ABSTRACT
Wireless automation in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity and
billing has come of age. Traditional metering methods for retrieving the energy data of
consumers is not convenient. The present system of energy billing is error prone, time,
resource and labour consuming. The problem worsens when consumers try to bypass meter
units, thereby pay less than what is actually consumed or the case of overbilling by the
Electricity Company as the case in many Nigerian houses.
This paper presents the design and implementation of a GSM based remote operation of
an energy meter which proffers the solution to power theft, consumption control, auto billing
and payment, data logging and labour reduction in power distribution and management
The objective of this project is to facilitate energy consumption measurement and its
corresponding billing scheme.
The materials and method deployed herein is the use of a microcontroller unit that
continually monitors the meter interfaced with a GSM MODEM with a dedicated SIM for
remote operations. The method used to carry out this project is the principle of serial
communication in collaboration with embedded systems. The meter provides corresponding
billing Information on a LCD screen.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER PAGE …………………………………………………………………….. i
TITLE PAGE …………………………………………………………………………. ii
DECLARATION ………………………………………………………………….. iii
CERTIFICATION ………………………………………………………………… iv
DEDICATION ……………………………………………………………………. v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT …………………………………………………………… vi
ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………. vii
LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………………. viii
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………….………… 1
i. BACKGROUND ……………………………………………………….. 1
ii. PROBLEM STATEMENT …………………………………………….. 2
iii. OBJECTIVES ………………………………………………………….. 2
iv. SIGNIFICANCE ……………………….………………………………. 3
v. SCOPE …………………………………………………………………. 3
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………………………………….5
2.1 HISTORY OF ELECTRIC ENERGY METERS …………………………….. 5
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2.11 DIRECT CURRENT (DC) ………………………………………………….. 5
2.12 ALTERNATING CURRENT (AC) ……………………………………………6
2.2 UNITS OF MEASUREMENT ……………………………………………….. 6
2.3 TYPES OF METERS ……………………………………………………………7
2.31 ELECTROMECHANICAL METERS ………………………………………..7
2.32 ELECTRONIC METERS ……………………………………………………. 9
2.33 SOLID STATE DESIGN ………………………………………………………9
2.4 TAMPERING AND SECURITY IN ENERGY METERS …………………. .14
2.5 POWER LINE RELATED INTELLIGENT METERING (PRIME) ………….15
2.6 INTRODUCTION TO GSM NETWORK………………………………….….15
2.61 MESSAGING OVER GSM NETWORK…………………………………….16
2.62 GSM NETWORK STRUCTURE ……………………………………………17
CHAPTER THREE
DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE …………………….………..18
3.0 INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………18
3.1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION ………………………………………………………18
3.2 SYSTEM BLOCK DIAGRAM …………………………………………………19
SECTION A. DESIGN PROCEDURE………………………………………………19
3.3 HARDWARE DESIGN………………………………………………………….19
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3.3.1 CIRCIUT ANALYSIS …………………………………………………………….19
3.3.2 REGULATED POWER SUPPLLY………………………………………………..20
3.3.3 BRIDGE RECTIFIER……………………………………………………………..20
3.3.4 FILTERING CAPACITORS………………………………………………………21
3.3.5 ZENER REGULATOR DESIGN ………………………………………….……..23
3.3.6 TRANSISTOR TIP 41……………………………………………………….……25
3.3.7 LM317T VOLTAGE REGULATOR…………………………………………….25
3.3.8 RATED DC OUTPUT…………………………………………………………….27
3.3.9 CURRENT SENSING DESIGN……….…………………………..…..…………27
3.3.10 RELAY SWITCHING………………………………………………….……….32
3.3.11 THE MICROCONTROLLER UNIT…………………………………………….32
3.3.12 CRYSTAL OSCILLATOR DESIGN……………………………………..……..36
3.3.13 LED INDICATORS………………………………………………………………37
3.3.14 THE BUZZER…………………………………………………………………….39
3.3.15 INTERFACING THE LCD WITH THE MICROCONTROLLER. ………………39
3.3.16 INTERFACING THE GSM MODEM WITH MICROCONTROLLER…………41
3.3.17 THE MAX 232 IC…………………………………………………………………43
3.4 SOFTWARE DESIGN ………………………………………………………………46
SECTION B: CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE…………………………………….…49
