Abstract:
Batteries provide power to the protection and control equipment including relays, circuit
breakers and other auxiliary devices. If the battery fails, then the substation is left unprotected
thus battery maintenance is one of the most critical aspects to ensuring power to consumers when
there is an outage or a system failure. Currently, battery maintenance programs consist of the
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems (SCADA) in addition to the monthly,
quarterly, and annual manual measurements of cell and overall battery voltages, specific gravity,
fluid level, connection resistance, and visual observations which are prone to human error. These
methods also require the technical personnel to always be physically present at the substation if
he or she wants to know about the status of the battery which makes it hard for him or her to
know in case there are any abnormal conditions in the state of the batteries. This system utilizes
the use of the temperature sensor, electrolyte level sensor, voltage sensor and a GSM modem
which helps to notify the technical personnel about the status of the battery as regards the
temperature, the electrolyte level and the voltage of the battery by sending an SMS. This system
therefore, helps the technical personnel to monitor the performance of the batteries remotely
without him being physically present at the substation.
