Int. j. inf. tecnol.

(January 2023) 15(1):279–287

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41870-022-01144-z

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Investigations of standalone PV system

with battery‑supercapacitor hybrid energy storage system
for household applications
K. Karunanithi1 · S. Ramesh1 · S. P. Raja2 ·
R. Sreedhar1 · S. Kannan3 · V. Ramudu1

Received: 28 June 2022 / Accepted: 13 December 2022 / Published online: 24 December 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management 2022

Abstract In this paper, a standalone Photovoltaic (PV)
system with Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS) which
consists of two energy storage devices namely Lithium Ion
Battery (LIB) bank and Supercapacitor (SC) pack for house-
hold applications is proposed. The design of standalone PV
system is carried out by considering the average solar radia-
tion of the selected city. During the frequent load variation
conditions, the Supercapacitor can discharge its energy since
it can discharge high current with less time and during con-
stant load condition LIBs take care of supplying required
energy to the load. In this system, P&O algorithm is used
for Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) to achieve
higher efficiency. MATLAB-Simulink is used to evaluate
the performance of the proposed standalone PV system with
* S. P. Raja
avemariaraja@gmail.com
K. Karunanithi
k.karunanithiklu@gmail.com
S. Ramesh
rameshsme@gmail.com
R. Sreedhar
rsreedhareeeped@gmail.com
S. Kannan
kannaneeeps@gmail.com
V. Ramudu
vramudu4@gmail.com
1 The MESS which includes flywheel (FW), compressed air
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Vel
Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science
and Technology, Avadi, Chennai, India
2
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Vellore
Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamilnadu 632014, India
3
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
Ramco Institute of Technology, Rajapalayam, India
HESS under various solar irradiance as well as AC loading
conditions.
Keywords Hybrid energy storage system (HESS) ·
Lithium ion battery (LIB) · Photovoltaic (PV) system ·
Supercapacitor (SC)
1 Introduction
PV system is classified as standalone, grid connected and
hybrid categories. A standalone or off-grid system is the
one which is not connected to the power grid [1]. The fun-
damental basic difference between the ON-Grid and OFF
Grid system comes from the energy storage features. Energy
storage system is essential for the operation of standalone
PV systems and which maintain the availability of power
supply to the required loads and increase the system reli-
ability. Energy storage systems can be in many forms and
sizes. Storage options include batteries, thermal, or mechani-
cal systems. All of these technologies can be paired with
software that controls the charge and discharge of energy.
The ESSs are classified as Electrical Energy Storage
Systems (EESS), Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems
(ECESS), Mechanical Energy Storage Systems (MESS), and
Hybrid Energy Storage Systems [2]. In EESS, the SCs and
super conducting magnetic devices (SMD) are used. The
batteries and fuel cells are coming under ECESS category.
energy storage (CAES) and pumped hydro energy storage
(PHES). The HESS is one which is using combination of
above mentioned categories. In HESS, Battery-SC, combi-
nations of Battery Energy storage systems (BESS), BESS-
FC and SC-Fuel cell (FC) combinations are frequently used.
Among these hybrid storage systems, BESS-SC is popular

