2nd Int'l Conf.

on Electrical Engineering and Information & Communication Technology (ICEEICT) 2015

Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh, 21-23 May 2015

Renewable Integrated Hybrid Power Management for

Off Grid Base Transceiver Station (BTS):
Microcontroller Based
Sakib Kabir, Md. Shoriful Islam, Md. Aminuzzaman,
Anim Ahmed, Md. Rajibul Hassan Khan
Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
American International University- Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
sakib_kabir@live.com, shoriful.eee@gmail.com

Abstract- Power CriSIS IS one of the major problems in

available power rating of the sources. All the sources are

Bangladesh which is increasing day by day. Within this situation

connected to the microcontroller which takes the decision to

it is very difficult to provide grid power to any new Base

connect the sources to the main bus bar according the priority.

Transceiver Station (BTS) and the possibility of development in

power sector is not remarkable in the present years. In that case

II. POWER SUPPLY FOR OFF GRID BTS

renewable sources could be the best possible solution for new

BTS. As the power of the renewable sources varies with day time

In the end of the month January 2014 the total number of

and climate, a microcontroller based system can be used to select

subscribers amassed by the entire operators combined is

the sources when enough power is available to drive the BTS.

114.808 million [4]. Whereas just 5 years back the total

Microcontroller will connect the sources to BTS according to the

number of subscriber was only 26.66 million. This high

priority that has been provided to it through coding. This system

is less dependable on diesel generator which is very much cost
effective in the long run and also very much environment
friendly. It is also possible to store energy when the system

growth is fueled by cheap call rate, availability of nationwide

network coverage and decreasing trend of operating expenses
by all the operators.

produces more power than demand which can be used as back up

Almost all the off grid BTS are driving by using diesel

source.

In this paper, Microcontroller Based Hybrid Power

generator which has cost of 22 taka per unit while grid power

Management system for Off Grid Base Transceiver Station (BTS)

cost is only 8 taka per unit [5]. The government has already

has been presented. Results show that Base Transceiver Station

declared that they are not interested to provide any kind of

(BTS) can be run with renewable sources without taking power

grid power for any new BTS. In this situation these companies

from grid.

are looking for alternative power sources. Table I shows the

Keywords- BTS; OJJGrid; Microcontroller; Hybrid Power

I.

number of off grid BTS in Bangladesh [5].

TABLE I.

INTRODUCTION

NUMBER OF OFF GRID BTS

TN

BANGLADESH

The number of cell phone users are increasing very rapidly

in the present years in Bangladesh. For connecting more
people with the network new BTS should be placed. New BTS
required huge amount of power. But it is very difficult to
provide that kind of huge amount of power to this sector. This
problem is much more serious in the rural areas where grid
power is also not available. In that case mobile operators are
using diesel generator which is very much costly and more
importantly it has negative impact on the environment. To
solve this energy problem, requirement of a renewable energy
system has been increased [1-2]. Hybrid power management
system can be the way of using renewable sources. Hybrid

Already few companies in Bangladesh has implemented solar

panels to provide power for BTS. This model is not so much
efficient as diesel generator is needed to provide power for
this system in the night time. In the day of inclement weather
required power has to be provided by the diesel generator. In
that situation operators would require an efficient system.
The hybrid power management system can be the solution in
that case which can make the system more efficient.

power management is the combination of different sources

Fig.1

which are connected to the main bus [3]. Grid power can

sources.The implementation costs are quite high but in the

shows

the

implementation

cost

of

the

renewable

provide constant voltage to the load side of the system.

long run it is very much cost effective [6]. For the diesel

Normally the voltage level does not vary so much. But for the

generator the initial cost is low but cost goes higher with the

renewable sources the output voltage varies so frequently

time.

which is not expected. It is not possible to choose these

sources

manually.

