Design and Operational Experience of Powering

Base Transceiver Station in Indonesia by Using

a Hybrid Power System
P. A. Dahono', M. F. Salam", F. M. Falah
2
, G. Yudha
2
, Y. Marketatmo', and S. Budiwibowo'
1. Institute of Technology Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia.
2. PT. LEN, Bandung, Indonesia.
3. PT. Indosat, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Abstract - The design of small hybrid power system for
powering base transceiver station (BTS) is described in this
paper. The energy for powering the BTS is obtained by using a
combination of wind power, solar cell, and utility line. The sizing
method for this kind of hybrid power supply is proposed. In
order to verify the proposed design method, a pilot project of
powering a 4000-Watt BTS is implemented. Operational
experience of this kind hybrid power supply is reported in this
paper. It is found that a hybrid approach is useful to reduce the
cost of powering BTS in remote areas.
I. INSTRODUCTION
Indonesia has more than ten thousands small islands those
are distributed around the equator. In these islands, most of
electrical power is generated by using diesel generators.
Generating electrical power by using diesel generators is very
expensive. Moreover, during rainy and wind seasons, it is
difficult to send fuels to the island because the sea wave is
very high. It is desirable to create a power generation system
that is self sufficient. The president of Indonesia has declared
to create many energy self-sufficient villages and islands.
Indonesia has targeted to install more than 1000 MW wind
power plants and 10000 MW solar power plants by 2025.
PT. Indosat is one of cellular telephone company in
Indonesia who has more than 13,000 BTSs. About half of
them are located in remote areas. PT. Indosat has a problem of
powering the remote BTSs especially during wind and rainy
seasons. At present, one remote BTS usually consumes 2000
liters of diesel fuel every month. In some remote regions, the
price of fuels can be very expensive several times higher than
the normal price. In recent years, PT. Indosat has a program to
improve the reliability of the BTSs by using alternative energy
sources those are available locally. As Indonesia is located at
the equator, the solar energy is the first choice. At present,
however, solar cell is still considered very expensive. In order
to reduce the size of solar cell, wind power is considered as a
good alternative especially in east part of Indonesia. By
combining wind and solar energy sources, it is expected that a
reliable power supply can be obtained without too much cost
penalty.
In this paper, the design and sizing of hybrid power system
for small BTSs in Indonesia are presented. Combination of
wind and solar energy sources are used as the main source and
utility line is used as a backup. The operational experience that
is obtained from a pilot project during the last six months is
reported. It is found that the designed system is working as
expected.
II. POWER SYSTEM DESIGN
The power consumption of BTSs is almost constant from time
to time. For small BTSs, the average power demand is about
4000 Watt. Half of this power is used for air conditioning
system. The telecommunication equipment itself is just
consuming 1500 Watt. The rest is for lighting and monitoring
system.
In this pilot project, it has been decided to design a system
that is not so different to the existing scheme. The scheme of
conventional power system of BTS is shown in Fig. 1. The
BTS is usually powered by the utility line. A diesel generator
is usually used as the back-up. Air condition and lighting
systems are powered from the AC bus. By using a rectifier, the
ac power is converted into 48V dc power. The battery and
telecommunication equipment are connected directly to the
48V de bus. The battery is usually designed to give at least 6
hours back-up time.
In remote areas, however, diesel generator is usually the
main source. For small BTSs, about 2000 liters diesel fuel is
required every month. In remote areas or small islands, the
main problem is how to send the fuel. Just in several years, the
fuel cost may exceed the price of the BTS itself.
The first choice is using PV and wind power generation
systems that produce ac voltage as shown in Fig. 2. By using
this configuration, the operating procedure of the BTS is not
changing at all. Unfortunately, the efficiency of this system is
low and the power converter systems are expensive. The
second choice is using a system as shown in Fig. 3. In this
system, the wind and PV power plants produce dc voltage. As
the required power converters are smaller than the one in Fig.
2, the efficiency is better and the cost is cheaper. In this case,
however, the setting point of the existing rectifier must be
modified to take into account the existence of PV and wind
charge controllers. The second configuration is the one that is
implemented in this project.
In this pilot project, the site is selected arbitrarily. The site
may not the optimal place for PV or wind power but it is
selected because the access is easy. Moreover, the government
has selected Bali island as to be a green island. The selected
Utility
ACloads
.... I-:'.