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and the battery performance of battery is enhanced by reduc-
ing the stress during the transient period [3].
For household/enterprise application, the load varia-
tion occurs frequently. Sometime a motor (Mixer/Grinder/
Pump) may be turned on. During this time, a high starting
current will be drawn by the machine. But this starting cur-
rent flow only for a few seconds and the device consumes
more power during this time. If batteries are the only avail-
able source to meet the energy demand, the batteries will
be damaged because of heavy discharging current during
starting time of motor. The battery energy storage system
is suitable for constant load application only. So, there is a
need of additional energy storage system which can capable
of delivery of high discharging current for short time dura-
tion. The hybrid energy storage system such as battery and
SC combination can deliver the required energy demand at
all situations. The novelty of this work is considering vari-
ation of both solar irradiance and load variations. This situ-
ation is similar to the real time system in which the system
is subjected to both variation of irradiance and load. The
rest of the paper is as follows. The Sect. 2 describes litera-
ture survey related to this work and Sect. 3 explains design
of proposed system. The Sect. 4 discusses the simulation
results and Sect. 5 concludes.
2 Literature survey
Gaurav Chaudhary et al. [4] proposed different energy stor-
age devices for microgrid and discussed the various con-
trol strategies for energy management system. They made
detailed comparison with respect to various parameters like
response time, discharge time, cycles, capacity and self-dis-
charge etc. And they also discussed breakeven analysis with
respect to ESS size and cost. Soedibyo et al. [5] proposed
Energy management for BESS-SC for standalone PV system
with PI controller. The authors simulated uncontrolled and
controlled system with 1000 and 500 W/m2 solar irradiance
conditions in Matlab/Simulink platform. Kashif Javed et al.
[6] proposed design of off grid PV-HESS for rural India.
Rather than using rule based and filtration-based control-
lers, the authors used fuzzy based controller. The authors
developed 5 kW standalone PV systems with 20 Nos of
250 W PV modules with 64AH battery and 100F SC. In
this paper, during the load variation, the behavior of the SC
is not discussed by the authors. Salman Hajiaghasri et.al
[7] proposed various storage combination methods using in
HESS application. They distinguished different combina-
tions in two groups with near term hybrids and long-term
hybrids. They performed comparative analysis on various
factors like cost of the system, combined efficiency, system
flexibility, hardware complexity and overall controllability
in active, semi active and passive topologies.
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Int. j. inf. tecnol. (January 2023) 15(1):279–287
H Parthasarathy et al. [8] proposed design of standalone
PV system with BESS. They used P and O MPPT algo-
rithm for PWM signal for charge-controlled converter. The
implemented zeta converter for reducing switching stress,
increasing circuit adaptability and limiting setting time of
system for controlling DC bus voltage in place of boost con-
verter. Wenlong Jing et al. [9] proposed available topologies
of SC-HESS. They discussed EMS for 5 kW standalone PV
systems by considering 24 h solar irradiance data and simu-
lation is done in Matlab. Authors also carried cost reduction
comparison on mentioned topologies with BESS. Joao faria
et al. [10] proposed power management control for stan-
dalone PV. They developed battery management system for
monitoring and controlling of some important parameters
like temperature, current and voltage etc. They used rule-
based controller along with PI controller for effective power
management. They used non isolated bidirectional DC/DC
power converters for connecting ESS elements to DC bus.
Iqra Panhwar et al. [11] proposed design of off-grid and
on-grid PV system. They used solar irradiance data from
National renewable Energy Lab (NREL) data base. They
used Homer pro software for designing of the system and
with the help of this software authors also discussed net
present cost for both the systems. Lee Wai Chong et al. [12]
proposed an optimal control strategy for standalone PV sys-
tem with BS-HEES. They used Low Pass Filter (LPF) and
Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC). The LPF removes the high
dynamic components from the battery and FLC minimizes
battery peak current demand. They incorporated particles
Swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for generation of
membership function to FLC to achieve optimal battery peak
current reduction.
Frank Samuel et al. [13] carried analysis of solar irradia-
tion data in kW/m2/day of 45 locations in 9 districts of north
Tamil Nadu using PV watt site and tabulated. Authors men-
tioned best place for installation and commissioning of large
solar PV plants using this analysis data. Lie Wai Chong et al.
[14] carried modelling and simulation of standalone PV sys-
tem with BESS-SC Hybrid Energy Storage System for Rural
Household. They used Rule Based Controller (RBC) and
Moving Average Filter Based Controller (MAFC) for power
allocation and compared 2 kW PV system for all topologies.
The authors reduced battery peak power demand by 8.6% in
semi active BS HESS and improved battery average State
of Charge (SOC) by 0.34% compared to BESS. Wenlong
Jing et al. [15] proposed standalone PV system with various
topologies in BS HESS used for DC micro grid applica-
tion. The authors discussed extension of DC microgrids to
AC bus by using interlinking converters. They discussed
some intelligent energy management algorithms for control
of HESS. The developed costs function for SC semi active
system for reducing the battery stress and evaluating the rate
of charge and discharge cycles. Ishaq M. et al. [16] carried
Int. j. inf. tecnol. (January 2023) 15(1):279–287
off grid PV system design for government technical college
in wudil, kano state with a total load of 11.8 kW and the
average daily energy demand of 48.78 kW/day. The authors
designed the system with 13 kW capacity PV system with 20
Nos of 325 AH battery. They considered 20% safety factor
for design of inverter and charge controller in order to with-
stand overload capability for small durations. M.E Glavin
et al. [17] proposed standalone PV system with BESS-SC
HESS. The authors considered Valve Regulated Lead Acid
batteries (VRLA) for this application. They used MATLAB
/SIMLINK model for study of the system. They used energy-
controlled unit (ECU) for investigation of power supply by
