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AUTOMATIC METHOD OF PROTECTING TRANSFORMER USING PIC

MICROCONTROLLER AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE FUSE PROTECTION
TECHNIQUE

Article · December 2018

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 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Volume 3, Issue 2 (Mar-Apr 2015), PP. 23-27

AUTOMATIC METHOD OF PROTECTING

TRANSFORMER USING PIC
MICROCONTROLLER AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO
THE FUSE PROTECTION TECHNIQUE
A. Z. Loko1, A. I. Bugaje2, A. A. Bature3
1
Department of Physics Electronics/Nasarawa State University Keffi P.MB 1022, Nigeria
2
National Space Research and Development Agency, Abuja Nigeria
3
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor Malaysia
[email protected]/[email protected]

Abstract- This paper describe the design and microcontrollers are used as one of the requirements to apply
implementation of an “Automatic method of protecting in the remote protection of the transformer.
transformer as an alternative to the fuse protection technique”. For decades, fuse, circuit breakers and electromechanical
The aim of this paper is to provide an alternative, effective, relays were used for the protection of power systems. The
efficient and more reliable method of protecting fault from
traditional protective fuses and electrometrical relays present
power transformer which may arose as a result of overload,
high temperature or a high input voltage. Generally, fault may several draw backs.
occur in transformers due to the stated reasons. To safeguard Alternatively, some researches were conducted on relay which
the damage of the transformer with the aid and help of can be interfaced to microprocessors in order to eradicate the
microcontroller we monitor and control the entire circuitry. drawbacks of the traditional protective techniques [6], which
Thereafter regarding the monitoring and control, information led to many improvements in transformer protection in terms
about the operation of the parameters would be transmitted to a of lower installation and maintenance costs, better reliability,
personal computer for general monitoring and control, which improved protection and control and faster restoration of
avoid the need of the lines men who had to go to the transformer outages.
to re-fix fuses. Lastly, a working system was demonstrated to
In view of the associated problems of traditional methods of
authenticate the design and possible improvements were also
presented. protecting transformer, a proposed solution is chosen to
Index Terms- Microcontroller based Automatic method of develop a microcontroller based transformer protection
protecting transformer. Voltage, Current, Temperature prototype because the microprocessors based relays provides
monitoring of a transformer. greater flexibility, more adjustable characteristics, increased
range of setting, high accuracy, reduced size, and lower costs,
I. INTRODUCTION along with many ancillary functions, such as control logic,
Protection against fault in power systems (PS) is very event recording, self-monitoring and checking, etc. [2].
essential and vital for reliable performance. A power system is
said to be faulty when an undesirable condition occurs in that II. SYSTEM DESIGN
power system, where the undesirable condition might be short The below block diagram is designed to evaluate the hardware
circuits, over-current, overvoltage etc. description.
The power transformer is one of the most significant
equipment in the electric power system, and transformer
protection is an essential part of the general system protection
approach. Transformers are used in a wide variety of
applications, from small distribution transformers serving one
or more users to very large units that are an integral part of the
bulk power system [1].
Increase in population leads to increase in demands of
electrical power. With the increase in demand of power, the
existing systems may become overloaded. Overloading at the
consumer end appears at the transformer terminals which can
affect its efficiency and protection systems. One of the
reported damage or tripping of the distribution transformer is
due to thermal overload. To avoid the damaging of
transformer due to overloading from consumer end, it involves
the control against over-current tripping of distribution
transformer. Where the advancement of technology has given
the edge to use the latest trends, such as microprocessor, Fig.1. System design block diagram

