GSM Based Remote Load Switching

Abstract

Today the energy meter is placed in the domestic or commercial sites and collects the data of the energy consumed and displays it on either a number dial or digital display. At the end of every billing cycle the person from the service provider has to visit the place where the meter is placed to get the reading and to note it down for further bill generation. The present system of energy charge is fallible and also long. So the purpose of this project is to develop an energy meter which is used to measure the consumer’s power consumption in kWh but also enable and support real consumption and, so meter reader does not need to visit each customer for the consumed data collection and to distributed the bill slip. The energy consumption is calculated using the measurement of voltage and current. It also continuously reads the energy meter readings and automatically sends some updates like low-balance alert, zero-balance alert, recharge alert when necessary, to the registered number through GSM modem. Illegal usage of power is detected and alert message is sent to the authorities immediately. The calculations of power and energy are executed by Arduino programming and message will send to the corresponding consumer regarding units’ consumption and the bill amount.

Introduction

Smart electrical energy meter technologies have been investigated and developed for approximately 10 years. Various technologies have been developed and used to measure the electrical consumptions. For the billing, the users will get the bill from the energy board after they generated and provided using the several methods. At the moment, most of the residences in Malaysia for example use the traditional electro - mechanical watt meters and the readings are not automated. The users will have to wait for the bill of energy consumptions for every month to pay their energy bill. Normally, at the end of the month, a staff from the meter board billing will visit every house to read the meter reading and at the same time, give the bill to the users. An electricity meter or energy meter is a device that measures the amount of electric energy consumed to residence or business. There are two types of Domestic Ordinary Power Consumers meters single phase and three phases. The energy consumption is measured by all electrical services using kilowatt- hours meter with refer to kilowatt-hours (kWh). Then electronic meters were introduced with similar function with the electro-mechanical, but it replaces from analog to digital system. With this system users can note down the voltage, power reading unit, current and the time, date of the energy consumption. This system just gives some advantages over the previous meter reading. After the electronic ones, the meter reading developed with the Bluetooth based technology which is the wireless communication and also known as Automatic Meter Reading (AMR). This system is wireless and the personal computer could be used to record the power consumption of energy meter. The reading meter will be saved to the database and bill will be generated. The latest technology is using a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) based system. This system replaces the Bluetooth technology and the data sent using Short Message Service (SMS) to the customer and the energy board.

Motivation

The main objective of the project is to develop a GSM based energy meter reading system and load control through SMS. Electricity department sends employees to take meter reading every month, which is an expensive and time consuming job. The proposed project provides a convenient and efficient method to avoid this problem. The electricity department and the user can get the readings of the energy meter of consumers via SMS. The loads can also be controlled by the user of this system via SMS using this project. A microcontroller input is effectively interfaced to a digital energy meter that takes the reading from the energy meter and displays the same on an LCD. The reading of the energy meter is also sent to the control room by an SMS via SIM loaded GSM modem. This GSM modem can also receive commands from the cell phone to control the owner’s electrical loads. It uses a standard digital energy meter that delivers output pulses to the microcontroller to perform counting for necessary action. On receiving command it can switch ON/OFF the loads.

Existing System

In existing system either an electronic energy meter or an electro- mechanical meter is fixed in the premise for measuring the usage. The meters currently in use are only capable of recording kWh units. The kWh units used then still have to be recorded by meter readers monthly, on foot. The recorded data need to be processed by a meter reading company. For processing the meter reading, company needs to firstly link each recorded power usage datum to an account holder and then determine the amount owed by means of the specific tariff in use. Today the energy meter is placed in the domestic or commercial sites and collects the data of the energy consumed and displays it on either a number dial or digital display. At the end of every billing cycle the person from the service provider has to visit the place where the meter is placed to get the reading and to note it down for further bill generation. The present system of energy charge is fallible and also long.

In the present system people try to manipulate meter reading by adopting corrupt practices such as current reversal, bypass meter, magnetic interference, etc. If the payment period exceeds, the EB employee need to go to each and every house to disconnect power supply.