the battery and SC. Rohit Ranjan kumar et al. [18] proposed
liner quadratic regulator based PID controller for control-
ling load frequency in renewable energy based micro grid
with solar PV and wind generator system. They used diesel
generator set for backup source. They carried matalb simula-
tion for PID based and LQR based controllers for compari-
son. Ahmadreza Motaqi [19] proposed energy performance
management in battery powered reconfigurable processors
for standalone IoT systems. The used field programmable
gate array based reconfigurable processors in standalone
internet of things. They added energy management is very
important for such systems. They proposed two important
strategies for energy management they are trade off perfor-
mance and minimization Manisha et al. [20] carried sur-
vey of photovoltaic based MPPT controller for different
atmospheric conditions particularly for non-uniform solar
radiation. They also performed analysis on PV system with
variable temperatures and partial shading conditions. They
used fuzzy based techniques and artificial neural network
techniques for evaluation of MPPT performance. R Sreed-
har et al. [21] proposed design of single-phase buck boost
inverter for solar PV system under partial shaded conditions
with grey wolf optimization. The authors used global maxi-
mum power point tracking to gain maximum power of solar
Fig. 1  Block diagram of pro-
posed system
281
panel subjected to partial shading. The authors simulated
this concept in MATLAB Simulink and prototype model
also was developed.
3 Design of proposed system
The proposed standalone PV system with HESS is shown in
Fig. 1. It consists of solar panels, MPPT charge controller,
Bidirectional DC-DC converters, battery bank, SC, inverter
and AC loads. The double bedroom home is considered for
designing of this standalone solar system. The off-grid PV
system design mainly consists of estimation of total home
appliances load and usage hours, selection of energy stor-
age devices, solar PV module, charge controller and finally
inverter.
3.1 Selection of system voltage
The system voltage is selected based on the energy demand
and standard available ratings of electrical devices like bat-
tery, PV panel and inverter etc. in the market. In general,
more the energy requirement, the more is the voltage needed
by the standalone solar PV system. The energy demand/day
is assumed as 2.5 kWh and a 24 V system is considered for
proposed standalone PV system.
3.2 Calculation of required super capacitor rating
The SC has high capacitance value and lower voltage rating
compared to conventional capacitor. Due to this feature, it
is extensively used in energy storage applications. For arriv-
ing value of SC, the inrush load and its duration is required.
Assume the starting current drawn by a home appliance (ex.
motor) is 25 A, assume the starting current will flow for 10 s
and the AH capacity required for SC can be calculated as
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282
(25*10/3600 = 0.0694 AH) and energy stored for complete
day requirement is (0.0694*24 = 1.666 watt-hour).
The Energy stored in a capacitor E = 1∕2 ∗ C ∗ V2 (1)
One watt - hour = 3600 joules (2)
Then 1.667 Wh = 5976 J (approximately equal to 6000 J).
½ *C * ­V2 = 6000 and C = 2*6000/242 = 20.8 F is the
estimated SC value. The available voltage rating of SC is
2.7 V. Hence nine number of SC are required to make 24 V
configuration.
3.3 Calculation of required battery bank rating
In off grid PV system, the battery bank design is essential
component, the total power required by the appliances is
supplied by battery bank. Due to numerous advantages of
lithium-ion battery compared with all other types of batter-
ies, it is popularly used in applications like Electrical Vehi-
cles, Renewable Energy storage systems.
Battery capacity
= (Total watt - hour per day ∗ DOA) (3)
∕(Inverter 𝜂 ∗ battery voltage ∗ DOD)
DOA stands for Days of Autonomy and it is defined as
number of days system should supply load without sunlight
and DOD stands for Depth of discharge and it is defined as
percentage charge that can take out from the battery. Con-
sidering 2 days of autonomy, inverter efficiency as 96% and
DOD of Li-ion battery is 80% and 12 V, 100 AH capacity
lithium-ion battery selected for this application. Battery AH
capacity is (2500*2)/(0.96*12*0.8) = 542.53 AH
No. of batteries required
= (Total battery AH capacity)
∕(selected battery AH capacity) (4)
No. of batteries required = 542.53∕100
= 5.42 so, rounded off, 6 batteries are required
No. of batteries in series = Vsystem ∕VBatter
(5)
No. of batteries in series is = 24∕12 = 2 Nos.
No of batteries in parallel
= No. of batteries required
∕no. of batteries in series (6)
No of batteries in parallel
= 6∕2 = 3 Nos.
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Int. j. inf. tecnol. (January 2023) 15(1):279–287
3.4 Calculation of required PV system capacity
In this proposed design, the sizing of PV system is also
important parameter; it includes wattage of each PV mod-
ule and number of PV modules. In order to obtain these
calculations one can, get the information of voltage, cur-
rent and wattage of the PV module available in the market,
Solar radiation at a given site location. The Peak Sun Hours
(PSH) available for the selected city (Vijayawada, India) is
5.5 Hrs. and the estimated average energy generation per
year is 5,788.
PV capacity required is = Daily Wh required∕PSH (7)
Required PV capacity is (2500/5.5 = 454.54 W) and 24 V,
100 W solar module selected for this application.
No. of PV Modules
= System capacity
∕selected PV module capacity
(8)
No. of PV Modules
= 454.54∕100 = 4.5
= nearly 5 modules required
( )
No. of modules in series Nms = Vsystem ∕VModule
(9)
Nms = 24∕24 = 1 No
( )
No. of modules in parallel Nmp = Power(array) ∕Nms ∗ PowerModule
Nmp = 500∕1 ∗ 100 = 5 Nos.
(10)
3.5 Calculation of inverter capacity
Inverter is a power electronic device used to convert DC sup-
ply from solar PV panel or energy storage devices into AC
supply for household appliances. The size is selected based
on the wattage of appliances used in home. The maximum
wattage required is assumed as 1600 watts. Considering
safety factor (SF) as 20% then the calculated inverter capac-
ity is as 2 kVA.
3.6 Calculation of charge controller rating
The charge controller is used to regulate the voltage and
current from the PV panels going to the battery bank and
prevents batteries overcharging and also prolongs the battery
life. There are two types of charge controllers are used for
solar PV systems PWM type and MPPT type. The efficiency
of MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) controller is
more when compared to PWM controller.
Int. j. inf. tecnol. (January 2023) 15(1):279–287 283

