Energy management unit managing energy sources for a farm

The paper presents the laboratory based model of an “Energy Management Unit” for the optimum use of the electricity produced from alternative sources like biogas plant and solar photovoltaic system at an agriculture farm. The electrical energy produced at the farm is distributed among the loads according to the availability and requirement. A diesel generator is used as a backup at the farm. If the power from photovoltaic (PV) system is sufficient, the loads are driven by electricity from PV system else the electricity from biogas drives the load. Arduino-microcontroller based circuit has been used to control the operation of the sources and loads. The sensors at the source monitor whether or not the available energy is enough to drive all the loads and sends the information to the microcontroller. The microcontroller then selects the loads that could be driven by the available power.