K.S. Yamuna and R. Shivakumar
Abstract
Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) based PV pumping system is investigated in this paper. The SR motor is excited by a dc voltage through a simple switching network. This SR driver circuit is simpler than ordinary inverter required to excite the induction motor. The efficiency of the SR motor is higher than that of the induction motor. The simple construction makes the motor cheaper than other conventional drives. Because of the mentioned advantages of the SR motor, the proposed system has higher efficiency and less expensive compared with other systems. Designing of the system is studied in detail to recognize the advantages of PV pumping system based on the SRM drive. The study of the performance of the system indicates that the efficiency of the SRM is about 85% in its overall performance. The synchronization efficiency between the PV system and the SR driver circuit approaches 95%. The major losses take place in the pump, so this loss indicates 1/3 of the total energy available.