Charge controller current PV system is varying depending on the change in irradiation

level.
= Total PV array wattage (11)
The above Fig. 4 depicts the SC voltage, current and SoC.
∕battery bank nominal voltage The super capacitor voltage is maintained constant in steady
state condition until the time t = 0.2 s. Due to sudden change
Charge controller current is 500/24 = 20.83 and add
in irradiance, the supercapacitor starts to balance the load
safety factor as 1.25 then the final charge controller rating
and the discharge current increases. So, the corresponding
is 20.83*1.25 = 26A.
state of charge is reduced from 99 to 98% as shown above.
During transient time i.e.: at t = 0.3 s a sudden reactive load
equivalent to mixer grinder load is applied because of that
4 Simulation results
there is a surge in SC current. So, it is clearly visible that,
SC supports at transient load condition.
The simulation of Standalone PV system is analyzed with
The above Fig. 5 shows the battery voltage, current and
the MATLAB-Simulink platform. The Simulink diagram is
SOC. During time t = 0.2 s the power generated by the PV
shown in Fig. 2. The simulation analysis includes the con-
system is used in charge the battery bank battery will store
nection of battery and SC to common DC bus with bidi-
the energy and similarly at time t > 0.2 s due to reduction
rectional DC-DC converter. The MPPT with Perturb and
in solar irradiation the power generated is reduced subse-
Observe algorithm is used to generate gate pulses for boost
quently the stored energy in battery bank is used to supply
converter. The gate pulses are estimated with the actual and
power to the load. From the above graph the state of charge
reference voltage and current values of battery and SC. The
of the battery is lies between 50 to 49%. At t = 0.3 s because
simulation is carried for two different solar irradiances with
of transient load, there is a surge in battery current. But
constant temperature. Different active and reactive loads are
because of the support from supercapacitor, the battery cur-
added dynamically to understand the load sharing of battery
rent lies within the prescribed ‘C’ rating of the battery.
with supercapacitor as well as the stability of the system at
The above Fig. 6 shows the power of PV system, load,
load side.
battery and SC under two different solar irradiance condi-
The above Fig. 3 depicts the PV system voltage and cur-
tions and two different loading conditions. From the wave-
rent. In this entire simulation period, the temperature is
form it is representing whenever there is a sufficient amount
maintained constant as 25 °C and solar irradiation is 980
of solar radiation the load power supplied by PV system
watts/m2 up to 0.2 s and from rest of the simulation period
and battery. During transient conditions i.e., sudden decreas-
the solar irradiation is maintained as 480 watts/m2. The PV
ing of solar irradiation or sudden increase in loading the
output voltage is continuously maintained by MPPT tech-
same power demand can met from SC power. In this way
nique to extract maximum power. The output current of the

