Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Electrification of rural areas is one of the biggest challenges faced by ESKOM and methods are required to extend medium voltage distribution lines to these often remote areas. As loads increase due to line-extension, in-fills and energy theft, maintenance cost and life expectancy of distribution and power transformers becomes more critical. The thesis addresses these two aspects with the development of a self regulated and protected electrification transformer that makes use of current, voltage and ambient temperature measurements to regulate voltage and protect hardware from overloading. The design of the hardware that allows the system to run at 200% load without decreasing the lifetime of the transformer is examined. Temperature estimation techniques are used to estimate the temperatures in the 16 kVA, 22 kV to 230 V, distribution transformer to run above nameplate ratings without causing damage. The control of the system is implemented on TMS320F2812 digital signal processor from TI that is DSP/BIOS compatible. The control software is implemented using DSP/BIOS, which allows real-time scheduling and monitoring of procedures. Furthermore a distribution transformer was fitted with temperature sensors and heat run tests were performed. The results of the temperature tests were used to verify the estimation techniques and to determine constants used for temperature estimation.