Limitations of Existing System

There are many problems in distribution, metering and billing processes face the power distribution utilities and the metering and billing processes are considered complex problems. The existent classical method to retrieve the energy meter data and billing is become not suitable and time exhaustion where the meter reader human must goes to each meter and manually take the reading of that meter then return to the electricity distribution office to issue the bill for each customer. In addition, these collected data from meters would be entered manually to the software billing system for issuing bills and payment the rents. These operations of retrieving meters data and issuing bills in the classical method are suffering many problems. The main problems are the non-existence of the customers sometimes at their houses which leading the meter reader to retry the process of meter reading and sometimes because of the lack of integrity and credibility of some of the meter readers, they didn’t retry meter reading where they estimate the meter reading. Also we must not forget the problem of the safety especially in Iraq. The outback areas also form a problem against the meter reader which should be taken into consideration. The existing electromechanical energy meters used suffer well known measuring errors and these meters affected by the circumstances surrounding the meters like temperature, vibration due to their design in nature in where meters contains mechanical parts.

Proposed System

An electricity meter or energy meter is a device that measures the amount of electric energy consumed to residence or business. There are two types of Domestic Ordinary Power Consumers meters single phase and three phases. The energy consumption is measured by all electrical services using kilowatt- hours meter with refer to kilowatt-hours (kWh). Then electronic meters were introduced with similar function with the electro-mechanical, but it replaces from analog to digital system. With this system users can note down the voltage, power reading unit, current and the time, date of the energy consumption. This system just gives some advantages over the previous meter reading. After the electronic ones, the meter reading developed with the Bluetooth based technology which is the wireless communication and also known as Automatic Meter Reading (AMR). This system is wireless and the personal computer could be used to record the power consumption of energy meter. The reading meter will be saved to the database and bill will be generated. The latest technology is using a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) based system. This system replaces the Bluetooth technology and the data sent using Short Message Service (SMS) to the customer and the energy board.

System Requirement Specifications

Energy Meter:

• An electric meter or energy meter, is a device that measures the amount of electric energy consumed by a building, tenant space, or electrically powered equipment.

• Electric utilities use electric meters installed at customers' premises to measure electric energy delivered to their customers for billing purposes. They are typically calibrated in billing units, the most common one being the kilowatt hour [kWh].

• They are usually read once each billing period.

Arduino UNO :

• The main functional part of this project is the Arduino UNO.

• Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328P.

• It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz quartz crystal, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header and a reset button.

• A simple connection to a computer with a USB cable or powering it with an AC-to-DC adapter or battery, will get the Arduino started.

GSM Modem:

• A GSM modem is a specialized type of modem which accepts a SIM card and operates over a subscription to a mobile operator, just like a mobile phone.

• The GSM modem is used to send and receive SMS messages to and from the user. Based on the SMS received by the GSM, the Arduino performs the necessary action.

LCD Display:

• LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is a type of flat panel display which uses liquid crystals in its primary form of operation.

• 16×2 character lcd display is a very basic and commonly used display module.

• It can display 2 lines of 16 characters.

• Each character is displayed using 5×7 or 5×10 pixel matrix.

The LCD is interfaced with the microcontroller to display the necessary data

4-Channel 5V Relay module:

• A Relay is a simple electromechanical switch which uses an electrical signal to control an electromagnet that connects or disconnects two circuits.

• The four-channel relay module contains four 5V relays and the associated switching and isolating components, which makes interfacing with a microcontroller or sensor easy with minimum components and connections.

Optocoupler:

• An optocoupler (also called optoisolator) is a semiconductor device that allows an electrical signal to be transmitted between two isolated circuits by using light.

• Two parts are used in an optocoupler: an LED that emits infrared light and a photosensitive device that detects light from the LED.

• The input circuit takes the incoming signal to turn on the LED, emitting an infrared light proportional to the current going through the device.

• The photosensor is the output circuit detects the light form the LED and when the light hits the photosensor a current is conducted, and it is switched on.

Other Equipments:

● Bulb (Load)

● Bulb Socket

● AC/DC Power Adapter

● Electrical Wire

● 2-Pin Power Cord

● Jumper Wires

● Breadboard

Proposed Methodology

In the Energy Meter Billing part, the energy meter records the energy consumed by the loads, if the loads are turned ON. The same is displayed on the LCD screen along with the cost of consumption. When the user (whose number is registered) requires data regarding the energy consumption, he has to send an SMS message to the number of the SIM card inserted in the GSM, which is read by the Arduino. The Arduino upon receiving the command retrieves the energy consumption data such as the amount of energy consumed and the cost of consumption and sends it to the GSM, which in turn is sends it to the user in the form of an SMS message.