery is fully charged, it stops the flow of charge from the modules. Many controllers will also sense when loads
have taken too much electricity from batteries and will stop the flow until sufficient charge is restored to the
batteries. This last feature can greatly extend the battery's lifetime. However, controllers in stand-alone photovoltaic
system are more complex devices that depend on battery state-of-charge, which in turn depends on many factors
and is difficult to measure. The controller must be sized to handle the maximum current produced.

Several characteristics should be considered before selecting a controller:

• Adjustable Setpoints

• High voltage disconnect.

• Low voltage disconnect.

• Temperature compensation.

• Low voltage warning.

• Reverse current protection.

The controller should ensure that no current flows from the battery to the array at night.

Solar Charge Controller:

A solar charge controller is used to keep the battery from overcharging by regulating the voltage and current coming
from the solar panel to the battery. It is programmed at 15-A/200-W unit and uses MPPT (maximum power point
tracking) to accelerate solar charging of the battery up to 30% per day. MPPT checks the output of the solar panel
compares it to the battery voltage and adjusts it to the best voltage in order to get maximum current in to the
battery. The solar charge controller uses a 25-A circuit breaker to protect it against over current and has a baseline
of continuous power consumption of 35 mA. The 12-V DC power is accessible via a female cigarette lighter socket
that is implanted in a sidewall of the hard case, and is protected against over current by the internal circuitry of the
solar charge controller.

Wind Charge controller:

A wind-electric charge controller’s primary function is to protect your battery bank from overcharging. It does this by
monitoring the battery bank—when the bank is fully charged, the controller sends energy from the battery bank to a
dump (diversion) load.

Many wind-electric charge controllers are built into the same box as the rectifiers (AC-to-DC converters). Over
current protection is needed between the battery and controller/dump load.

In battery-less grid-tie systems, there is no controller in normal operation, since the inverter is selling whatever
energy the turbine is generating. But there will be some control function in the case of grid failure, and there may be
electronics before the inverter to regulate the input voltage.
 Charge Controller

The charge controller, which is connected between the PV generator and the battery (Fig. 2.11), is the most
important component in the PV standalone systems with battery storage. Its purpose is to keep the system batteries
charged and safe for a long time. The main function of the charge controller is to charge a battery without permitting
overcharge and at the same time, preventing reverse current flow when there is no sun. Charge controllers, although
not needed for smaller systems, are required for systems with optimized undersized battery storage to reduce initial
cost, and systems which have user intervention.

Figure: Block diagram of a charge controller arrangement.

Essentially, the charge controller is used to protect battery overcharge or undercharge and for automatically
connecting and disconnecting an electrical load from sunset to sunrise.

Overcharging often occurs during the summer when the photovoltaic array is operating under good or excellent
weather conditions, resulting into generation of energy exceeding the electrical load demand. In the absence of a
charge controller, the current from the array proportional to the amount of sun radiation will flow into a battery,
even if the battery does not need charging. In the case of the fully-charged battery, the unregulated charging will
cause the battery voltage to rise to an exceedingly high level, resulting in to internal heat, electrolyte loss, severe
gassing and grid corrosion. Overcharging of battery can reduce battery life span, battery performance, and may pose
a safety risk. A charge controller prevents such a battery overcharge by limiting or interrupting current flow from the
photovoltaic array to the battery when it becomes fully charged.

Over discharging takes place during periods of low solar radiation and excessive electrical load usage which causes
insufficient energy from the photovoltaic array to keep the battery fully recharged. In the case of a deeply
discharged battery the chemical reaction in the battery takes place close to the grids, weakening the bond between
active materials and the grids. In the case of repeatedly over discharge of batteries, loss of battery life and loss of
capacity occurs. Over discharge protection is accomplished by disconnecting the system loads when the battery
reaches a low voltage. In a charge controller this is achieved by open-circuiting the connection between the battery
and electrical load when the battery reaches a preset or adjustable low voltage load disconnect set point. The loads
are again reconnected once the battery reaches to a certain level.

Type of Charge Controllers

A basic charge controller monitors the battery voltage and stops charging, when the voltage rises to a certain level,
and starts again when the voltage drops below a certain level. As a result one way of characterizing the charge
controller is by the way they regulate charging current to a battery. In a shunt charge controller, charging current to
a battery is limited by short-circuiting the PV array without any harm, unlike the batteries. A shunt element inside
the charge controller is used to short-circuit the PV array which moves the array’s operating point on the I-V curve
near the short-circuit condition and limits the power output. A blocking diode in series between the battery and the
shunt element is used to prevent the short circuiting of the battery. In a series charge controller, charging the
current to the battery is limited by open circuiting the PV arrays. A switching element inside the charge controller
opens when the battery reaches a full state of charge. This will move the array’s operating point on the I-V curve to
the open circuit condition and limit the power output. The switching methods to regulate charge are based on
certain algorithms which are selected in conjunction with the step-points to optimize battery charging and overall
system performance. Most charge controllers use solid state switching element like a transistor which passes current
in one direction and prevents reverse current. Most of the modern charged controllers work in a three stage charge
cycle as given below:

1. Bulk: The controller sets a point for all three stages for the proper selection of each battery type and voltage. In
this phase, voltage rises gradually to around 14.4–14.6 V for a 12-V system. During this time the battery draws
maximum current resulting in a state of charge of about 80–90%. Once the voltage rises to bulk level, the absorption
stage starts.

2. Absorption: In the absorption phase, voltage is maintained constant at bulk level for specified time while the
current gradually tapers off (reduces) as the batteries charge up. Once the battery is full, the final stage starts. The
absorption charging period can be preset or adjustable, and is usually 1–3 hours.

3. Float: After the absorption time elapses, the voltage gradually lowers to the float level to around 13.4–13.7 V for a
12-V system, which is nearly 100% state of the charge. The float charge must not exceed the self-discharge rate or
the battery will be overcharged. At this phase the battery draws small maintenance current until the next cycle
starts. Float charging is also referred to as “trickle charging.” It is critical to maintain the optimal float levels of the
voltage because the gas produced by the battery tends to rise to an explosive level.

1 or 2 Stage or On/Off Controllers

A 1 or 2 stage controller is also referred to single or dual voltage charge/diversion controller. This depends on relay
or shunt transistors acting as switches to control the charging voltage in one or two steps. It is essentially a simple
on/off type of controller which monitors the battery voltage and turns off the power from the PV panels when the
battery voltage rises to a certain level. Whether it is designated 1 or 2 stage control, it refers to a number of different
steps in a charging routine of the battery. A 1 stage charge controller means that the solar panel is directly
connected to a battery without any regulator which can lead to undesired overcharging of batteries. A 2 stage
charge controller uses two steps charging routine, the first being the bulk and second the float stage. These systems
are capable of operating from a few amps to hundreds of amperes capacity depending on the limitation of switching
relays. These charge controllers are best used in applications where the load is always on and it also prevents the
battery from being overcharged. However it suffers from an inability to fully charge the battery quickly and does not
offer any battery maintenance or equalize charging. These systems are reliable and inexpensive as they only use few
components. Applications of 1 or 2 stage controllers are limited compared to more advanced Pulse width
modulation (PWM) and maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control charger, discussed below.