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 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Volume 3, Issue 2 (Mar-Apr 2015), PP. 23-27
Based on the various reviews conducted on transformer measuring and monitoring voltage from 200 to 250 voltage. In
protection and the above block diagram which was conceived this research, the voltage can be increased or decreased by
out of those literature reviews conducted, numbers of using the autotransformer and the output of the voltage
components are required in developing the protection system. monitoring circuit is fed to ADC converter, whenever the
As shown in Fig 1, the output of the transformer (i.e. voltage is varied to 200Vac, the microcontroller will detect
secondary side) is connected to a load which is usually under voltage fault and whenever the voltage is varied to
electrical appliances such as bulbs, electric heater etc. The 250Vac, the microcontroller detects over voltage fault,
current sensor connected in series with load is used to measure consequently the microcontroller sends a trip signal to the
the load current while a step down voltage transformer is used relay, and the relays cuts the primary of the transformer from
to measure the voltage. The step down voltage transformer the AC mains, thereby protecting the transformer.
will pass through a rectification process then fed to the
Analogue to digital converter of the microcontroller.
Whenever there is overheating, overvoltage and over-current,
the microcontroller sends a trip signal to the relay and the
overvoltage relay shutdowns the transformer, while the over-
current relay cuts off the faulty load of the transformer,
thereby protecting the transformers. The microcontroller acts Fig. 3. Over and under voltage sensing circuit.
as the brain of the entire system, and the relay acts as the
protective device of the system. The LCD display is used to Figure 3, shows a step down transformer of 230-12Vac that
display the situation (normal and abnormal condition). was used and rectified to a pure dc using the capacitor and
Similarly, the system has the ability to send the transformer then adjusted to voltage within 5Vdc using the potentiometer
parameters to the personal computer for monitoring and to fed the analogue signal into the ADC without burning the
control. ADC converter. Whenever the primary voltage of the
transformer is adjusted, the secondary voltage also changes,
A. Over-current protection circuits and based on the microcontroller program, the input voltage
Based on the research and practical implementation, an can be monitor, displayed and the transformer can be
ammeter cannot be used in measuring the load current reason protected from any fault.
been that an analogue signal most be fed into the ADC of the
microcontroller for monitoring the load current. A current
III. SYSTEM FLOWCHART
sensor was found to be the suitable current sensing device for
Flowchart is a diagram representation of the program
this research. The current sensor used can measure up to 50A.
algorithm. The figure below shows the system flowchart.
The BB-ACS756 comes with a set of Dean-T connector and a
3 ways right angle pin header. The ACS756 is power up with
5V and gives out voltage to indicate the direction and current
value.
The output of the current sensor is fed to Micro-
controller ADC unit for taking the necessary action. The
current flowing through the CT primary can be measured. The
digital display is provided at the output of the Micro-controller
Chip. Figure 2 shows load sensing circuit.

Fig. 4. system Flowchart.

Fig.2. Load sensing circuit The flowchart above shows the description of the system
program code. Firstly, the program will initialize, read the
B. Over and under voltage protection circuit ADC and the USART pins, thereafter sends the transformer
The 230Vac:12Vac step down voltage transformer is parameters which are fed to the ADC to the personal computer
used to measure the load voltage. The voltage transformer will system using the printf command, then to the LCD display.
pass through rectification process before fed to the ADC. The The microcontroller ADC will continuously capturing the
over voltage and under voltage protection circuit is capable of transformer parameters, as the transformer secondary current
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 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Volume 3, Issue 2 (Mar-Apr 2015), PP. 23-27
is greater than 1A, it sends a trip signal to the over-current 4.2 Visual basic 6.0 with Proteus ISIS 7 professional results
relay, and it cuts off the load that leads to the over-current, The outputs obtained from the microcontroller and transmitted
thereby protecting the transformer from burning. Same to the PC via VB GUI interface are given below. Therefore,
process goes to the over voltage protection, it will check using the virtual serial port Emulator, the output was
whether the transformer input voltage is greater than 230Vac, simulated perfectly. This gives us a clear idea of the hardware
if so, it sends a trip signal to overvoltage relay, which will implementation.
protect the transformer.

IV. HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE DESIGN AND

IMPLEMENTATION

A. Complete schematic diagram

The circuit consists of PIC16F877A microcontroller; step
down transformer circuit for voltage sensing, current sensing
circuit, relay circuits, a temperature sensor, RS232 and the
masx232 circuit.
The step down transformer used is a 230 to 12 Vac
transformer and is used for the purpose of sensing the input
voltage to the main transformer with a voltage rating of 230 to
160Vac. The step down transformer is been rectified and
filtered to a pure dc which goes directly to the microcontroller
ADC for monitoring the input voltage. For the purpose of
current sensing, a current transformer was used for that
purpose. It went through rectification and filtering process
then directly connected to the microcontroller ADC for Fig. 6. Monitoring and transmitting the transformer
monitoring the load current. parameters using microcontroller with proteus software
The microcontrollers send the monitored parameters to
LCD display and also transmit them to a personal computer.
The transmission to personal computer was made possible by
interfacing the microcontroller with the computer using
MAX232 through RS232 serial communication. RS232
(recommended standard 232) supports both synchronous and
asynchronous transmission and its user data is send as a time
series of bits.
While monitoring the parameters, whenever a fault
occurs which might be high voltage or over current, the
microcontroller sends a trip signal to the relay and thereby
protecting the transformer from burning.