48Vdc
Wind
I
DC AC
C C
DC loads
ACloads
I Utility

Rectifier
48Vdc
Diesel
Genset
Battery
Fig. 3. The second configuration.
site is located in Girisari village, Bali island. Before the hybrid
power system is installed, the BTS is powered by the utility
line. No diesel generator back-up is provided because the
reliability of utility line in Bali is considered good. The
average energy consumption of this BTS is 96 kWh/day.
Every day, the energy consumption of the telecommunication
equipment is 1500x24 Wh or 36 kWh.
According to the data, the average wind speed in this area is
not so good. It is just about 4-5 m/s. Though the average speed
is low, the peak speed can be very high. This is a problem
during the design of wind tower. As the average speed is low,
the wind power cannot be relied as the main source. In this
pilot project, the installation of wind power is just to get
DC loads
experience of using wind for powering BTSs. The general
specification of the system is shown in Table 1.
The general specification of wind power system is shown in
Table 2. The installed wind turbine has maximum capacity of
2500 Watt. The maximum power is reached when the wind
speed is 12 m/s. The generator used in this pilot project is a
surface-mounted permanent magnet three-phase ac generator.
The output of the generator is rectified by using a diode
rectifier. The output of rectifier is connected to the dc bus
through a battery charge controller. The charge controller is
basically just a buck chopper that controls the battery voltage.
Neither pitch controller nor maximum power controller are
provided in the charge controller.
According to the data, the average sunshine hour in this site
is between 7 to 8 hours a day during the dry season and
between 5 to 6 hours a day during the rainy season. As the
average energy consumption is 36 kWh, the installed PV
module must be larger than 4000 Wp. It is decided to install
4800 PV array that is divided into two modules. The general
specification of PV module is shown in Table 3. If it is not
because of good location for PV or wind but it is rather good
only the telecommunication equipment will be powered by
solar and wind power sources. The battery is designed to give
a backup time for 24 hours. According to the average wind
speed in the area, it is designed to use a 2500 Watt wind
turbine. The solar module is sized as 4800 Watt system that is
divided into two 2400 Watt arrays. Each array is connected to
the de bus through a solar charge controller. The charge
controller is basically a buck converter that operates according
to the de bus voltage. No maximum power point tracker is
provided in this solar charge controller.
The battery is designed to provide back-up time for 24
hours. Thus, the minimum ampere-hour of the battery must be
1500x24/48=750 Ah. Considering the battery maximum and
minimum charge conditions, a battery bank of 1200 Ah was
selected. The minimum charge level of the battery was
controlled to be 30 %. When the minimum charge level is
reached, the rectifier is activated by the system controller to
charge the battery bank.
Utility
ACloads
....


48Vdc
DC loads
Fig. 1. Scheme of conventional BTSs.
Fig. 2. First configuration of hybrid system.
Wind
al
J AC
C
Battery

Table 1. General system specification.

