Development of Microcontroller-based Electric Power Distribution Automation System
Keywords:
distribution automation, microcontroller, modulation, demodulation, remote terminal unit, interfacing.Abstract
The demand on the electric power for the household, commercial and industrial
loads is on the increase. Also, the management of electric distribution system is becoming
more complex. Lack of information at the base station on the status of the distribution
network has been identified as the major bottleneck to its effective monitoring and control.
This work is a development of Microcontroller-based Electric Distribution Automation
system for the purpose of effective monitoring and control of distribution system. Designed
components include Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) with Microcontroller(ATmega8A) as the
major component for acquisition, monitoring, transmission and processing of data;
Modulation and Demodulation (MODEM) module for serial data communication; Man–
Machine interface(MMI) which is the Distribution Automation Software designed with
Visual C-Sharp,2008 and it is residents on Personal Computer(PC). The modules circuits
were built on the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) whose design was custom-made using PCB
Editor Software. To authenticate the functionality of the developed MODEM, high
frequency signals at the extremes 50 kHz, 100 kHz, 200 kHz and 500 kHz, using 12volts
signal source was impressed on MODEM. The responses shown on the Oscilloscope
indicated that it is possible, using the developed system, to generate the high frequency
signals necessary to establish communication between the distribution substation (DSS)
modules. The next stage of this work is the implementation.