Fig. 7 Receiving and monitoring transformer parameters

via PC using the VB GUI interface

The system was developed with all the features of a

microcontroller for transformer protection. The loads are
connected to the transformer secondary, and a current sensor
is connected in series with load for real time current
monitoring. Based on the real time current monitored values,
the microcontroller takes decision over the relay whether to
cut off or not. The step transformer connected to the input
voltage is used for high voltage monitoring, based on the
monitored voltage values; the microcontroller takes decision
over the relay. The PIC16F877A microcontroller board
contains all the sub circuits on-board including the high
voltage sensing circuit, the liquid crystal display (LCD) for
monitored values display, LED’s for indication, temperature
sensor, relays for protection purposes and finally the MAX
232 and RS232 for transmitting the transformer parameters to
Fig. 5. Complete schematic PC.
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 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Volume 3, Issue 2 (Mar-Apr 2015), PP. 23-27
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION As in figure 9, when there’s no overvoltage detected by the
In order to verify the performance of the proposed microcontroller through the voltage sensing circuit, the
microcontroller based transformer protection system, a microcontroller energize the overvoltage relay on which
hardware prototype was implemented with PIC16F877A allows the flow of electric current and voltage through the
microcontroller and a 16MHz crystal oscillator. During the transformer primary. When the input AC voltage is varied
test, an autotransformer was used for varying the input voltage through the autotransformer above the rated voltage of the
of the transformer in order to create the over voltage fault. transformer which is 230VAC, the microcontroller detects an
Bulbs were used as loads to create the over current fault. overvoltage condition through the voltage sensing circuit,
Voltage and current sensing circuits were designed for sensing therefore it sends a trip signal the overvoltage relay, and the
the transformer voltage and current. relay cuts OFF the primary of the transformer from the input
AC voltage thereby saving the transformer from damaging as
A. Transformer current analysis a result of overvoltage, when the microcontroller detects
normal voltage, it sends back a switch ON signal to relay
thereby allowing the flow of electric current and voltage
through transformer primary.

VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RECOMMENDATION

A. Conclusion
Protection of power transformers is a great challenge
today. With the advent of microcontrollers, protection of
transformers is greatly achieved with degree of accuracy. The
system provides effective and efficient protection than the
traditional methods which are currently in use. The benefits of
this system over the traditional methods are that it has fast
response, better isolation and accurate detection of the fault.
This system overcomes the other drawbacks in the existing
Fig. 8 Transformer current analyses systems such as maintenance and response time.
As shown in figure 8, when there’s no over-current At the end of the work, a complete hardware and
detected by the microcontroller through the current sensor, the software were successfully implemented as prototype. The
microcontroller energizes the over-current relay ON, if loads transformer voltage, current and temperature were monitored,
are added to the secondary side of the transformer, the as soon as a fault occurs; the protective relays are triggered
secondary current rises. Therefore the load is proportional to OFF thereby protecting the transformer from damage.
the secondary current. If the load connected does not exceed With the help of this system, the maintenance staff of the
the rated current of the transformer which 1.2A, the relay Electricity Power authority department can have a continuous
continues to be on. But when the load current exceeds the vigilance over the transformer through a personal computer
transformer rated current, the microcontroller sends a trip and rectify the problem from the computer without the need of
signal to the over-current relay and the relay goes OFF., lines men. The goal of the research was achieved successfully.
thereby protecting the transformer from burning due to The research shows that the system is fully automated with no
overloading. When the over current is rectified, the relay goes manual interface required.
ON and continues to allow the flow of electric current through
the load. B. Future Recommendations
For future works, some recommendations have been listed in
B. Transformer voltage analysis order to improve the performance.

 Use of power semiconducting device as protective

device:
A TRIAC which is a member of the THYRISTOR family
can be used for protecting the transformer instead of using
relays. As time goes on, relay might encounter mechanical
problem which will lead to a poor protection. However, by
using a TRIAC, which is a power semiconducting device,
the protection will be more reliable, effective and efficient.
The TRIAC will lead to a long life and less maintenance
due to absence of moving parts. The TRIAC are small in
size, less weight results in less floor space and therefore
lower installation cost. The TRAIC has fast dynamic
response as compared to the electromechanical relays.
 Use of GSM modem for wireless communication
Fig. 9 Transformer voltage analyses

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 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Volume 3, Issue 2 (Mar-Apr 2015), PP. 23-27
Using GSM module, the information of the transformer such
as current, temperature and voltage can be send wirelessly to
the officer in charge of monitoring and maintaining of the
transformers and also the GSM modem would give him the
ability to rectify the fault without going nearer to the
transformer.

REFERENCE
[1] P. M. Anderson (1998). Power system protection.New York:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. P.673.
[2] J. Lewis Blackburn, Thomas J. Domin (2006). Protective
Relaying Principles and Applications. 3rd ed. United States
of America: CRC press Leonard L. Grigsby (2007). The
Electric Power Engineering Handbook. 2nd ed. United States
of America: CRC press.
[3] Ali Reza Fereidunian, Mansooreh Zangiabadi, MajidSanaye-
Pasand, GholamPournaghi, (2003) ‘Digital Differential
Relays For Transformer Protection Using Walsh Series And
Least Squares Estimators’. CIRED (International Conference
on Electricity),pp. 1-6.
[4] Mazouz A. Salahar Abdallah R. Al-zyoud (2010), ‘Modelling
of transformer differential protection using programmable
logic controllers’ European journal of scientific research,
41(3), pp. 452-459.
[5] R. A. LARNER and K. R. GRUESEN, (1959).Fuse
Protection or High-Voltage Power Transformers, pp.864-873.
[6] S.M Bashi, N. Mariun and A.rafa (2007). ‘Power
Transformer protection using microcontroller based relay’,
Journal of applied science, 7(12), pp.1602-1607.

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