An Integrated
Decentralized Energy System

The Integrated Decentralized Energy System takes advantage of energy that is abundant in nature. It will take energy from commonly available sources of power in nature, such as wind, micro-hydro, wave, tide, and solar.

It harnesses this "new" but "free" energy and stores it for future use.

Since these sources of energy are not recovered through conventional means as one would mine oil or gas, their recovery and utilization will also be by unconventional means.

Electric power will be harnessed from shafts that are allowed to rotate freely with the availability of wind, hydro, wave, or tide power.

Electricity generated will be stored in battery banks.

For the sake of reliability, these systems will not be fitted with sophisticated governors, but will be designed in such a way that they will mechanically protect themselves in the presence of violent environments.

The unique feature of the system is that all the generators are allowed to rotate freely with the availability of power from nature eliminating the need for expensive and unreliable synchronous control systems.

"Batteries" will be charged at battery banks by our energy sources.

These batteries will be loaded onto our "hybrid-electric vehicles" or brought to "rice mills" or to farms to drive irrigation pumps.

Our prime-movers will be inexpensive "squirrel-cage" induction motors driven by single-phase, or three-phase inverters.

We have our own home-grown inverters.

Electric power is generated using a wind turbine fitted with fixed propellers that are designed for the variant wind conditions. With this design, governor mechanisms to adjust the pitch of the blades to correspond to the wind speeds will not be needed. Modifications will also be made so that the generator will not need to rotate at any fixed RPM to supply alternating current at a so-called "synchronous frequency".

The output will be direct current to charge battery banks even if the wind speed is slow. Speed governors will not be required for the system to function.

The blade pitch is designed to rotate at a reasonable speed even when exposed to high winds.

This system will be driven by water, instead of wind as described above. In engineering terms, the system belongs to the general category of "flow-of-river" hydros. The optimal "head" and "flow" are calculated, and the hydraulic turbine is designed for these conditions. Flow that is greater than design flow is allowed to spill downstream.

As described in the wind turbine above, this turbine will not be fitted with a governor, and modifications will also be made so that the generator will not need to rotate at any fixed RPM to supply alternating current at a so-called "synchronous frequency".

The output will also be direct current to charge battery banks even if the water flow is low.

A Wave Power Converter is included in the Decentralized System, in a site where abundant wave power is available. During high seas, the system is designed to simply dive below the waves to a depth that is safe enough for it to operate.

The output will also be direct current to charge battery banks even if the wave condition is light.

A unique design is now ready for prototyping.

The Tide Power Converter works in combination with the wave power converter. The tide power converter is also provided with a mechanism to allow it to sink below the waves enough to protect themselves. These two systems are integrated in one location.

The output will also be direct current to charge battery banks even under tide swing is small.

Depending upon the site selected and if funds are available for the system, solar panels may also be installed. The output will also be direct current to charge battery banks even under low solar intensity.

Pipes containing water will collect heat from the sun for use in drying and chilling applications. Heating here will be integrated with heat coming from the diesel-generator set.

The diesel power plant will be operated at a fixed frequency and will be run when the wind, hydro and battery banks are not available. It will also be operated when energy for drying or for generating steam would be required. However, this will be scheduled in such a way that the utilization of capacity is optimized.

Heating here will be integrated with heat coming from the solar heating system.

The choice of batteries and their ratings will be studied in relation to the availability of energy resources throughout the year.

Inverters will be utilized to convert DC power from the batteries to single-phase and 3-phase alternating current for distribution to the end-users. DC distribution may become an option for purely lighting applications. An efficiency gain of about 15% would be realized in such an option.

As much a possible, interconnection will be resorted to only within reasonable distances. A possible mode of energy transfer would be to transport batteries that are mounted on wheels, or for general-purpose hauling vehicles.

Transmission and interconnection will be resorted to when the benefits are clearly shown. And consistent with the philosophy of this paper, there shall be no attempt to transmit or interconnect at any given synchronous frequency.

Many products could be exported to the communities outside if these are preserved at source. The preservation methods that will be examined would be the dehydration/drying of some products and the chilling of other products. Chilling with the use of "Lithium-Bromide Absorption Refrigeration Systems" will be assessed as these would need steam and pumps, and not very expensive mechanical compressors for its operation.

Drying energy will be abundant:

Each decentralized energy complex will be owned and managed by cooperatives.

Cooperative Credit Unions would be established to allow members to save their earnings and see them grow. It will also cater to the loans requirements of the residents.

This will effectively guarantee that profits derived from their successful operation will be distributed back to the residents in the form of "patronage refunds".

Components needed from the outside world will be procured by the Cooperative Store and made available to the fishermen, farmers and others. This system would have the effect of bringing down the selling price of commodities for productive undertaking.

For example, the community could agree to standardize on a specific brand of boat engine for their fishing boats. The store will support this decision by keeping one or two whole engines and critical components on stock, depending on ordering lead-times. The quantity of these parts that would be kept in the store would depend upon the ability of the Cooperative Store to finance.

These are dispensed at credit terms when needed by fishermen.