Design and Evaluation of Condition Monitoring of Distribution Transformers for Developing Countries

Authors

  • Dejenie Birile Gemeda, Markus Lehner, Wilhelm Stork

Keywords:

Condition monitoring, distribution transformers, distributed sensor network, Internet of Things, LoRa

Abstract

Machine learning is becoming popular recently for real-time dynamic monitoring of existing systems. his process requires previous historical recorded dataset for model training and current measurements for testing. However, these are not readily available in large infrastructure projects like power distribution networks, especially in developing countries. There is no existing infrastructure for condition monitoring and data transmission in power distribution networks and a big budget is required to deploy legacy communication systems. To fill this gap, this paper presents a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) capable of condition monitoring of power distribution transformer to enable connectivity to the Internet of Things (IoT). In the proposed LPWAN, sensors are employed in a wireless mesh network (WMN) to monitor and diagnose distribution transformer conditions for reliable operation of the distribution grid. Very critical operation indicators like load current, winding temperatures, oil temperature, and oil level status of each distribution transformer are transmitted to a LoRa gateway via distributed sensor networks in urban areas. This data is then sent to the control center through conventional internet connectivity.

Downloads

Published

2022-08-16