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3.5.1 CIRCIUT DESIGN USING PRINTED CIRCIUT BOARD (PCB) ………………49
3.5.2 CASING AND PACKAGING …………………………………………………….51
CHAPTER FOUR
PERFORMANCE AND COST EVALUATION …………………………………….55
4.0 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION………………………………………………….55
4.1 DESIGN SIMULATION………………………………………………..…………….55
4.2 PERFORMANCE TEST…………………………………………………………….55
4.3 COST EVALUATION ………………………………………………………………59
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSIONS……………………………………………………………………..63
5.1 SUMMARY ………………………………………………………………………..63
5.2 CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………….63
5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS …………………………………………………………..64
REFERNCES …………………………………………………………………………65
APPENDICE ………………………………………………………………………………………………68
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LIST OF TABLES
TABLE 3.1 PIC18F2550 FEATURES …………………………………………………33
TABLE 3.2 VALUE OF CAPACITOR USED …………………………………………36
TABLE 3.3 LCD PIN FUNCTIONS ……………………………………………………40
TABLE 3.4 AT COMMAND AND RESPONSE ……………………………………….42
TABLE 4.1 SMS COMMAND AND FUNCTIONS ……………………………………59
TABLE 4.1 COST EVALUATION ……………………………………………………..60
LIST OF FIGURES
FIG 2.1 A 3Ø electromechanical induction meter, metering 100 A 240/415 V supply…… 7
FIG 2.2 A digital meter……………………………………………………………………. 8
FIG 2.3 A solid state energy meter design …………………………………………..……. 9
FIG 2.4 PRIME core structure…………………………………………………………..…15
FIG 2.5 GSM network structure ……………………………………………………………17
FIG 3.1 SYSTEM BLOCK DIAGRAM……………………………………………………19
FIG. 3.2 POWER RECTIFICATION CIRCUIT..…………………………………………20
FIG.3.3 ZENER REGULATOR CIRCUIT ………………………………………………….24
FIG. 3.4 TIP 41 BUFFER TRANSISTOR ………………………………………………….25
FIG. 3.5 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF LM317T ……………………………………………….26
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FIG. 3.6 LM 317T IN CIRCUIT REGULATION ………………………………..……26
FIG. 3.7 FUNCTIONAL BLOCK DIAGRAM OF ACS755-100CB ………………….28
FIG. 3.8 OUTPUT VOLTAGE VS SENSED CURRENT OF ACS755 AT 5.0 V POWER
SUPPLY AND VARYING TEMPERATURE………………………………………….29
FIG. 3.9 CURRENT SENSOR CIRCUITRY …………………………………………..30
FIG. 3.10 THE RELAY CIRCUIT …………………..………………………………….31
FIG. 3.11 THE PIC18F2550 PIN CONFIGURATION …………………………………33
FIG.3.12 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF PIC18F2550…………………………………………35
FIG.3.13 CRYSTAL OSCILLATOR CIRCUIT …………………………………………37
FIG. 3.14 LED SCHEMATIC SYMBOL AND I-V CHARACTERISTICS CURVES
SHOWING THE DIFFERENT COLOURS AVAILABLE………………………………38
FIG. 3.15 SERIES LED CONNECTION …………………..……………………………38
FIG.3.16 LCD ……………………………………………………………………………40
FIG. 3.17 SMART GSM MODEM ………………………………………………………41
FIG.3.18 INSERTING/REMOVING THE SIM CARD INTO THE MODEM …………42
FIG.3.19 TYPICAL OPERATING CIRCUIT OF THE MAX 232 IC …………………..44
FIG.3.20 THE MAX 232 INTERFACED WITH DB9 CONNECTOR TO MODEM ……44
FIG.3.21 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM OF GSM BASED ENERGY METER …………………45
FIG. 3.23 FLOWCHART OF PROGRAMME …………………………………………….48
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FIG. 3.24 PCB LAYOUT …………………………………………………………………..50
FIG. 3.25 PLY WOOD SURFACE MOUNTING ………………………………………….51
FIG. 3.26 TOP VIEW OF CASING …………………………………………………………52
FIG. 3.27 INSIDE VIEW OF PVC CASING ………………………………………………52
LIST OF PLATES
PLATE 3.1 SOLDERED COMPONENTS MOUNTED ON PCB …………………………50
PLATE 3.2 SET UP OF GSM BASED ENERGY METER ……………………………..…53
PLATE 3.3 CASING OF METER UNIT SHOWING THE COMPONENTS AND GSM
MODEM …………………………………………………………………………………….54
PLATE 4.1 THE METER UNIT INDICATING MODEM IS CONNECTED………………55
PLATE 4.2 THE METER UNIT WITH LOAD CONNECTED ……………………………55
PLATE 4.3 LCD SCREEN INDICATING ENERGY CONSUMPTION DETAILS ………56
PLATE 4.4 LCD SCREEN INDICATING THE METER CHECKING FOR SMS ………..56
PLATE 4.5 SCREEN SHOT OF SMS RECEIVED FROM THE METER UNIT ………….57
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND
Today, humanity can be classified as living in a “machine society” where technological
tools are predominantly at different levels, interfacing in the day–to-day activity of man.
