Design of smart wireless changeover for continuous electric current feeding from power sources of variable capacities

Abstract

Electric power has become a vital element for life today. Despite this importance, electric power consumers in Iraq suffer from the problem of noncontinuity and daily electric power supply interruption. This problem led to the use of various sources of electric power as an alternative to compensate for the shortage of electric power provided by the Iraqi national grid. In this work, a smart wireless changeover device is designed using wireless sensor networks technology aiming to solve problem caused by the multiplicity of power sources received at home and governmental buildings in Iraq by controlling operation of some electrical devices (which consume high current) in the home or workplace automatically when changing source of electricity from one to another. This solution will help to ensure the continuity of electric current feeding from power sources of variable capacities, also, to rationalize power consumption by assigning an operation priority to electric devices. Furthermore, a statistical measurement as a case study was performed in a building with a total power consumption of 160.8 KW/h. The result showed that the device functions effectively and it is capable of achieving an average saving in power of about 50% to 86% depending on the applied priorities and case study scenario.