Auto power supply control from four HITEC University

Cantt, Pakistan
Different sources: mains, solar, inverter and
Spring 2016
generator to ensure no break power
Kashif Mehmood, Majid Jamil, Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed, Muhammad Bilal
Supervisor: Muhammad Shehzad
Department of Electrical Engineering
Abstract—Electricity is a major requirement for a comfortable tariff rate. The four selection switches are use to represent the
life. It should be used effectively for its proper utilization. The activation and deactivation of the four sources. When any
demand of electricity is increasing day by day and the frequent switch is selected or pressed to activate the respective source a
power outages of electricity are causing many problems in low level signal is send to the arduino input. In response to the
different areas of life like banks, colleges/schools, hospitals, input, ardunio board send a high voltage signal to the relay.
houses and industries. Thus there is a need for substitute The signal is first send to the optocoupler which is use for
arrangement of power supply. Most of consumers are not isolation purpose. Then after optocoupler the signal is send to
aware about consumption of electricity efficiently. The main the transistor, which is used for switching purpose. BJT further
purpose of this project is to provide continuous supply of the activates or deactivates the relay in response to the selection
power to a load, by selecting the supply from any of the four key pressed earlier.
sources namely main, solar, inverter and generator 3. Practical Architecture Design
automatically in case of absence of one source. The system is
being designed using software as well as hardware 3.1 Software Design:
implementation and design reflects the integral work of each The engineering project implementation always starts with the
module as a single unit. The capability provided by the design software implementation, because it is a risk to start the design
of the system results in continuous supply to load without an directly from hardware without any testing. The software
interruption regardless of any outages. implementation allows us to pre check the real time working
Keywords- Arduino board, Relays, Supply sources (Main, of project without the risk of being damaged. There is a need
Inverters, generators, Solar) of logic development for the software implementation. This
allows the working sequence in a closed environment we
helps later in real time implementation.
1. Introduction
The important requirement of electric power distribution
systems is the consideration for automatic operation. In
particular, the fast and reliable transfer of our system from one
power source to another during certain system events is
important to achieve the goal for such systems. However, the
design of such automatic transfer system has less importance
than many other aspects of the overall power system design.
The four switches are used to demonstrate their respective
failure of that particular power supply. When any of the Flow chart:
switches is pressed it presents the failure of that respective
source. The output of controller is provided as an input to the
relay, which switches appropriate to maintain uninterrupted
supply to the load.
The output will be checked using a lamp drawing power
supply from mains in start. On failure of the mains supply the
load gets supply from the next available source. Four LEDS
will be used to demonstrate the four source of the power
supply. Using uninterrupted power supply in an automated
mode, we always have an alternate arrangement of source as
backup to take place of main power supply in case of power-
cut in an emergency case, where the power cut cannot be
avoided. In certain cases load can be changed as the
requirement of consumer.
2. Working
It is the latest technique of switching of load among different
sources implemented worldwide. Now-a-days the sources to
power supply also increase like renewable energy sources such
as solar and wind etc. In automatic switching there is a
controller used as a brain to the system, all the commands are
authorized by this controller. In case of absence of any source The sources are prioritized such as the priority of main occurs
the controller sense it and initiate the control action as at number one, priority of solar at number two, priority of
implanted in it on the basis of priority ordering. The priority inverter at number three and that of priority of generator at
order can be set by consumer on the basis of his requirement last.
most prominently by keeping in mind the sources with lowest
At start, if the main source is available the load is operated at activates or deactivates the relay in response to the selection
main supply. If main fails, the load is key pressed earlier.
shifted to next available source. If that source is also failed, a
check has been applied on every source so that the load is
driven by the sources according to the priority.
3.2 Hardware Design:
4. Results
Single source test:
After setting all the parameters and code burning, the status of
single source presence is checked for each of the source. First
the switches to all other sources are pressed to show their
failure except main. The arduino controller receives a high
input single at its input, as a result it generates a low output
signal to activate the relay for the mains.

