| dc.description |
Energy remains an essential resource for the sustainable development of any country. Although
many projects of energy production have been put in place, the hydropower type requires a
dam structure for storing water to be used in water shortage times and raise it at the level it can
produce substantial energy. In Africa and many other developing countries, several
hydropower plants operate under manual and mechanical operations which affect the quality
and speed of energy production. It becomes a problem when the water quality and quantity in
the dam are manually measured. This study aims at using an Arduino-based technology for
monitoring and controlling the turbidity and water levels in dam reservoirs by using different
sensor types. In the case of Rwanda, there is a lack of using embedded systems in monitoring,
control, and operation of hydropower plants the reason why this research is monitoring and
controlling the water reservoir of the Pico hydropower plant by using Arduino. In this
technological era, we are expected to diminish the time and fee charges spent on plant
operational processes by using a small number of laborers. It facilitates fast information
assemblage about water levels and turbidity levels which directly impact the production of
electricity at the hydropower plant. In the unsafe conditions of water and turbidity, water levels
less than 310 mm or greater than 330 mm and turbidity levels greater than 50 NTU, the system
prototype was able to detect these unusual statuses and automatically the water valve opened
or closed the incoming water according to the reservoir conditions. The developed system
prototype has four main components which include the sensing component, processing
component, displaying component, and alerting component. In the sensing component, the
ultrasonic sensor constantly monitors the variation in water levels, and the turbidity sensor
measures the turbidity of incoming water. Inside the processing component, the detected
records are collected and fed to the Arduino microcontroller for more processing. The
processed information can be viewed on displaying component which is Liquid Crystal Display
LCD, and the alerting component generates an alarm through the buzzer and an SMS
notification is sent on cellphones. The outcomes of this project research, from lab-testing,
provided a smart and automatic prototype that can quickly sense the fluctuations in both
turbidity and water levels, and uninterruptedly send updates to the dam workers within 3
seconds. This study was conducted in the upstream water reservoir of the Mudasomwa Pico hydropower plant located in South Province/ Rwanda, Nyaruguru District, Ruheru sector
between Remera and Uwumusebeya cells. |
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