Design And Construction Of 500Kva, 11Kv/0.415Kv Transformer Smart Monitoring And Control System

ABSTRACT

This project is, aimed at designing and constructing of a smart system that will monitor transformer health parameters, current, voltage, oil level, oil contamination and ambient transformer temperature of a distribution  transformer using IOT at Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Effurun, delta state, which has kept the entire PTI Community in total darkness for almost four (4) months now, due to temperature rise fault the transformer developed. The importance of transformers in power system network along with their high cost, it is vital to constantly keep check of transformer parameters to know their health conditions, know when to carry out maintenance, prevent all kinds of sudden breakdown due to faults, and to ensure smooth operation in order to achieve supply continuity, stability and reliability. The project is arranged in chapters one to five. Chapter one contains the introduction or concept of the project. Chapter two talks about previously done works related to the topic. Chapter three shows the methodology which reveals the procedures that were followed to achieve the project. Chapter four discusses the construction and principle of operation and testing procedures and results. Chapter five shows the conclusion and recommendations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION
• BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• AIM/OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• PROJECT MOTIVATION
• SIGNIFICATION OF THE PROJECT
• SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
• PROJECT WORK ORGANISATION

CHAPTER TWO

2.0      LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1      REVIEW OF PREVIOUSLY DONE WORKS ON TRANSFORMER HEALTH MONITORING
2.2     IMPROVEMENT ON THE PREVIOUS WORKS (OUR CONTRIBUTION)
2.3      REVIEW OF POWER TRANSFORMER FAULTS
2.4      POWER TRANSFORMER PROTECTION
2.5      TYPES OF PROTECTION IN TRANSFORMER

CHAPTER THREE

3.0       METHODOLOGY

3.1      RESEARCH METHOD

3.2     SYSTEM BLOCK DIAGRAM

3.3     SYSTEM CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

3.4    SYSTEM COMPONENTS

3.5    POWER SUPPLY UNIT

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0     TEST AND RESULT ANALYSIS

4.1      CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE

4.2    CASING AND PACKAGING

4.3     ASSEMBLING OF SECTIONS

4.4      PACKAGING

4.5      MOUNTING PROCEDURE

4.6      TESTING

4.7      RESULT ANALYSIS

CHAPTER FIVE

5.1      CONCLUSIONS

5.2      RECOMMENDATION

5.2      REFERENCES

APPENDICES

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                           INTRODUCTION

1.1                      BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Since alternating current was invented, humans have been looking for ways to make life easier by inventing more technologies which make use of alternating current to operate. This has led to increase in demand for electric power supply due to the increase in the use of these appliances. We have seen the rise of smart grid initiatives and smart metering that can monitor the power consumption, power transmission and distribution equipment to increase electric grid’s efficiency by reducing the possibility of downtime. Electricity is mostly generated, transmitted, and distributed in AC form and therefore, transformer becomes an inevitable device for transforming voltage levels at different points in power system. It is a key component of power system whose failure could lead total power outage. Therefore, being able to monitor the health of transformer will help to provide guide to the maintenance team to take proper action before a fault becomes severe and consequently causes total breakdown of the transformer. Some important parameters have to be monitored to avoid breakdown of any form, these parameters are current, voltage, ambient temperature, oil level, oil contamination, phase angle, overload etc.

The Transformer Monitoring System refers to a circuit or group of components built together in order to sense and monitor various parameters of either a single transformer or fleet of transformers that are vital to its functionality. This project is targeted at the designing and constructing of a system that monitors these parameters which are current, voltage level, ambient temperature, oil level and oil contaminant. The transformer is an indispensible component of power system supply. It is mainly used in the stepping up and stepping down voltage for transmission and distribution to consumers. Due to its high cost and significance in power system, maintaining a healthy transformer is a key to ensuring reliable and continuous power supply. Hence transformer health monitoring Systems have become very imperative in power system.

In this project, our focus will be on five parameters: current, voltage, oil-level, oil contamination and ambient temperature. For current reading (which strongly has a major role to play in terms of the temperature variations) current sensor will be used to measure the current from the secondary side of the transformer. Voltage transformer along with other discrete components will be utilized to read Line/Phase voltage across the secondary part of the transformer. An infrared sensor will be attached to the top and the bottom of the transformer to determine the oil contamination level while a level detector sensor will be used to determine the level of oil in the transformer. Thermistor will be embedded inside of the transformer to read the temperature. The read parameters will be sent continuously through the internet with the help of the embedded device (which is a micro-controller with built-in Wi-Fi module) to a cloud server through application programming interface (API) and fetched by a desktop application for monitoring over time.

Imagine a world where technological breakthroughs have created a systematic, smart grid system where transformers can talk to each other as you or I talk to one another. A world where even the slightest faults and failures of our electric power lines are noticed within a matter of seconds as opposed to hours or even days. This world may seem practical years from now, but with today’s technology the future is coming sooner than one might expect. Initiatives from the United States Government to create a smart grid system have already been placed into motion. In 2003, the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electric Transmission and Distribution, released a document describing the nation’s vision for revolutionizing electric power in North America through the development of a Smart Grid by 2030. This is their vision:

“Imagine the possibilities: electricity and information flowing together in real time, near-zero economic losses from outages and power quality disturbances, a wider array of customized energy choices, suppliers competing in open markets to provide the world’s best electric services, and all of this supported by a new energy infrastructure built on superconductivity, distributed intelligence and resources, clean power, and the hydrogen economy” (“Grid”).

