The on-load tap changing (OLTC) regulators have been widely used since the introduction of electrical energy. They ensure a good regulation of the output voltage in presence of large variations of the input voltage with typical response time from several milliseconds to several seconds. Earlier mechanical type of on load tap changers were into practice. But they had considerable limitations and drawbacks like arcing, high maintenance, service costs and slow reaction times. In order to overcome

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... hese limitations and drawbacks electronic (or solid-state) tap-changers were developed. The continuous growth of power semiconductor devices, such as the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), Triac, Thyristor, has allowed the development of quick operating OLTC regulators. The major idea in the solid-state-assisted tap changer is that solid-state switches with more controllability, operates during the tap-changing process instead of mechanical switches which helps in reducing the arcing phenomena during the tap-changing process. In this paper implementation of a fast OLTC regulator is presented. The control strategy is Arduino-based, ensuring flexibility in programming the control algorithms. The experimental results demonstrate that the fast OLTC is able to correct several disturbances of the ac mains besides, the long duration in variation in time is much lower than the one corresponding to the traditional regulators.