Browsing by Author "Terblanche, Wynand Dreyer"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Development and application of intelligent histogram logger for load profiling applications
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Terblanche, Wynand Dreyer; Vermeulen, H. J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Over the past few years, rising electricity cost has increasingly put focus on energy management and energy efficient interventions with the aim at consuming electrical energy sustainably and decrease dependency on fossil fuels. Energy management and energy conservation exercises, however, require accurate and reliable load-specific energy consumption data and statistics. To date, high costs of logging instrumentation and data communication remains the restrictive aspect for acquiring statistically significant distributed load modelling data. Conventional long-term measuring instrumentation is, furthermore, highly intrusive which motivates research in non-intrusive load modelling and emphasizes the limiting factor towards energy management exercises. This project provides a solution for modern large-scale load monitoring studies by proposing a low-cost event-based histogram logger. Several studies in the literature where investigated to develop a cost-effective alternative logging device with the aim at design objectives such as low-cost hardware, power efficiency, small physical footprint and non-intrusive current sensing. The proposed system is thoroughly discussed in terms of the system topology, firmware design and the implementation of application software. Numerous methods of data acquisition are investigated to find the optimal recording technique that satisfies the requirements of energy management exercises. Histogram data logging is studied and introduced as an attempt to reduce non-volatile memory requirements in modern data loggers. The application software, which offers a user-friendly interface to assist in setting up the logger, as well as retrieving and presenting data, is presented. Performance results are also presented for the power consumption characteristics of the design. Energy management interventions give rise to the implementation of renewable energy sources and micro-grid energy systems. The proposed system has been studied in the case study using an islanded micro-grid energy system. Historical data is provided for the photovoltaic power plant, battery storage system and diesel generator energy system, while the proposed loggers were installed at certain targeted residential appliances to gather usage data. Simulation software is presented, together with mathematical formulations, to determine various energy profiles and possible energy saving opportunities. The results of the case study proof the concept of histogram event recording and feasibility of implementing the proposed system for energy management exercises.