IoT Based Distribution Transformer Monitoring and Protection

Project Title

IoT Based Distribution Transformer Monitoring and Protection

Project Area of Specialization Internet of ThingsProject Summary

Electricity becomes a main factor in our life where we can say that the electricity becomes the need of every home, company, school, industry and etc. The electricity to reach our homes or our city needs distribution transformer, which distribute the electricity to the consumers and steeped down the voltages coming from substations.

The distribution transformer to work properly needs  protection and good maintenance to give us best output and efficiency, As the old methods of transformer protection and monitoring which are not more efficient or needs more time and requires manually work which needs more workers and more tools , In our project  we  introduce a way to handle and control main transformer functions and problems using IoT(Internet of Things) which will allow us to easily monitor and protect the transformer with the help of internet.

The controlling of the distribution transformer different parameters is used to make the system smart and controllable using the latest techniques, which can be used also to manage the power supply as planned or as required. 

Project Objectives

The objectives of the project are as follows:

• Over load protection of D.T.(distribution transformer).
• Under and over voltage protection of D.T.
• Monitoring of oil level of D.T.
• Monitoring of transformer temperature, humidity and external cooling system when over heat.
• IoT based display of the above protection and monitoring schemes and control them wirelessly from the internet, where ever the person monitoring it was.
• This project is all about the transformer and how to make its life long as much as we can.

Goals
industrial Goals:
To learn about the industry needs.
To understand the current statues of projects.
To develop field work skills.
Academic Goals:
To implement theoretical background.
Finding new problems and solution.
To implement practical work.
To develop team work skills.
Self-developing  Goals:
Leadership skills developing.
Hands on practice.
Report and research developing skills.
Real Life Goals:
Dealing with sellers and out university matters
Dealing with other external stakeholders
Project Goals:
To protect the distribution transformer
To monitor the distribution transformer
To control the distribution transformer

Goals

industrial Goals:

To learn about the industry needs.

To understand the current statues of projects.

To develop field work skills.

Academic Goals:

To implement theoretical background.

Finding new problems and solution.

To implement practical work.

To develop team work skills.

Self-developing  Goals:

Leadership skills developing.

Hands on practice.

Report and research developing skills.

Real Life Goals:

Dealing with sellers and out university matters

Dealing with other external stakeholders

Project Goals:

To protect the distribution transformer

To monitor the distribution transformer

To control the distribution transformer

Project Implementation Method

The distribution transformers mostly used are pole mounted transformers, where the distribution companies face a lot of problems because of the faults of the transformers. They are required to provide electricity all the times of the day, where sometimes it becomes difficult to provide protection of the transformer because of less number of equipment and working staff. People of that town are also affected by the damaging of transformer because of different problems that occur on the transformer (e.g.: over load).

The maintenance of these transformers is required, to keep them safe and efficient. The traditional ways have some staff for this purpose, where it require more labors, time, and tools, still may not be efficient.

The project is about smart monitoring and protection method for the Pole Mounted Transformer (PMT) where it will solve the most problems occurring on transformers by using microcontroller with interfacing , monitoring, and controlling the parameters using an internet chip (IoT) where it is used to make the machine communicate through internet [2], using this proposed  method, we will be able to protect and monitor the transformer as it was done before but without the need of more resources, staff, money, time and with more efficiency .

The major faults that occur on the transformers are [3]:

1. Over voltage fault.
2. Under voltage fault.
3. Over load fault.
4. Oil level reducing fault.
5. Increasing the temperature of the transformer .
6. Single line to ground fault.
7. Line to line fault.
8. Lightning effect.

The amount of risks these faults produce to the transformer and environment describe the importance of transformer protection. The old methods used are slow and required more time, resources and budget; this also describes the importance of the proposed work .

Benefits of the Project

The direct and indirect beneficiaries from this project are:

• Government companies (DISCOS,NTDC and etc)
• Electric companies (WAPDA, K-Electric and etc):
• The main beneficiaries of our project are the electric companies because there all work depend on the transformer if it was in generation or transmission or distribution .
• All types of consumers: our homes, our schools, our industries and etc. because the transformer     is used to provide the electricity to the consumer and it energize our loads and our consumptions.

