CIRED 19th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Vienna, 21-24 May 2007

Paper 0584-

A MODEL OF AN AUTOMATIC PHASE SWITCH

Jimi OLUFEAGBA Kehinde ALOWOLODU

Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria
lobojay12@yahoo.com alowolodu@futa.edu.ng

except at the inception of a new feeder or in isolated and

ABSTRACT well-managed loads, the distribution lines are overloaded.
This situation coupled with widely changing loading
The electric distribution network in Nigeria is beset with patterns by the consumers can in many instances lead to
anomalies in the form of frequent fluctuations, sub-standard differences in phase current in the excess of 100%.
voltage and outages that damage both distribution as well Automatically losses are very high, and balancing will be
as consumer equipment. Residential Consumers have required.
evolved responses to most of these problems by proactively In the Nigerian system, maintenance procedures do not
changing the phase to which they are connected. The include regular and periodic assessment and balancing of
method used is to bring all three phases to an accessible the phases. As elsewhere, the largest number of consumers
point and manually select the perceived best phase. This is residential consumers who by regulation must be
paper presents a model that can help in doing this and connected with a single phase meter, usually with maximum
effecting load balancing in the system. Issues of transients amperage of 100A.
and overall system stability is considered and it is Due to the very rapid growth of electric power distribution
concluded that if supply authority should allow for such a occasioned by consumer demand, new connections are often
system, the consumer and the distributing authority will be done without being recorded. It is further exacerbated by
better for it. the fact that the lines are substantially overloaded before
hand. The resource needed to carry out an authority-
INTRODUCTION supervised balancing operation is very high and may not
Power distribution in Nigeria is done predominantly at even be achievable given the dynamic nature of many loads.
415V phase–phase on 3–phase, 4–wire system. Usually, As a result, no positive actions have been taken in recent
transformers rated between 50 and 500kVA are used at times.
substations to supply groups of residential and commercial
consumers in a radial manner. The high demand for CONSUMER AD-HOC APPROACH
electricity has resulted in overloading at most substations The second “method” is the response of helpless consumers
which leads to frequent outage and other anomalies. For the to the extreme conditions which damage their equipment
3–phase system to function with minimum power loss, the and curtail their access to quality electric power. In Nigeria
leads on the phase must be balanced or as close to balanced this problem is further exacerbated by the frequent
as possible. This amongst other requires that the load be occurrence of single and two phase faults where consumers
balanced. Load balancing is the process whereby observe their neighbours having power whilst they languish
loads/consumers are shared amongst the phases in such a in darkness. They have since evolved a technique whereby
manner that the total load at any time on each phase will be single phase consumers demand and connect all three
approximately equal [1]. [2 and 3] presented phase phases to a board in their houses through fuse points which
switching algorithms that can be used for optimal phase are only used one at a time as illustrated in figure 1
balancing switching sets of loads. There are three possible The arrangement in principle is fraught with great
methods of achieving this as highlighted below. difficulties and dangers since one may believe that two or
more of the phases may be connected together at the
LOAD ESTIMATION BEFORE CONNECTION Rewirable fuses,
only one is
In the first method, estimates of the load are used as the wired
basis for allocating the phase to which a consumer is
connected in the first instance when being first energized. Incoming
three phase kWhr
Unfortunately this estimate often depend on factors that from mains Meter
may change such as diversity factor which means the load
deviation from balance could be quite marked. In a system
which is running well within its capacity, this technique can
Figure 1: Consumer ad-hoc load balancing method
be applied and the deviation from balance may be no more
than 20% of the rated current. Unfortunately in Nigeria, injection point of the consumer. Indeed, the power authority

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CIRED 19th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Vienna, 21-24 May 2007

