High Reliability DC-DC Converter For Integrating Battery With Low Voltage DC System

PI: Sandeep Anand

Significant population of India does not have access to electricity. Due to climatic conditions and decreasing cost of solar PV panels, this technology could be used to provide clean electricity to various remote locations. DC based system could be more effective as compared to conventional ac system due to dc nature of sources, loads and storage elements. Suitable dc-dc converters are required to integrate battery and solar PV with dc system. High efficiency of conversion is required, which could be realized by suitable circuit design. Soft-switching could also be used to improve the efficiency of conversion. However, by incorporating these techniques, converter becomes complex and reliability may degrade.  Further due to high ambient temperature in most part of India, life of operation of these converters may reduce. Therefore, reliability and life time analysis of these converters is important. Key objectives of this project are to identify high reliability dc-dc converters for battery interface. This will require lifetime analysis of the existing battery interface circuits and suggesting suitable modifications to improve the reliability.