Testing, Performance and Reliability Evaluation of ChargeControllers for Solar Photovoltaic Home Lighting Systemin India

Charge controller is the most important part of a Solar Photovoltaic Home LightingSystem (SPVHLS) which controls the charging ofbattery from photovoltaic (PV) module and discharging of battery through load. This paper analyzes testresults of fourteen charge controllers (CC) available in Indiaaccording to the Ministry of New and RenewableEnergy (MNRE) specification. The different parameters of charge controllers to be tested arebattery high voltage disconnect (HVD), low voltage disconnect(LVD), load reconnect voltage (LRV), short circuit protection etc. It is found thatseven charge controllers meet the technical specifications ofMNRE. There is also a study of different features and properties of the chargecontrollers. Finally a brief discussion on selection appropriate charge controller for Solar Photovoltaic Home LightingSystem (SPVHLS) and further improvement ofcharge controller is presented.