Renewable Energy Initiatives at Dayalbagh Educational Institute

Renewable Energy initiatives at Dayalbagh Educational Institute

The first of our invited posts is by Prof. Bhagwan Das, Professor of Renewable Energy in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Dayalbagh Educational Institute (DEI). In this post, we will delve into the renewable energy initiatives at DEI.

Through the vision, initiative and encouragement of Revered Prof. Prem Saran Satsangi, Chairman, Advisory Committee on Education, Dayalbagh, the renewable energy deployment in the institute commenced in 2010 to facilitate sustainable developmental activities in agreement with the concept of an Eco-Village.

The university campus is powered by 11 Distributed Roof-Top SPV (Solar Photovoltaic - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoltaic_system) power plants aggregating to a total of 668.2 kW(peak). Apart from the Dayalbagh campus of the institute, distributed Roof-Top Solar PV Power Plants of aggregate 45 kWp capacity have been installed at DEI extension centers (ICT centers) in various cities and a CSR sponsored project of 200 kWp distributed off-grid SPV system is under commissioning in the Dayalbagh Rajaborari Estate of Madhya Pradesh tribal area.

Fig 1 : Satellite view of Dayalbagh Educational Institute showing six of the eleven plants and their coverage (image - Google Earth)

The effectiveness of renewable energy micro-grid was evident during the major grid collapse on two consecutive days on 30th and 31st July 2012 in India when over 600 million people (nearly half of India's population), in 22 out of 28 states in India, were without power. Dayalbagh Educational Institute, having its own SPV micro-grid, was not affected and the teaching – learning- co-curricular activities continued normally. On normal sun-shine days, the institute is self- sufficient in power and not affected by the frequent power outages. Under cloudy conditions, a careful battery management ensures uninterrupted power supply to the whole campus.

Having commissioned the distributed SPV based micro-grid of the institute, the challenge now is to make the system efficient, reliable and economically viable in the face of dynamic loading conditions, weather conditions affecting generation and unreliable power grid. Multi-dimensional R&D activities are in progress to indigenously develop integrated remote monitoring, communication, control and fault diagnosis of all the power plants from a central control station, resulting in a Smart Micro Grid.

  Solar thermal cooking systems in Hostels  

Three solar thermal cooking systems have been installed in the three hostels in DEI. Each system comprises of 5 dishes, each having a 16 Sq m in diameter. The total average kcals generated by the concentrators in one system is 200,000 kcals / day, which is equivalent to 19 kgs of LPG. The system installed in the Girls’ Hostel is also equipped with water heating facility. For institutions having much larger hostels, the savings would be sizable.

The cooking systems are used for boiling Amla and decoction of herbs for preparation of Chyavan Prash in the Ayurvedic Pharmacy of Dayalbagh during their lull phase. With conventional boiling process, there was a requirement of 80 Kg of Hard Coke and the process time was 12 hours. In steam cooking the process time has reduced to 3 hours with no expenditure on fossil fuels.

A pioneer in the field of vocational education, the institute has launched vocational programmes in renewable energy at various levels viz. Certificate, Diploma, B.Voc., M.Voc. and Ph.D.

The Dayalbagh Educational Institute initiative has demonstrated that Universities, building intellectual resources through teaching-learning and research, offer a perfect platform for establishing renewable energy micro-grids. In addition to sustainable development through clean energy technologies and self-sufficiency in energy, a university micro-grid is an ideal test bed for conducting indigenous research and development. This ensures quality research with relevance as well as development of skilled man power and intellectual property in the area.

Look forward to your comments and feedback.