| dc.description.abstract | Our goal in this study is to Design a web-based (IoT) battery monitoring system for a power distribution substation. As a prerequisite for the project’s implementation we studied and assessed the current battery monitoring interventions by consulting the control and protection engineers and substation technicians at various substations in Uganda. Based on the study results, we developed a system that consists of a hardware circuit connected to a dummy load, and having voltage and temperature sensors connected and attached to a battery bank respectively. A wireless network was created with its router connected to the hardware circuitry through the internet shield to enable its Server periodically record the voltage and temperature values in its database. The server acts as a local host to provide access to these data over the network, has a developed interface for real-time remote monitoring of the system status accessible over the network, an ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’ remote switch buttons used for battery remote testing on the dummy load to ascertain if the battery would not fail to power its loads when required given correct values of the parameters being monitored and also as a safety measure to prevent permanent damage to the battery during over temperature and or under voltage levels. We utilized Atmel’s 8-bit RISC AVR chip; - the ATMEGA328P-PU microcontroller, a custom voltage sensing circuit was designed for voltage sensing and monitoring, TMP36 sensor was utilized to monitor the temperature of the battery bank. The programming code was written in ‘C++’ language on an Arduino development environment and WampServer application was used on the server to provide communications over the network between the server and circuit in order to receive and record the battery parameters in its database in real time and also to provide a remote access to the parameters being monitored when a control engineer / technician logs into the network and connects to the server computer.
A remote battery monitoring and control system which allows control and protection personals to view battery status in real time over the network at their place of convenience was developed. Control of the system was also achieved even through handheld network devices like smart mobile phones connected to the same network. Monitoring the electrolytic level was not considered because of the current nature of the batteries which do not use acid as electrolyte but are of powdered maintenance free type. | |
