ABSTRACT
Power failure or outage in general does not promote development to public and private sector. The investors do not feel secure to come into a country with constant or frequent power failure. These limit the development of industries. In addition there are processes that cannot be interrupted because of their importance, for instance surgery operation in hospitals, transfer of money between banks and lots more. This paper presents the design and construction of an automatic changeover switch with generator cut off and starter that switches power supply from public supply to generator once there is public power supply outage and it does this automatically. This is achieved by the use of integrated circuits that have timing abilities and relays to effect switching.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the project
The increase rate of epileptic power supply especially in tropical African countries where Nigeria forms a part has become a major concern. The power supply instability in developing countries creates a need to device means for alternative power sources. The automation of electrical power generation or alternative sources of power to back up the utility supply could lead to power stability. This automation becomes necessary as the rate of power outage becomes predominantly high. The residence, commercial and industries dependent on generators and public power change-over between these two power supplying sources are manual, human error during change-over connections may occur; leading to machine damage, electric shock/electrocution as well as increased down time consequently introducing massive losses (Mazur and Rocks, 2010). However, when automation takes place between the mains supply and generator it will automatically switch from mains to the generator when there is power failure by starting generator and cut off the generator switching to the mains when there is public power. This help to reduce down time thereby maintaining constant power supply.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Nowadays securing constant power supply is becoming more important. In Nigeria, power supply for domestic use, commercial and industries is highly unstable. The applications of alternative sources are associated with challenge of switching smoothly and timely between the mains supply and the alternative sources whenever there is power failure on the mains source. The use of an automatic changeover switch with generator cut off and starter eliminate the stress encountered when switching from mains supply to generator Vis visa and reduce time loss for increase productivity.
