Smart system for controlling and monitoring water and turbidity levels in dam reservoir using arduino technology: a case study of Mudasomwa, Rwanda

Abstract

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.