This College Team Built a Clean-Energy System That Can Light up 4 Rural Homes at Once

It was 2019, and election duty had taken Prof Arnab Ghosh to a remote village near Sundargarh in Odisha. Evening settled in, but the homes around him stayed dim. Inside one small house, a child bent over a notebook, trying to study under the weak light of a torch. The fan stood still. The air felt heavy and warm as the last bit of daylight faded.

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For many in that village, evenings like this were routine. Electricity arrived without consistency. On some days, the power disappeared for hours. Families planned their cooking, children timed their homework, and shopkeepers managed their work around the uncertainty of when electricity might return.

Across many parts of rural India, this story is familiar. Electricity often feels like an unpredictable event rather than a reliable part of daily life. Diesel generators become the backup option. They help run essential appliances but come with high fuel costs, unpredictable maintenance, and harmful emissions.

Solar and wind energy offer cleaner alternatives. Yet they cannot always provide stable power on their own. Clouds can reduce solar output, and wind can slow without warning. When that happens, power becomes fragile again.

This makes the real challenge clear. Clean energy needs to be managed in a way that keeps electricity stable, reliable, and available at all times.

That evening in Sundargarh stayed with Prof Arnab. It became the starting point for a research journey that would unfold over the next few years.

“We come from Sundargarh district in Odisha, a largely tribal region where many families come from underprivileged backgrounds. In several remote, hilly, and forested regions, extending conventional grid connections is often not feasible. Seeing these realities firsthand motivated us to design a multi-renewable integrated system that can generate electricity locally and reliably,” Arnab, who teaches at NIT Rourkela, tells The Better India.

“Our aim is simple: to ensure that clean power can run basic domestic appliances and improve everyday life. This work is deeply rooted in societal needs, and we believe it can create meaningful impact for communities that have long remained on the margins,” he adds.

In October 2025, that idea grew into a working innovation at NIT Rourkela.

Turning fluctuating power into renewable energy

A team from the institute’s department of electrical engineering has developed an intelligent hybrid microgrid system that tries to solve a central problem. How can different renewable sources work together so that a rural home does not lose power just because the weather changes?

The system combines solar power, wind energy, biomass gasifiers, pico-hydropower, and battery storage. It supplies electricity to both DC and AC loads. This combination is rarely found in commercially available systems today.

The research was authored by Ananya Pritilagna Biswal, a research scholar at NIT Rourkela, under the guidance of Prof Arnab and in collaboration with assistant professor Prof Krishna Roy. The study has been published in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.

“This was completely new for me. I learnt everything, from fabrication and component selection to embedded systems and control techniques. Choosing to pursue this PhD has been one of the best decisions of my life, as it has given me the opportunity to use my skills for my state and for the country,” Ananya shares.

The system’s strength lies in its ability to combine many renewable sources and control them intelligently. The smart control architecture keeps the power output steady and user-friendly, which is vital in off-grid and rural locations where electricity affects daily comfort, education, and livelihoods.

How the system learns to balance sun, wind and water

Prof Arnab explains that renewable sources depend heavily on the environment. Weather, availability of resources, and changing demand patterns influence how much power is produced at any time.

To manage this reality, the team designed the microgrid to make autonomous decisions. It can switch itself into standalone mode whenever needed, keeping electricity flowing even if one or more sources drop. This is what gives the system its intelligence.

Different renewable sources behave differently across the day. Solar energy is strongest during the morning and afternoon. Wind, biomass, and pico-hydropower may be more reliable at other times.

“Sources like biomass, wind and pico-hydropower normally run for the peak load condition, like for a seasonal load basis or time-specific demands,” adds Prof Arnab.

To handle these changing patterns, the team created an advanced Power Management System (PMS). This system continuously manages how much electricity is generated, stored, and consumed.

One key element is the bidirectional DC-DC converter. It allows the battery to store extra energy when there is surplus and release power when renewable output drops.

To make control stable, the researchers implemented a dual-loop strategy. The outer voltage loop uses the PD-TID (Proportional Derivative–Tilt Integral Derivative) method. And the inner loop regulates battery current accurately.

“One of the major challenges was controlling these sources, as they are completely variable in nature. We addressed this using PD-TID control so that the load voltage remains stable and the equipment is not affected by fluctuations,” Ananya shares.

To improve performance further, the team used a hybrid stochastic fractal search-pattern search (h-SFS-PS) algorithm. This helps the system find the best control settings for different conditions. Studies show that this method works better than many traditional approaches.

Protecting the heart of the system: Its battery

Battery storage is the core of any microgrid. If it is not managed properly, battery life reduces, and energy becomes inefficient. To solve this, the team used an Enhanced Exponential Reaching Law (EERL)-based Sliding Mode Control (SMC) method to regulate battery current.

This technique offers faster and smoother responses than conventional proportional–integral (PI) controllers. It reduces stress on battery components and improves overall efficiency.

The system also maintains a stable DC link voltage even when solar radiation, wind speed, or load demand changes. Achieving this has been a major challenge in many hybrid renewable systems.

Using Lyapunov’s stability theory, the researchers confirmed that the system remains globally stable across all tested conditions.

Designed for rural realities and tested in the lab

The team did not stop at theoretical designs or simulations. They tested the system using both Simulink models and a physical experimental setup. Across several operating modes, the microgrid consistently managed generation and demand in a balanced way.

If renewable energy output drops suddenly, the Battery Storage System (BSS) responds immediately. This prevents the power interruptions rural communities often face due to unpredictable weather and resource availability.

The prototype delivers around 10 kWh of reliable electricity. This is enough to support the daily needs of four rural households, including lighting, fans, basic appliances, and communication devices.

“This innovation will not only create a positive impact in rural areas but also hold strong commercial potential. By ensuring a reliable electricity supply, it can generate employment opportunities and improve the overall quality of life for rural communities,” adds Ananya.

Lighting up villages with homegrown research

For Ananya, Prof Arnab, and the team, the path was full of challenges. Managing changing renewable sources, controlling battery behaviour, and making different systems work together took long hours of learning, troubleshooting, and experimentation. They describe their journey as a collective effort, driven by a shared desire to create public good.

Reliable electricity can change many aspects of rural life. It supports better education, improves healthcare delivery, strengthens communication, and reduces reliance on fossil fuels. It also helps build local energy security by enabling decentralised power generation.

By combining advanced engineering with an understanding of rural realities, NIT Rourkela’s intelligent hybrid microgrid turns renewable energy into something dependable, practical, and community-focused.

The work supports several Sustainable Development Goals, including Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Climate Action (SDG 13), and Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11).

“We hope and wish to extend it to a higher vertex; then we can supply more villages and more communities because renewable energy is the future,” shares Ananya.

As India builds a more inclusive and sustainable energy ecosystem, innovations like this show how homegrown research can brighten the lives of people who need it most. Sometimes, the path to a brighter future begins with one village and the determination to ensure it never goes dark again.

Source:

‘Active Power Management Scheme of a Hybrid Standalone Microgrid with Energy Storage Using Lyapunov Approach and Sliding Mode Control’: by Ananya Pritilagna Biswal, Krishna Roy and Arnab Ghosh for IEEE Xplore, Published on 9 October 2025.