So,

microcontroller

based

power

management system has been introduced in this work which is

very much capable of selecting the sources according to the

978-1-4673-6676-2/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

Renewable vs DG solution cash flow

1,400,000

1,200,000

/
/
/

1,000,000
'"
VI
:::J

800,000
600,000

-Renewable
Solution Net
Cashflow

400,000
200,000

- Diesel Solution
Net Cashflow

'"

0
1
Fig. I.

10

Cash Flow Diagram of Diesel and Renewable Sources

III. SYSTEM DESIGN

A microcontroller based power system has been designed
which can provide constant 48 V. It is capable of providing
much more stable output and reduces pressure on diesel
generator. This model reduces the use of converter, inverter
and even the AC cooling system which consumes much power
than DC cooling system. Four batteries have been used as
renewable sources and the voltage level has been changed by

Fig. 2.
Circuit Diagram of Microcontroller Based Hybrid
Management For Off Grid Base Transceiver Station (BTS)

Power

using potentiometer. The comparator compares this voltage

level with a reference voltage level and then sends it to opt
coupler which is capable to make a sample of this voltage.
This

sample

is

send

to

microcontroller

because

microcontroller cannot take any voltage as it input. Relay has

been used for switching purpose which connect the sources
with main bus bar when microcontroller sends signal to

IV. IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS

Microcontroller

based power

management

is capable

of

selecting the particular source among all the sources which has
required power to drive the system. Microcontroller will select
the sources according to the priority that has been provided to
it. If any of these sources does not contain enough power then

connect. The main bus bar is also connected with the voltage

the relay will connect the sources at a time to provide the

regulator at the output terminal which provides a constant 48

required power level to the BTS. A voltage regulator is

voltage. The required instruction for the microcontroller chip

connected at the output terminal which provides 48 V at the

has been written in the C programming language and burned

output whatever its input is. All the equipment in the BTS are

to the chip using pickit2.Capacitor is used to make the system

very much voltage sensitive so it is essential to provide

noise free and performing the operation smoothly. Transistor

constant voltage. In this design constant 5.1 V is maintained in

and resistances are used for the safety purposes so that huge

the output.

amount of current cannot flow through the microcontroller

chip because it can damage the total system under the fault
condition.

5V

source

has

been

used

to

run

A. Basic working principle

the

Microcontroller based hybrid power management is a

microcontroller because it requires a constant voltage to

simple design which contains equipments like microcontroller

operate the total system. Fig.2 shows the circuit diagram of

chip, relay, voltage regulator, opt-coupler and sources. The

microcontroller based hybrid power management for off grid

microcontroller chip is capable of storing instruction which

base transceiver station (BTS).

will be provided to the components according to the desire of

the system. The relay is used for switching purposes when the
microcontroller provides instruction to the relay to connect the
sources with main bus bar. Microcontroller always checks the
power of the sources to select the suitable one from all the
sources.
B. Designing procedure
Step 1: Writing Code for Microcontroller
At first all the instructions needed for the operation are written
in the code. The code is written in the microCpro software
using C programming language.

Fig. 4.

Solar Voltage (Solar panel operating the System)

b) When the biogas generator has enough power to drive the

system and solar panel has voltage less than the required level.

Fig. 3.

Microcontroller Code

Step 2: Burning the Code in Microcontroller chip

Fig. 5.

Biogas Voltage (Biogas generator operating the System)

c) When both the solar and biogas generator fail to supply the
required voltage then a combination of these two sources will

Then the code is burned in the microcontroller chip using the

provide the required voltage.

software pickit2. Then the chip is ready to use for the desired
operation and it is possible to change the instruction through
code again and again.

Step-3: Placing Microcontroller chip

Then the microcontroller chip is placed on the stand in the
design so that we can take it out from the design for any kind

Fig. 6.

of modification. Microcontroller chip can be modified again

d) When all this three condition fails to generate enough

and again according to the expectation of the designer. [f any

abnormality is found in the system then this part can be
eliminated from the system by removing the instruction from

Combined Voltage (Solar +Biogas generator operating the system)

voltage only then the diesel generator will provide the required
power as a backup source.

the chip.

