DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF AN ARDUINO BASED LOW-COST FAULT DETECTION SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTION NETWORK IN NIGERIA

This paper proposed the design of an Arduino based, low-cost fault detection system. Proteus simulation environment was used to design and simulate the fault detection circuit. The codes were written in Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The system is made up of ATMEGA 328 microcontroller, GSM module, LCD, relays, voltage and current sensors. It displays the current and voltage available on all the three phases of the network and whenever any of the pre-programmed fault occurs it instantly sends an SMS via the GSM module to alert the operator. Any load exceeding 0.5A triggers the overload switch and overload fault SMS is sent and continuous flow of current exceeding 5A in the system registers as a short-circuit fault while a ±6% of 11kV is seen as an under-voltage fault with SMS sent respectively. The limitation to the effectiveness of the system is network failure.