Design And Construction Of A Microcontroller Based (Atmega 328) Automatic Phase Selector With Mains Cut Off For Solar Power Inverter With Gsm Notification

ABSTRACT

This project work is on microcontroller based (ATmega 328) automatic phase selector with mains cut off for solar power inverter with GSM notification. In this century, the demand for electricity is increasing at an alarming rate that has caused pressure on the existing transmission and distribution networks. This has led to power cuts affecting sensitive facilities such as hospitals, industries and schools. This project is designed to automatically supply continuous power to the load through one or all of the three sources of supply that are: solar, mains grid & generator. In case their availability; an android app is used to select the source of choice and when the amount of load demand increases beyond what can be handled by one source, a mobile app is used to bring on board either of the remaining two sources so as to meet the load demand. The output of either sources is connected to a voltage sensor which monitors mains lines and select the most healthy one out of the three, as soon as there is power cut the system will automatically switch to the solar energy. At the same time a message is sent to the operator by means of GSM, notifying of the selection in order to decide. The operator can decide to operate the loads by sending a text message “normal” to restore the system operation to use an android app.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION
• BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• AIM/OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
• LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT
• PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
• APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT
• PROJECT ORGANISATION

CHAPTER TWO

2.0      LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1      REVIEW OF ELECTRICAL PHASES
2.2     REVIEW OF THREE-PHASE ELECTRIC POWER
2.3     REVIEW OF THREE PHASE GENERATION AND DISTRIBUTION
2.4    REVIEW OF THREE-PHASE LOADS
2.5          REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES

CHAPTER THREE

3.0      METHODOLOGY

3.1      BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THE SYSTEM

3.2      SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

3.3      SYSTEM CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

3.4      VOLTAGE SENSOR

3.5      LOGIC DESIGN

3.6      DESCRIPTION OF COMPONENTS USED

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULT ANALYSIS

4.0      CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE AND TESTING

4.1      CASING AND PACKAGING

4.2      ASSEMBLING OF SECTIONS

4.3      TESTING OF SYSTEM OPERATION

4.4      RESULT

CHAPTER FIVE

5.1      CONCLUSION

5.2      RECOMMENDATION

REFERENCES

 

                                                   CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                             INTRODUCTION

1.1                                       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In Nigeria today the problems of power outage across phases is so rampant thus leading to some sensitive equipment and appliances being redundant, this could sometimes be the cause of one phase going out with respect to the other according to William (2009) .

It may surprise one to note that in an attempt to solve this problems, so many unskilled electricity consumers has  in recent past resorted to some crude means of swapping between phases to obtain power. So many souls have been lost in this act. This is an undesirable condition to consumers and the need now arises to design a device that can automatically select among the phases and make power supply available at the consumers’ terminal [William, 2009].

An automatic phase selector with mains cut off for solar power inverter with GSM notification is an electrical device that is capable of transferring a load from one source of power supply to another and to bring on board all or some sources in case one source is incapable of supplying the load. The basic function of a phase selector switch is to make and break from one source of power supply to another or bring all sources on broad in case one source is incapable to supply the entire load. It uses voltage sensor to measure the voltage at the input of the three lines in other to ensure that the most healthy or normal voltage is supplied to the device. Also, in the case of power cut the device will automatically switch to the solar energy and at the same time notify the user via an SMS, in this time the user will have the right either to continue with the alternative power supply or not which the user will operate via a GSM. A manual operation of transfer switch requires the availability of electrical personnel to operate the switch. Thus, it cannot be used in some industrial and commercial applications where absence of power for a certain period of time could have serious implications in terms of life, financial losses due to loss of production, data storage and products. In order to eliminate the time delay between changing over from one source to another, and outage of power due to voltage variation, there is therefore a need for a phase selector with main cut for solar power inverter. An automatic phase selector (APS) serves as an interface between power sources in order to maintain a continuous supply of electricity to the load. The selector automatically senses the power failure from mains, and supplies the load with solar energy for startup. The phase selector will continue to monitor the condition of the mains until it is restored. Also in the event of voltage variation and overload, this device will protect both the consumers’ and producers’ equipment by ensuring that only healthy line will be selected using voltage sensor.

1.2                                                  PROBLEM STATEMENT

Power failure / under and over voltage in a country, state or city is highly detrimental to development in public and private industries. The insecurity associated with these problems brings about limitation to power consistent investments, thus hampering the development of industries and multinational ventures. Processes like carrying out surgical operations in hospitals, laboratories which require constant power supply for research, money transactions  between banks and more require constant use of uninterrupted power. In other to solve this problem, an automatic changeover switch was invented. This research covers the design and construction of a single phase digital automatic power changeover. It has the capacity to automatically switch power from  national grid to solar energy, once there is power failure in mains supplies and at the same time notify the user via SMS.

1.3                                AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

The main aim of this work is to build a device that will overcome mains power interruption by selecting next most healthy available phase to feed the equipment but in case of mains failure it will automatically switch over to the solar energy.

The objectives of the study are:

1. To build an automatic phase selector with mains cutoff for solar inverter
2. To overcome power failure in our society.

• To interface ATmega 328 with GSM module

1. To validate the design of automatic selector system with mains cutoff for inverter power.

1.4                                      SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

Industries require three phases power to run their machinery. Some of them require continuous \ uninterrupted power to maintain their data. Auto phase selector unit for equipment whose supply is single phase. The single phase supply is selected automatically from three phases supply.

Auto Phase Selector introduces an automatic solution to overcome power fluctuation \ phase interruption by selecting next most healthy available phase to feed the equipment.

Working on this course will serve as a means of learning how prevent power interruption in our homes and industries, and to learn how to interface ATmega 328 with GSM module.

1.5                                        LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT

In every home, office or industries, automatic phase selector plays a vital role, that is, It provides a means of switching from one phase of AC mains to another in the case of failure in the existing phase; This project has been improved on the existing types of electromechanical device that has being in use over the years.

In the course of designing this project, different kinds of problem was notice such as:

• Difficulty in troubleshooting with circuit without the circuit diagram
• Difficulty in connecting the output without the three phases short-circuiting, until a multiplexing circuit was gotten.
• Difficult in wiring because of the strong wiring the project required (Fowler, 2011).

1.6                                              SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

This work covers only a three phase automatic phase selector which can only be used for providing a means of switching from one phase of AC mains to another in the case of failure in the existing phase. This device select the healthier among the three lines but in time of mains cut out it will automatically switch over to the solar energy. It has covers the use of GSM to notify the user whenever the system switches over to the solar in other for the user to decide whether to maintain the solar or not.

1.7                                          APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT

This device is used in the following places [Theo et al., 1998]

1. home,
2. office,
3. worship places
4. workshops or industries

1.8                                                        METHODOLOGY

To achieve the aim and objectives of this work, the following are the steps involved:

1. Study of the previous work on the project so as to improve it efficiency.
2. Draw a block diagram.

• Test for continuity of components and devices,

1. Design and calculation for the device was carried out.
2. Studying of various component used in circuit.
3. Construction of the device is carried out

• Finally, the whole device was cased and final test was carried out.

1.8                             PROJECT ORGANISATION

The work is organized as follows: chapter one discuses the introductory part of the work,   chapter two presents the literature review of the study,  chapter three describes the methods applied,  chapter four discusses the results of the work, chapter five summarizes the research outcomes and the recommendations.