SMART WIFI CIRCUIT BREAKER

The electrical energy infrastructure’s physical security is a crucial element that must offer protection against risks such as supply interruption due to malfunctions or anomalies in the electrical power supply system. Effective protection measures are being developed to protect the infrastructure against such risks, especially given the very high incidence rates reported by studies. For example, according to "THE HINDU" it has been shown that in the India, 56% of all fires in household or industrial locations have electrical causes, and one the main causes for electric-related fires is the electric arc. 

In this context, the effectiveness of the safety devices is vital, and one of the key protection elements in the case of the electrical grid is represented by circuit breakers. Circuit breakers can be found in every home or office building around the world, as they represent one of the most basic pieces of power management hardware, playing a critical role to protect power equipment during faults. They are the first device that electricity flows through when entering a home or building, and in today's world transcended by the Internet of Things, circuit breakers can be viewed as standing on the edge or border between Smart Grid and Smart Home acting as an actual gateway. While the Smart Grid is being regarded as a smart distributed network for delivering electricity which stops at the consumer’s door (the smart meter), Smart Home is a technology targeting home automation by ensuring Internet connectivity of all the household appliances and control systems. The circuit breaker, given its location just beyond the power meter is an active element of protection for the appliances in the home, which makes it of vital importance in the Smart Grid – Smart Home synergy.

Image Credit: electricaltechnology.org

A Smart Circuit Breaker (SCB) is capable of offering not only improved protection but also “smart” detection and management of grid faults. Becoming “smart” also means the circuit breaker is capable of enhanced communication over a network for data transmission and remote management.

The advantages of the proposed device are brought on by an improved protection in the case of faults through: high speed disconnection, automatic re-connection, data fusion (one device detects all events) and disconnection in the case of sensing voltage zero crossing which diminishes the generated perturbations. Last but not least, the data centralization infrastructure (all SCBs report their data to a server and the information is centralized in a database) allows for a real-time monitoring and reaction in the case of serious events and also generating statistics over time periods or at different locations. Remote user disconnection is also technically possible. In future these devices are going to play vital role for smart grid and protection of power system.

The architecture of the communication infrastructure will be as image shown here. It consists of a data concentrator, embedded networking capabilities in each SCB, and an online (Web-based) visualization and management interface.

The implementation is based on known IoT Web standards, protocols and services in order to meet the Smart Grid requirements in term of interoperability, scalability and accessibility. 

"  Electricity is not just a lifeline, it can also take away life when handled improperly."

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