In order to achieve such idea, the U.S. Government passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 which created the Federal Smart Grid Task Force. This task force is responsible for the “…coordination and integration…” of any activity “…related to Smart Grid technologies, practices, and services” (“Department”). As the framework behind the Smart Grid begins to mature, the time for individual engineers and engineering companies to construct the devices that will drive this Revolution is now. With our motivation set in stone, we present the Transformer Monitoring System (TMS).

The device is a real time, mounting device that monitors a single transformer. This device paves way for a smarter grid system and allows citizens to enjoy the simple necessities of the new era of technology without the fear or stress of prolonged electrical down time. As of now, the power companies rely heavily on the responses of their customers to provide critical input for when a transformer is blown or power is out. This is not an effective way of determining when a transformer needs maintenance or needs to be replaced, for the down time is reliant on the customer’s ability to call the power company. To illustrate, an elderly couple lives in the country with only a cordless home phone installed. All of a sudden a lightning storm rolls in and strikes the only transformer in the vicinity, causing all of the power to be lost inside of the elderly home as well as the only phone they can use. The elderly, who rely on electricity to keep their emergency air pumps running, now have to worry about not having enough back up battery power left in their system to stay alive. With no working phone, they cannot for just call the power company to fix their electric problem; instead, they are forced wait for help.

The power company may have realized that one of the transformers is not responding appropriately in a given sector, but a problem they face is they do not have any means to figure out exactly where to send their service men. This means that the elderly couple could have to wait hours for electricity to be restored; however, they do not have the luxury of time due to the fact that their back up battery system only has a life time of one hour. After an hour has passed, the elderly couple is now forced to weather the storm and drive into town or to nearest neighbor, which could be miles away. If our system was properly installed, then the power company would have known the precise location of the downed transformer as well as key information about the transformer right before it was destroyed. This would have saved the elderly couple from all of the anxiety they had to endure. Though the outcome of this little story is taken to the extreme, a scenario like this could occur and when it does our device will be there to keep the public at ease by knowing help is on the way.

1.2  STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

As one of the major power system equipment, transformer is one of the main targets of faults due to the fact that 80-90% of transformers used in power system network are dangerously exposed to the atmosphere. As a result of this, transformer can experience all sorts of electrical faults such as, oil leakage, lightning strike, over load, winding short circuit, moisture, humidity, overheating etc, which over time when they occur has led to damage of power equipment, loss of life and total system collapse. So when it develops faults due to various reasons named above, power transmission, distribution and consumption is disrupted. Building a system for monitoring transformer operating conditions will ensure power stability, high production and lead to economy boom.

1.3  AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of this work is to build a smart system that will monitor transformer health parameters, current, voltage, oil level, oil contamination and ambient transformer temperature of a distribution  transformer using IOT at Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Effurun, delta state

The Specific Objectives are:

1. To design a system which uses current sensors, voltage transformers, infrared sensors, thermistors etc to monitor the mentioned parameters of the transformers.
2. To develop programmable codes and to implement it in the hardware of the transformer condition monitoring system using embedded microcontroller.
3. To ensure that all analogue signals are converted digital signals by the ADC to enable the microcontroller to understand it.
4. The parameters recorded from the sensors will be sent over the internet of things (IOT) through a pc or phone (either through SMS or Email) to constantly inform the engineers when a threshold of a set parameter is exceeded.
5. To ensure steady working condition of a transformer thereby improving the rate of power supply at Petroleum Training Institute (PTI)

1.4  MOTIVATION OF STUDY

Due to erratic state of power supply in Nigeria, higher percent of this irregular power supply is as a result of failure of one or more transformers, either from the transmitting substations or distribution substations.

Taking petroleum training institute as a case study, the institute has been in total blackout for a period of two months, because of the fault that the 33kV/11kV transformer developed due to temperature rise. After series of test conducted, it was gathered that the dielectric strength of the transformer oil broke down, resulting to overheating of the transformer coils which in turn lead to reduction of transformer efficiency, short circuit due to melting of windings, oil expansion and breakdown and lastly reduction of transformer life or total breakdown of transformer. The transformer coils were severely damaged beyond repair and it had to be replaced. Assuming the institute had an IOT transformer monitor, the infrared sensor would have sensed the oil contamination and send a signal to the engineers and the cost of getting a new transformer would have been averted. The cost of maintaining the transformer would have been about 6million naira to get transformer oil but now that the transformer coils are completely damaged, the cost of replacing the 33kv/11kv 7.5MVA transformer is going to be about 75million to 100million naira depending upon the make of the transformer. The outcome of this story could have been dictated and averted if only there was IOT transformer monitor system.

1.5  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

The work has a lot of significance. Here are the major ones:

1. Monitoring working condition of transformers will help faults to be detected early before they become severe and cause total shut-down or total damage.
2. Using IOT will enable the device to work in a distance independent manner thereby increase flexibility and convenience to personnel.
3. It will aid in building more reliable power system that is very less likely to experience downtime.
4. To servicemen, this study will reduce the periodic visit of servicemen to the distribution station since most of the routine check can be carried out using IoT at the comfort of their homes or offices.
5. To the Government/Management, this study will serve as a means of ensuring that a transformer has a steady working condition which will ensure power stability, high production and lead to economy affluent.
6. Finally, to the student involved, this study will make the student become familiar with IoT devices, GSM module, transformer workings and faults associated with transformers.

1.6  SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

In this study, parameters of interest are current, voltage, ambient temperature, oil level and oil contamination of a distribution transformer and when faults are detected, it does not offer control to the faulty section. The system has an internal Wi-Fi connectivity to enhance the transformer parameters to be monitored on the web server. The device is limited to areas where Wi-Fi is available.