These livelihood activities constitute and deliver economic, social and political benefits and
potential risks to the survivability of nations –especially developing nations like ours.
Electricity has become one of the basic requirements of human civilization, being widely
deployed for domestic, industrial and agricultural purposes. In spite of the very well developed
sources of electricity, there are a number of problems with distribution, metering, billing and
control of consumption. Electricity is one of the vital requirements for sustainment of comforts
of life and so it should be used very judiciously for its proper utilization [1]. But in our country
we have lot of localities where we have surplus supply for the electricity while many areas do
not even have access to it. Our policies of its distribution are also partially responsible for this
because we are still not able to correctly estimate our exact requirements and still power theft
is prevailing [1].
On the other hand consumers are also not satisfied with the services of power companies,
most of the time they have complaints regarding statistical errors in their monthly bills.
Thus this project presents an innovation towards the minimization of technical errors and
reduction in human dependency at the same time. With the help of this project the monthly
energy consumption of a consumer will be received from a remote location directly. In this
way human effort needed to record the meter readings which are till now recorded by visiting
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every home individually is reduced. This results in considerable loss of human hours and also
provides considerable details regarding the average consumption of a locality so that power
supply can be made according to these data. This will help the officials in deciding the
specifications of transformers and other instruments required in power transmission and
distribution.
This idea is economically efficient as well because the meter reading can be gotten at a
very low cost. The implementation is done in such a way that a SMS is delivered to the GSM
MODEM whose reading is to be noted and then that meter replies to the server in the SMS
format and it is known that SMS costs are very low.
The GSM AMR takes the advantage of available GSM infrastructure nationwide
coverage and the Short Messaging System (SMS) cell broadcasting feature to request and
retrieve individual houses and building power consumption reading back to the energy
provider wirelessly.
1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT
In Conventional metering system to measure electricity consumption the energy provider
company hire persons to visit each house and record meter reading manually which is used for
billing, the bill then sent to consumer by post or hand delivery, this is not only sluggish but
laborious, with the company having no control over these meters. There is a stark amount of
revenue loss being incurred by our country due to energy theft which is a serious problem,
people try to manipulate meter reading by adopting various corrupt practices such as current
reversal, partial earth fault condition, bypass meter, magnetic interference etc. [2]. With the aid
of this project a definite solution is proffered which allows power companies to have total
control over energy meters and have real time information of same from a remote location with
little human effort and at reduced cost as compared to conventional methods.
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1.2 OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this project is the remote monitoring and control of the domestic energy
meter; its aims includes: to design a circuit which continuously monitors the meter reading and
sends message to electricity company, programming of the GSM MODEM with AT (Attention)
command sequence, interfacing the programmable chip with the personal computer, interfacing
the programmable chip with the energy meter, interfacing of GSM MODEM with the
programmable chip, sending messages from the remote phone to control device.
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE
The significance of these project benefits the Consumers of electric service and the
electric services company as it provides precise consumption information, clear and accurate
billing, automatic outage information and faster recovery, better and faster customer service,
smart automated processes instead of manual work, accurate information from the network
load to optimise maintenance and investments, detection of tampering of meters, demand and
distribution management, better company credibility, consumer meter reading which
eliminates cost and inadequacies of manual reading, observation and control of energy
consumption and production, this is useful for planning and power allocation purposes.
The project provides learning’s on the following advancements in terms of theory
practice: GSM modem interfacing to Microcontroller, PC interfacing with GSM modem,
energy meter interfacing to Microcontroller, embedded C programming, PCB (printed circuit
board) design, LCD interfacing to Microcontroller.
1.4 SCOPE
The scope of this project is to design and construct GSM based a one phase two wire
energy meter with voltage rating of 220V, current of 25 -100A operating at 50Hz and interfaced
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with a microcontroller unit and GSM module with a LCD with the wireless communication
features over SMS. Within the scope of this project, the prototype model is equipped with a
dedicated SIM (Subscriber Identification Module).
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