Fig. 2  MATLAB-Simulink diagram

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284 Int. j. inf. tecnol. (January 2023) 15(1):279–287

Fig. 3  PV output results (Voltage, current and power)

Fig. 4  SC output results (Voltage, current and SoC)

the stress on battery bank is reduced and life of the battery irradiance, the output voltage of the inverter is maintained
is improved. constant. So, the stability of the system is maintained under
The above Fig. 7 shows that voltage, current and various loading and irradiance conditions. It is clearly
power across the load. During the changes in load or solar observed from the graph.

13
Int. j. inf. tecnol. (January 2023) 15(1):279–287 285

Fig. 5  Battery output results (Voltage, current and SOC)

Fig. 6  Stand-alone PV with HESS system results (PV power, Load power, Battery power and SC power)

13
286
Fig. 7  Load Voltage, Load Current and Load Power
5 Conclusion
The standalone PV system with hybrid energy storage sys-
tem using lithium-ion battery and SC was developed with
considering actual load requirements of household appli-
ances approximately average energy demand of 2.5 units
and average solar radiation of 5.5 kWh/m2/day of selected
location (Vijayawada, India) with the help of PV watt portal.
The autonomy of two days was taken care in order to supply
continuous power in case of rainy or no solar radiation days.
The results show that the proposed HESS system can supply
the transient load current with the help of SC and steady load
current by using battery, due to this, the frequent charge and
discharge cycles of battery bank was reduced and thereby
increasing the battery lifetime and performance. Hence the
overall system effectively balances the power of battery for
different conditions. The load inrush current is supplied by
SC. Power quality issues, evaluation of system reliability and
system stability can be included as future scope.
Data availability The data can be shared based on the
user request.
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