In this project, four switches are used to represent the

respective source of that power supply. When any of the
switch is pressed it shows that the particular source is out of
order, switches are connected to arduino as input signals. The
output of arduino is input to the relay. The output is examined
using load like lamp drawing power supply from mains
initially. In absence of the mains, the load gets supply from The glow LED indicates the working of the load on mains, as
the next available source and so on. Other case is when the main is just available now and all other sources are
power switches from one source to another source, say solar unavailable. Then the all other switches are pressed except the
fails and supply shifts to inverter but the mains comes back solar switch, the controller has high input signal and a low
then the supply will automatically reach back to mains power output signal to activate the relay to the solar. So the
instead of switching to inverter. corresponding LED to the solar glows.

Double source test:

In case of availability of two sources of the power supply to
the load, the selection of the
source to deliver the power based upon the priority set to the
sources. The priorities to the source are given as:
1. Mains 2. Solar 3. Inverter 4. Generator
If mains and solar are available at the same time the priority of
the mains is high. In this case the controller receives high
input signal from both inputs but it only generates the low
output signal to activate the relay of mains.

Figure 1: Block diagram of circuit

The four selection switches are used to represent the activation

and deactivation of the four sources. When any switch is
selected or pressed to activate the respective source a low
level signal is sent to the arduino input. In response to the
input, ardunio board sends a high voltage signal to the relay.
The signal is first sent to the optocoupler which is used for
isolation purpose. After optocoupler, the signal is sent to
transistor which is used for switching purpose. BJT further
 [1] “Arduino Mega2560 Rev3”, [Link]
Multiple sources test: 17/06/2016 [2] “Slotted optocoupler package and schematic”,
In multiple sources test there are more than two sources [Link] 19/06/2016 [3] “Relays”,
available at the same time. The [Link] 16/06/2016 [4] [Link] Dudhate,
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arduino first of all detect the presence of available sources, as Issue 1, January-2016 484 ISSN 2229-5518
it receive high input signal from three of all but it only [5] GarimaPandey,KhandaAnum “Auto power supply control
generates the low output signal only for the source with higher from four different sources: mains, solar, inverter and
priority, which in this case is solar. generator to ensure no break power” IJSART
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The project “Auto power supply from four different sources: Principles and practice Macmillan Press Ltd. London 1994 pp
Mains, solar, inverter and generator” has been explained in 145 – 220.
this paper with all its features and details. The significance of [12] Robert L. Boylestad and Louis Nashelsky Electronic
this project lies in its various advantages and wide places of devices and circuit theory Eight edition. Prentice Hall
applications where this project can be used efficiently. It has (Pearson Education Inc.) 2002 pp 875.
been developed by integrating features of all the hardware [13] L. Theraja and B. K. Theraja. A textbook of Electrical
components used. Presence of every module has been Technology.S. Chand and Company Ltd. New Delhi, India
reasoned out and placed carefully thus contributing to the best 2002 pp. 220, 920, 924, 1712 –1716.
working of the unit. [14] Rockwell automation SCADA System Selection guide
Working of same design in two different environments often Allen-Bradley.
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results in desirable output in simulations but could not McGraw Hill [Link]. 280 – 281, 414.
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Hardware implementation requires more appropriate working Principles and practice Macmillan Press Ltd. London 1994 pp
and testing which results the desired output. Hardware 145 – 220.
implementation of the system also process in different steps [17] B. L. Theraja and B. K. Theraja.A textbook of Electrical
like component testing to complete system design for better Technology.S. Chand and Company Ltd. New Delhi, India
understanding about the output results in different schemes 2002 pp. 220, 920, 924, 1712 – 1716.
applied. Hardware design of project results the real time
working of system and shifting of load among different
sources to provide continuous supply to the load and
concludes the proper working of automatic switching action to
supply continuous power to the load with high efficiency and
small time delay.

6. References