PVand Wind Power Curve
., Photovoltaic System
., Battery Bank
., Charge Controller
., PV Support System
., Wind Turbine
,Wind Tower
., Protection Panel
., Remote monitoring
: PolycristalinePV, 4.8 kWp (48 pes, @ 1OOWp)
: Deep Cycle OPzV, 57.6 kWh (48 block, @ 100 Ah)
: PWM, 48 Vdc, 120 Ampere,
: Free Standing, on top shelter for 4800 Wp
: 2500 Watt, 48 Vdc, included Charge controller
: 24 meter Self Support, steel galvanize
: AC and DCprotection system
: Data acquisition and communicationvia GPRS
Table 2. Specification of wind power plant.
Fig. 4. PV, wind, and load power curves in Jnuary 9,2009.
Type
Rated Power
Rotor position
Rotor diameter
Number of blades
Blade material
Rotor speed
Cut-in speed
Nominal rated speed
Generator type
Safety system
Tail length
: SKEA LPN-2500E
: 2500 Watt
: upwind
: 5.0 m
:3
: Fiberglass-reinforced
: 450 rpm
: 2.5 mls
: 10 mls
: Angular type, magnet permanent
: " ecliptic safety by turning tail vane gOO and
electric brake "
: 2800 mm
PVand Wind Power Curve
Table 3. General Specification of PV module.
Fig. 5. PV, wind, and load curves in March 14,2009.
cell
No. Of Cells and connections
Nominal Voltage
Dimension
Typical maximum power (Pmax)
Voltageat maximumpower (Vmp)
Current at maximum power (Imp)
Short-circuit current (Is<:)
Open-circuit voltage (Voc)
: PolycristaI
: 36
: 12VDC
: 1339 x 669 mm
: 100 Watt
: 16.5V
: ~ . 9 0 A
: 6.70A
: 21.8V
PVand Wind Power Curve
06-April-2009
The wind and solar charge controllers are coordinated by
the main controller. The main controller monitors the battery
voltage, output of charge controllers, and output of main
rectifier. If the battery voltage is lower than the set point, the
main rectifier is activated and the battery is charge by the
utility through the main rectifier.
The system was commissioned on August 2008. The
measurement results are given in the next section.
III. MEASUREMENT RESULTS
Until now, there are no significant operational problems. By
using this hybrid power system, about 90 percent of the
required power can be supplied by renewable energy sources.
Figs. 4-6 show daily measurement results in January, March,
and April 2009, respectively. Though the average speed in
2009 is very low, about 3 mis, wind is still able to supply
Fig. 6. PV, wind, and load curves in April 6, 2009.
power to the system. The daily production of wind turbine is
about 4 kWh. The wind turbine has broken once in the middle
of February because of excessive wind speed. The power
production of wind turbine as a function of speed is shown in
Fig. 7. The wind turbine has produced power as expected.
Figs. 4-6 show that the PV starts producing power since 6.30
AM and finishes at 17.30 almost every day. This is as good as
expected though no MPPT is applied in the controller.
Fig. 8 shows the energy produced by the PV, wind, and the
utility (PLN). The average energy produced by PV is about 20
kWh and produced by the wind is about 4 kWh. Thus, about
70 percent of the energy is supplied by wind and PV. At
present, the main rectifier is activated when the battery voltage
is reduced up to 30 percent of battery charge condition. The
main rectifier is deactivated when the battery voltage has
increased up to 90 percent of battery charge condition. Some
adjustment on the setting point of charge controller is going on
to maximize the energy production by PV and wind.
PT. Indosat has considered this pilot project as successfully.
Based on this experience, PT. Indosat has a plan to install
similar 50 hybrid power system for powering the BTSs. The
final target is converting about 2.5% of all BTSs into green
BTSs. This target is in accordance to the national target of
using renewable energy sources.
At present, PT. Indosat has a plan to use a biodiesel that is
produced locally to improve the reliability of the BTSs in
some remote islands. PT. Indosat has just finished
commissioning a small plant that produces a biodiesel with a
capacity of 30 kiloliters per month. The biodiesel is produced
from jathropa oil. By using this small plant, most of BTSs in
Bali and Lombok islands that belongs to PT. Indosat will be
green. If this project is successful, other projects using other
oil plants will follow.
IV. CONCLUSION
A small hybrid power system has been proposed to supply a
small BTS in Indonesia. The system consists of wind, PV, and
utility sources. Measurement results shown that the system has
performed as expected. As the average speed is very low,
wind energy cannot be relied to supply BTS. The PV power is
promising because we have almost do day without sunshine.
Optimization is still required to maximize the utilization of
renewable energy sources.
REFERENCES
[1] H. Gumhalter, Power Supply Systems in Communications Engineering,
Part2: Equipment Engineering and Planning Instructions, Wiley, 1985.
[2] W. Reeve, DC Power System Design for Telecommunications, Wiley,
2007.
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