Benifts:

1.Works on internet which makes the monitoring and protection of the transformere fast and better.

2.It will improve transformer efficiency which makes the consumers consume the maximum power produced.

3.Transformer safety is improved.

4.Wireless communication.

5.Will allow us to easily monitor and protect the transformer.

6.All transformer parameters will be metered and measured.

7.Time to time maintenance of the transformer.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The work proposed is all about the safety and protection of the distribution transformer, where the system must follow different steps to achieve the objectives, from measuring to protection includes different circuitries to make system work as per required and those parameters will be shown on a Liquid Crystal Display  on the transformer and on the internet.

The work is done by using Arduino MEGA , which is the brain of the system where it make the hardware work as programmed by the inventor or by the programmer and it have a free source software which helps the beginners in making their projects and ideas. 

The transformer used is a small three phase transformer with three windings of each phase, the transformer’s winding connection is star to star confection , the star connection in the primary because the three phase system available mostly is with star connection.

The measurement part includes:

1. Voltage measurement:

The Root Mean Square (RMS) voltage measured to know about the over and under voltages, also to calculate the power.

Over voltages on the transformer occur due to different reasons which include :

1. Short circuit faults.
2. Switching of circuits.
3. Light loads.
4. Heavy loads disconnection.

Under voltages occur due to :

1. Large loads connection.
2. Failure of loads.
3. Lightning strikes.

1. Current measurement:

The measurement of current is done to calculate the output power and over load conditions, where occur because of increasing loads on the transformer, which may cause over temperature of transformer winding and oil level reducing, which may cause in winding damaging or blast.

1.  Power measurement:

For power measurement we need to measure voltage, current, and power factor. The voltage and current measurement are done previously.

1. Temperature measurement:

In this part winding temperature will be sensed using a temperature sensor.

The temperature of the transformer increase because of over load, oil level reducing, and cupper and iron losses. .

DC fan is used demonstrating the cooling of the transformer, which will be automatically start when the temperature raises.

1. Oil level measurement:

The purposes of using oil in transformer are:

1. For transformer cooling.
2. For winding insulation.

Oil level is reduced because of transformer overheating because of the previously discussed issues. Decreasing the transformer oil may cause winding and damages and decreasing the insulation of the transformer windings . 

Transformer monitoring is done by monitoring transformer tripping and transformer cooling remotely without the need of tripping it from the source, means the distribution transformer will be cutoff whenever the supplier wants to.

The  protection stage is used  to make the transformer and loads connected to it safe, is done by using relays for switching and cooling arrangements for maintain the cooling of the transformer, where if it is overheated the transformer windings may be damaged.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemType of Industry IT , Energy Technologies Internet of Things (IoT)Sustainable Development Goals Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Sustainable Cities and CommunitiesRequired Resources

Elapsed time in (days or weeks or month or quarter) since start of the project	Milestone	Deliverable
Month 1	Literature review and project study	Proposal report and presentation
Month 2	Designing the structure	structure designed
Month 3	Oil level protection and Temperature protection	implementing oil level measurement and indicating system . temperature measurement and over temperature protection with cooling system.
Month 4	Voltage and current protection	Measuring the current and voltage and set the over and under limits and trip when they occur
Month 5	Power factor measurement	measuring the power factor
Month 6	Single phase protection	merging all parts for single phase protection
Month 7	Displaying all parameters in LCD	display all the measured values in the LCD
Month 8	Three phase protection	making the three more circuits to protect each phase of the transformer
Month 9	Display of three phase parameters	display all the measured and calculated parameters of the three phases on LCD
Month 10	Setup in a single wooden sheet	fit all the circuits and components in the wood structure designed to make its display better
Month 11	Display and monitor all the parameters on internet	display all the parameters on android application with the help of internet
Month 12	Finalizing the project and its report	The hardware of the project and its report