Development of intelligent hybrid power transfer switch to support optimization of water supply scheme: case of Arusha

Abstract

Water demand and energy usage are inextricably related in water supply systems, because using, distributing, and extracting water requires a lot of energy. Any improvement in the scheme’s energy conservation, particularly pumping conservation, results in a significant reduction in total operating costs. This necessitates the development of methods for analyzing and optimizing systems that consume electrical energy, which are typically more complicated than traditional water systems. Previous techniques had a narrow scope and could not be applied to all sorts of water supply plan designs and systems. This study explored the viability of adopting an intelligent hybrid power transfer switch system to mitigate high energy consumption, and so forth, in order to improve the operation of the Ngaramtoni Water Supply Scheme, located in Arusha Tanzania. This system detects, transmits, and receives water level data through an algorithm that is intelligently programmed to switch to the necessary power source (solar or grid), and it also has additional features like an automatic transfer switch in the event of a power cut or signal failure and, user safety mode among others. Wi-Fi is used for output parameters monitoring, while LoRa is used for communication. The power source input into the pump controller is controlled by the system. The data obtained during the experiment demonstrates the system's effectiveness and capabilities in terms of switching mechanisms, water level detection and transmission, data retrieval from the ESP32-WROOM-32 microcontrollers via Wi-Fi and a communication module PZEM-04T-V3.0, and visualization using the Blynk app and a Liquid Crystal display.