Wireless Access Technologies for Low-Cost Capacitor Bank Controllers: Evaluation and Design

2011 American Society for Engineering Education. All rights reserved. This paper addresses the "last mile" issues for Smart Grid connection to end-users. It presents the design of a cost-effective capacitor bank controller that allows two-way communications with a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) station. The current market cost of such devices is about $1, 500-$2, 500/unit. Engineering technology undergraduate students worked with a small public utility company to design a device in the range of $200-$500/per unit. Communication was accomplished using a standardized protocol, such as MODBUS, and each device was uniquely addressable. This paper addresses the technical details of this project, from conceptual design to testing, to illustrate a successful capstone design project contributing to the Smart Grid.

Goulart, A. E., Zhan, W., Morgan, J. A., Carter, G., Roznovsky, A., Davis, T., & Bolding, M.

Goulart, Ana E||Zhan, Wei||Morgan, Joseph A||Carter, Gregory||Roznovsky, Andrew||Davis, Tim||Bolding, Mark

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