Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
30 Power Outlet Quality and Submeter System
 Nicole Viz
Roshan Mahesh
Soham Manjrekar
 Surya Vasanth design_document1.pdf
design_document2.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
presentation1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
proposal2.pdf
video1.mov
video2.mov
# Power Outlet Quality and Submeter System Project

Team Members:
- Nicole Viz (nviz2)
- Soham Manjrekar (sohammm2)
- Roshan Mahesh (roshanm2)

# Problem

In the rapidly evolving field of power electronics and energy technologies, maintaining consistent and high-quality power distribution and energy usage is critical for residential and commercial buildings. Using submeters can help create energy savings, lower operating costs, increase building efficiency and reliability, and improve occupant comfort. Devices today have several drawbacks, however. They can be cost-inefficient, complex to operate and to read, and they may lack real-time insights. Additionally, they may not employ sufficient power quality monitoring. These shortcomings can lead to difficulty in meeting recent sustainability efforts, and as such, an innovative solution is needed.

# Solution

For our project, we’d like to design and construct an improved device that monitors power quality and acts as a submeter to its loads – a device that is cost-effective, has high-fidelity data acquisition, and operates with an intuitive user interface LCD screen. Our project will solve the problems listed above by combining a power quality monitor along with a submeter in a cost-effective manner that stores real-time data and loads the data to a database that can be accessed through a website. More detailed specifications are presented below. We’ve divided our project into the following subsystems: Microcontroller/Software, Sensors and ICs, and Power. Note: We’ve looked into the work of a group who did a similar project last year and discussed some of the issues they faced; portions of this work will hopefully build on that and improve upon them.

# Solution Components

- Microcontroller/Software
1. ESP-32 or similar
- Offers DSP
- WiFi and Bluetooth Connectivity
- Allows for expansion GPIO to add additional storage
- Low power draw
2. SD Card Module
- To save data in the event of power loss
3. Google Cloud hosting MySQL database or similar
- Any online cheap database management system
- Sensors and ICs
1. Voltage Sensing via Voltage Divider
2. Current Transformer (PA1005.070QNL by Pulse Electronics), measures current as well
3. ADE9153A
- Single Phase Energy Metering IC
4. ADE9430
- Power Quality Metering IC
- Power
1. 5V Li ion Battery (or can investigate other battery options if there are safety concerns with Li ion)
2. 3.3V Linear Regulator (to power PCB with IC’s and microcontroller)

# Criterion for Success

Our criterion for success is divided up into the following 5 categories: software, operation, power quality measurement, submeter measurement, and miscellaneous. These are our criteria for success:
- Software
1. Online database that holds data such as timestamp, voltage, current, power, time of harmonic disturbances/power outages/voltage changes larger than 5%
- Upload data to database every 15 minutes using WiFi/bluetooth
2. Displays waveforms of power outlet current and voltage
3. Displays whether or not there’s a power quality issue (for harmonic disturbances/power outages/voltage changes larger than 5%), the type of issue, followed by a notification
- Operation
1. Self powering our device for at least 24 hours
- Power Quality Measurement
1. Record harmonic disturbances 20 ms before and after
2. Record voltage changes larger than 5%, or power failures
3. Send this data to database when failures/disturbances occur
- Submeter Measurement
1. Measure voltage, current, power of electrical load
2. Have an LCD Screen displaying instantaneous voltage, current, power
- Miscellaneous / Stretch Goals
1. Keep construction costs as low as reasonably possible
2. Make device lean and visually tidy

El Durazno Wind Turbine Project

Alexander Hardiek, Saanil Joshi, Ganpath Karl

El Durazno Wind Turbine Project

Featured Project

Partners: Alexander Hardiek (ahardi6), Saanil Joshi (stjoshi2), and Ganpath Karl (gkarl2)

Project Description: We have decided to innovate a low cost wind turbine to help the villagers of El Durazno in Guatemala access water from mountains, based on the pitch of Prof. Ann Witmer.

Problem: There is currently no water distribution system in place for the villagers to gain access to water. They have to travel my foot over larger distances on mountainous terrain to fetch water. For this reason, it would be better if water could be pumped to a containment tank closer to the village and hopefully distributed with the help of a gravity flow system.

There is an electrical grid system present, however, it is too expensive for the villagers to use. Therefore, we need a cheap renewable energy solution to the problem. Solar energy is not possible as the mountain does not receive enough solar energy to power a motor. Wind energy is a good alternative as the wind speeds and high and since it is a mountain, there is no hindrance to the wind flow.

Solution Overview: We are solving the power generation challenge created by a mismatch between the speed of the wind and the necessary rotational speed required to produce power by the turbine’s generator. We have access to several used car parts, allowing us to salvage or modify different induction motors and gears to make the system work.

We have two approaches we are taking. One method is converting the induction motor to a generator by removing the need of an initial battery input and using the magnetic field created by the magnets. The other method is to rewire the stator so the motor can spin at the necessary rpm.

Subsystems: Our system components are split into two categories: Mechanical and Electrical. All mechanical components came from a used Toyota car such as the wheel hub cap, serpentine belt, car body blade, wheel hub, torsion rod. These components help us covert wind energy into mechanical energy and are already built and ready. Meanwhile, the electrical components are available in the car such as the alternator (induction motor) and are designed by us such as the power electronics (AC/DC converters). We will use capacitors, diodes, relays, resistors and integrated circuits on our printed circuit boards to develop the power electronics. Our electrical components convert the mechanical energy in the turbine into electrical energy available to the residents.

Criterion for success: Our project will be successful when we can successfully convert the available wind energy from our meteorological data into electricity at a low cost from reusable parts available to the residents of El Durazno. In the future, their residents will prototype several versions of our turbine to pump water from the mountains.