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Power transformer monitoring device

Submitted by Kelechi on Fri, 02/08/2019 - 04:22
Power Electronics

Hello friends,

I am new to this site and I am happy yo say that it is a place rich in resources.

A little introduction, I am an electrical engineer specializing in power engineering. I am working on a project that involves real-time monitoring of power transformers. The parameters I am interested in are the operating status of the transformer (on/off), tempressure of the transformer, the percentage loading of the transformer and sent the results real-time on-line. I am looking at sending it via SIM module(GPRS/EDGE/HSPDA/4G) and I want two sim modules for redundancy.

Can I get any help from this forum?

Bradyen

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Hi Kelechi,

Welcome to circuitdigest forums.

You have an intresting project here. Everything should go smooth except for one particular place that is actually measuring the percentage loading of the transformer? How are you planning to do it? 

Since it is a Power transformer I belive you are trying to maintain a loading between 90% and 100%. If the nature of your load is fixed then you can simply measure the secondary currevt and voltage to calculate the loading. Another crude way is to find the power factor and multiply it with the KVA rating but measuring power factor to that accuracy will be a bit challenging 

   Joined August 14, 2018      44
Tuesday at 03:25 PM

Kelechi

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Thanks Bradyen,

I have not decided on the exact path to take. I actually joined this forum to have an extensive discussion on possible ways to take and if possible find someone to work on the project with. For the percentage loading, I intend to simply take the current and voltage at the secondary at regular intervals.

I am actually trying to solve a problem for my country with this project. In my country, we have lots of power outages and most times transformers just 'get lost' and it takes weeks to know what happeend to a transformer and their status before fixing it. I want to build this device so that the utilities in my country can have a solution to this problem.

I do not have much experience in hardware design and prototype, therefore I will be very grateful to have someone here to develop this project.

We can discuss more. I hope I get more comments.

Thanks.

   Joined February 08, 2019      4
Friday at 04:08 AM

Kelechi

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Hi Bradyen,

I can see you are also in Africa. Can we work together on this project?

   Joined February 08, 2019      4
Friday at 04:08 AM

Sourav Gupta

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I am not sure about how much accuracy you actually need. This is can be done using using SCADA based system.

 

However, The loading and realtime monitoring can be done using proper sensing techniques in the secondary side. But as far as I could understand, a huge EMI will surely hamper the sensor sensitivity. To overcome this you need atleast 5th order low pass filter after the sensor and need to convert the signal from voltage to current (Standard 4-20mA current protocol). Obviously the circuit specifications is highly dependable on the sensor specs. For a first pilot prototype, you can choose any two parameters of the secondary side to sense the realtime current and voltage level sensing and could determine the loading by mathematical calculations.

You also need to gather information about the oil quality, oil temperature using adquate sensor with proper sensing techniques.

 

   Joined February 12, 2018      696
Monday at 02:11 PM

Kelechi

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Thanks Gupta,

 

However SCAD is too expensive for us amd will not work for us because our network is old and not responsive.

This is why we want to build soemthing that will have a local touh and will be affordable.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will like us to be more practical and bring up recommended sensors, part lists and how to assemble it.

Keep the replies coming

   Joined February 08, 2019      4
Friday at 04:08 AM

Bradyen

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The system that you trying to build is widely getting pupoular with the involvemnt of IoT. Try searcing for "Distribution Transformer monitoring using IoT".

And yes, most people implement this for the Distribution Transformers (DT) as they would be the first line of defense for the transmission system. A healthy distribution transformer will normally ensure the performance of Power Transformer.

So why do you want to focus on Power transformer instaed of the Distribution Transformer itself? The secondary side of a DT will also have low voltage values making it easier for you find the sensors.

Sorry I cant collaborate on this project, since I am currently outside Africa and willl not be back anytime soon.

 

All the best!

 

   Joined August 14, 2018      44
Tuesday at 03:25 PM

Kelechi

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Thanks,

I will search for that.

The focus of the project is distribution transformers.

Actually you must not be in Africa to collaborate on this project.

Thanks, hope to get more replies from you.

   Joined February 08, 2019      4
Friday at 04:08 AM