Open-Source Automatic Circuit Recloser with Remote Control and Monitoring

Abstract

According to statistics, a large amount of faults in transmission and distribution networks are temporary faults that disappear a certain time after de-energization of the faulted sections of the network and then power is restored manually after the fault has cleared. Most recently, technology advancement has made available Automatic Circuit Recloser (ACR). This device makes it possible to recover the original status of the network without any human interaction. Unfortunately, for Africa and Zambia in particular the ACR system is proprietary, expensive and need “experts” to install, maintain and repair it. This study uses an open source embedded prototype single-line-to-ground (SLG) system that uses fixed dead time to discriminate transient from permanent faults. Simultaneously, an SMS is sent to the technician or the control center.  A program generated dead time it will attempt to switch ON for a number of given times beyond which the system is locked out until reset. The prototype was successfully simulated and implemented.