Paper 0584-

frowns seriously at this practice but they are relatively Ф3 is the phase to neutral voltage on phase 3.
powerless to stop it since the enforcement of any sanction Also let
would lead to potential social upheaval. A be the Boolean variable which is true when the condition
In a recent study, it was observed that this method has Ф1> Ф2,
become almost institutionalized in Nigeria. An assessment B be the condition that Ф2> Ф3,
of accidents occurring as a result of this modification C be the condition that Ф1> Ф3,
indicates that because the consumers have only one fuse for X1 is the output with only phase 1 selected,
the three fuse points, an automatic virtual mechanical X2 is the output with only phase 2 selected
interlock exists preventing the simultaneous closure of two X3 is the output with only phase 3 selected
or more of the phases to the consumer injection point. The
rationale used by the consumers to select their operating The characteristics table of the machine is shown in table 1
phase may be described as an “eyeball” method. When a Table 1: Characteristic table of automatic phase selector
consumer observes deterioration of the voltage through the S/N A B C X1 X2 X3 Remark
level of illumination evident from the light and the fan 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 Phase 1 is selected
speed, he proceeds to transfer his mobile fuse from one 2 1 0 1 1 0 0 Phase 1 is selected
phase to another until he finds the best voltage through the 3 0 1 0 0 1 0 Phase 2 is selected
observation of his illuminations. This procedure when 4 0 1 1 0 1 0 Phase 2 is selected
considered heuristically will mean that the consumer has 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 Phase 3 is selected
actually taken the first step to reducing the load on his 6 1 0 0 0 0 1 Phase 3 is selected
initial phase and increasing that on the terminal phase, 7 1 1 0 Fault state APS disabled,
which is an incremental step to balancing the load. 8 0 0 1 (implementing primary phase
Ideally, a set of consumers carrying out this process may a fail/safe selected.
end up at achieving 'a balance of the loads'. This method mechanism)
however has many flaws because the consumer who is
actually closing the feedback loop cannot be precise and Electronic Implementation of Phase Selector
consequently may cause oscillation in the loading patterns. The first component of the phase changer is the voltage
Despite the potential for accidents, the resulting system has measurement system. All the three phase voltages are
proven to be as efficient as nay mechanical-interlocked one. measured individually. The voltages are then presented to a
However, since the migrations usually increase the load on set of comparators whose output provide the variable A, B
the 'good' phase, losses increase and terminals at feeder and C as shown in table 1. The phase change is now
pillars are damaged. This could as well lead to the damage implemented according to the logic indicated in the
of the supply transformer and ancillary equipments. characteristic table 1. All these functions can be easily and
readily implemented with a simple microcontroller
AUTOMATIC PHASE CHANGER equipped with at least a three–channel analog–to–digital
It is easy to imagine an automated system which depends on converter.
imprecisely stated guidelines to select the phase with the
best voltage each time and in addition includes other criteria The problem when many of such switches are connected
that will prevent systemic oscillations. into a system is interesting. For example, if they are all
The third method is a theoretical one whereby an automaton connected through identical automatic phase switches as
which may use a microcontroller is installed at each loading above, a situation may arise when all may be switched to
point and can be directed by some central authority through the same phase at the same time in the event of low voltage
the agency of another automaton to periodically adjust the or outage on other phases. This can cause oscillation of the
phase of each consumer. Naturally, this method has many switches as they will switch back and forth between phases.
advantages which however introduce additional but This oscillation can damage distribution transformers
complex equipment at each installation. easily. In order to solve this problem, a random timer is
inserted so that phase changes occur randomly. This will
ensure that when a system migrates from one phase to
Best Phase Selection Algorithm another, other systems will wait for some time before taking
There are six valid possible scenarios for the values of the phase change decisions, in the case that the switching of the
phase voltages. These are depicted graphically in figure 1 already switch loads will balance the system. The other
Let effect that this have on the system is that the feeder pillar is
Ф1 is the phase to neutral voltage on phase 1, prevented from rupturing as a result of all consumers
Ф2 is the phase to neutral voltage on phase 2, and switching to a single phase.

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CIRED 19th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Vienna, 21-24 May 2007

Paper 0584-

Start

Select
Default phase

Ф3 Ф2 Ф1 Phase 1 is
selected
Start Delay time
time> T1
T1

Ф2 Ф3 Ф1 Yes

a Measure Phase
Voltages
Yes
Ф3 Ф1 Ф2 Phase 2 is Two
selected Phases Out
No

No
Ф1 Ф3 Ф2 a Switching
needed
Yes
Generate
Ф2 Ф1 Ф3 Phase 3 is Random Wait
Time T2
selected
Wait time> T2 and
Switching needed
Ф1 Ф2 Ф3
Yes

Figure 2. Switch to best

phase
T=0

Another step to prevent such possible problems is by T> T3 Delay time

embargoing migration when two phases are outaged. Logic T3
Yes
is also needed to take care of default conditions occurring at
start-up or restart as the case may be. The introduction of a
these phase solutions into the distribution system can be
made more workable by placing limits on the time between
migrations. When all these effects are combined with REFERENCES
random delays, the effect of the selectors will occur at a rate
that is manageable. Figure 3 shows the flowchart of the [1] Allen Short, 2001, Electric Power Distribution and
proposed system. A special paper will present the result of Systems, CRC Press, UK.
simulations of the effect on local systems as well as proof of
convergence. [2] Murat Dilek, 2001, Integrated Design of Electrical
Distribution Systems: Phase Balancing and Phase
CONCLUSION Prediction Case Studies, PhD Thesis Virginia
The regulations in Nigeria have been that all single phase Polytechnic Institute and State University
wired residential consumers should be supplied via single
phase in line with the IEE standard. Regulations should be [3] Thomas E. McDermott, 1998, A Heuristic Nonlinear
made if they can be enforced and it is in the long–term Constructive Method for Electric Power Distribution
interest of the system. This wiring standard as at present in System Reconfiguration
Nigeria is neither enforceable nor in the overall interest of
the electric distribution system in the country. It will be
better if this standard is changed and an automatic system
be allowed to control the switching of consumers between
phases as against the present “eye–ball” method. This will
allow for the development of this model with the
consequent improvement in the phase balance in our electric
distribution system.

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