ABSTRACT

Electrical power system comprises distribution, transmission and generation. Faults are most common at distribution.  Whenever such faults occur it is very difficult for distribution companies to identify and correct these faults with minimum down time. Hence, the need to deploy a fault monitoring device at every substation to monitor the quality of power that is supplied to consumers. The device should be able  to transmit faults condition signals by   a meshed wireless device   link to a central secluded location (control room)   so that   personnel on duty can  carry out remote monitoring. For this device to perform optimally, there has to be an efficient wireless sensor network through which data is routed from the point of fault to the point of observation. This thesis therefore determines optimal placement of wireless device nodes for actual period fault checking of distribution network using Okpanam network as case study.

Implementation was carried out in stages; Design of fault monitoring sensor node was carried out using components such as 9.0V transformer, instrumentation amplifier and Arduino Uno Micro controller. The functionality of   this system was tested in Proteus software environment. Mesh topology technique was adopted for the design.  The quantity of wireless device   network nodes for deployment amongst the substations and the control room was determined employing mathematical and experimental methods. Receive signal strength indicator (RSSI) technique was used to define the communication range of the ZiGBee module. Log-Normal shadowing model was used to calculate path loss exponent of the area under consideration. Results from these experiments were used to determine total number of ZiGBee modules that was needed to cover the dimension of the area under consideration. Genetic algorithm in MATLAB simulator R2015A environment was used to carryout optimization of the network.  Result obtained was implemented in network simulator 3 (NS3) environment to show that connectivity was possible between the ZiGBee networks. The performance of the network was determined using throughput metric and flow trial. Coverage model was developed for node placement. A  Remote monitoring system software was developed using the python programming language

Results from the research revealed that communication range of ZiGBee node within the area under consideration was 23meters, the path loss exponent was 1.9.  Seven hundred and eight four (784) nodes was required to monitor the dimension of the area under consideration. After optimization the number reduced to 295 ZiGBee nodes. Result from NS3 revealed good throughput with minimal end to end delay