Step 4: Connecting LCD with Microcontroller through relay

A LCD display is connected to the microcontroller to observe
the name of operating source and the voltage rating of that
source.

Fig. 7.

Generator Voltage (Diesel generator operating the system)

Step 5: Placing all the equipment in the Vero board

After that we placed all the equipment on the Vero board
according to the circuit diagram to get expected output.

VI. CONCLUSION
The number of Base Transceiver Station is increasing very
rapidly and there is no possibility to decrease the number of
cell phone user. As the present power generation condition of

V. RESULTS
LCD display is used to observe the result of this entire project.

[t has two column and sixteen rows. [n the first row it shows
the name of the operating sources and in the second row it
shows the voltage rating of these sources.
a) When the solar panel has enough power to drive the system.

our country is not up to the mark, it is not possible to provide

power supply to any new BTS from national grid power and
also in the rural areas because these areas are deprived of grid
power supply. [n that case the renewable sources are the best
solution although the efficiency of these sources is not so high.
But proper management of these sources can make it effective
for this huge sector.
This designe is totally based on the dc power system because
the required voltage for the BTS is DC and all the remaining
parts in the system are DC components. The sources that are
used in the design also genrates DC power. The invertar and
converter are not needed in this design which will reduce the
power consumption almost [0-12 % of the total power.

In the remote areas diesel generator is used to drive the BTS

much cost effective in the long run although the initial cost is

which is very much costly and different kind of difficulties are

quite high.

faced to maintain the constant power supply. But in the case of

microcontroller based power management, it is not required to
maintain them manually. Required instruction is given in the
microcontroller and it will run the system. So it is the best
solution for remote areas.
As a backup source, we have used a diesel generator although

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to express sincere gratitude to Dr.
Abdur Rahman, Department of EEE, American International
University- Bangladesh for his valuable suggestions during the
preparation of this paper.

the run time of diesel generator has been reduced a lot. Few

REFERENCES

modifications can be performed in the design to used battery

which will store the extra energy from these sources and will
provide the power supply to the system when the main sources
fail to provide the required power.

[1]

This design can also be implemented for those BTS which

runs on the power supply of the national grid as a backup

[2]

source instead of diesel generator. A current sensor can be

be done to observe the current rating at the LCD display which

will make the design much more efficient and stable in the
sense of operation.

[3]

national grid will reduce remarkably and more importantly it

is very much environment friendly. This system is also very

L. Bernal-Agust6 n,Javier Contreras,

Hybrid

Power

Systems.

PowerOasis,

Available

at-

http://www.poweroasis.com
[4]

BTRC Website, Available at- http://www. btrc.gov. bd/contentlmobile

phone-subscribers-bangladesh-j anuary-2014

[5]

GSMA
Website.
Available
at
http://www. gsma.comlmobilefordevelopment/wp
content/uploads/2013/03/GPM-Market-Analysis-Bangladesh. pdf

[6]

Delivering cost savings for off grid hybrid telecom power system,

If the possible modification can be done and implemented for

BTS both in the rural and urban areas then the pressure on the

pez,Jose

1126,2007

action when the power is not available in the line.

In this design a LCD display is used to observe the voltage

Rodolfo Dufo-Lo

"Optimization of control strategies for stand-alone renewable energy

systems with hydrogen storage",Renewable Energy,vol. 32,pp. 1102-

used to sense the grid power and these sources will come into

rating and the name of the operating sources. Few works can

Caisheng Wang, M Hashem Nehrir, "Power Management of a StandAlone Wind/Photovoltaic/Fuel Cell Energy System", IEEE Trans.
Energy Conversion,vol. 23, no.3, September 2008

batteries,
Available
Evolion
at
http://www.saftbatteries.comlforce_download/EvolionHybrid_Applicati
onBrochure_ EN_0713_Protected. pdf