Smart Metering

Introduction

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. Saving energy is high on the agenda for consumers and businesses, but with most of the electrical devices today, it’s difficult to know how much energy we are actually using at any given point in time. Smart Energy Meter is a meter which helps the consumer to know their day to day power consumption to better control their usage and producers to manage their production. This energy meter records consumption of electric energy in intervals and sends the data to the cloud which can be viewd by the user anywhere in the world.  Smart Meter enable two-way communication between the meter and the central system. The term Smart meter often refers to an electricity meter. Smart energy meter is software based, power efficient device that accurately tracks energy consumptions and performs computation. Meter readings can be transmitted to distributors/utilities over wire/wireless media; thus, eliminating the need of manual meter reading collection process. The Smart Energy Meter offers major benefits to both consumers and producers in terms of efficiency, reliability and cost saving.  

Hardware Setup

Below shows the diagram of how the system works [caption id="attachment_17837" align="alignnone" width="800"] Fig 1. Connection Diagram[/caption]   The system consists of a current sensor(ACS712) which calulates the current consumption , sends it to the arduino board which analyzes the recived data and sends it to the cloud service using the WIZnet W6100 Ethernet Shield. Users can make use of their homes ethernet connection to send data into the cloud without any additional costs. So a wired connection seems sensible rather than a wireless medium which not only consumes more power but also uses bandwidth. [caption id="attachment_17839" align="alignnone" width="800"] Fig 2. Working Connection Setup[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_17840" align="alignnone" width="800"] Fig 3. Static Connecton Setup[/caption]

Cloud Interface

The bill amount is also directly calculated using the formula and is also displayed in the cloud as shown below. [caption id="attachment_17838" align="alignnone" width="800"] Fig 4. The Adafruit Dashboard[/caption] The cloud data gets upadted every 5 seconds . So it is easy for the user to understand if any appliance is using more power. [caption id="attachment_17843" align="alignnone" width="800"] Fig 5. Live Data Capture[/caption] The data published is also available in the users mobile so that he can monitor the usage while he is away from home. [caption id="attachment_17845" align="alignnone" width="169"] Fig 6. Mobile Dashboard[/caption]

Conclusion

In traditional system a person has to come and collect the reading. Which would be time consuming and also could produce errors in the reading of the meter which could make the consumer pay a lower amount of bill or a large rate of overbill. It also wastes a large amount of man-power as well as time. It also provides the consumer with the readings and the consumption based on the intervals. Also avoids the incorrect billing issues and ability to balance demand against supply via flexible pricing and other policies. Thus the idea of Smart Energy meter is a huge upgrade over conventional meter reading techniques.