Low cost, energy efficient, robust and multi-functional smart meter

Abstract

The problem of assigning human operators to collect energy measurements from the conventional meters in the communities has become a great concern over the past decades. . Most times, the lives of these workers are in danger due to criminal activities within the communities, especially in this part of the world. During the collection process, data collected were inadequate due to factors such as bad weather, constant attacks on operators, inability to correct faults, and other factors that rendered the system highly inadequate. However, the rapid growth in population and industrial development has increased the demand for more human operators and longer working hours. The problem of disconnecting and reconnecting supply by utilities due to unpaid bills is considered problematic. In addition, the technology of metering has improved as research increases in the area of modifying old power grid into smart grid. Due to recent developments, old power grid is transformed into micro-grid, which makes all generating sources into one cluster cell. However, this cannot be achieved if there is no better way of metering; thus, the need for a smart meter becomes necessary. The smart meter is more reliable and efficient. It is an improved automatic meter reading (AMR) system. This research demonstrated that a simple low cost, energy efficient, robust, and multifunctional smart meter can be achieved. The smart meter system has added features that enabled the utilities to recover the meter energy measurement data remotely such as Zig-bee, Wi-Max, and Wi-Fi, (GSM) based to mention a few. The system allows monitoring and transmission of energy consumed in real-time. It calculates the amount of energy consumed through the multiplication of voltage and current signals. This system considers the use of ATmega358 on Arduino Uno board as the controlling unit for the execution of control and monitoring of activities. A standard electrical measurement such as current, voltage, power and energy consumption will be displayed via liquid crystal display (LCD). The external communication device is required in the actualization of this project, in-conjunction with the control unit based on the existing mobile technology called "GSM". This enhances accessibility of all sundries through effective measurement and collection of electric energy data generated with ATmega358 on Arduino Uno board. Therefore, GSM stands as intermediary between the nearby available utility station and consumers or end-users. In conclusion, LCD displays real-time based data for the end user to visualise. This proposed system consists of the energy meter called ATmega358 on Arduino Uno board programmed with "Arduino 1.8.7" as the program complier. The usage data billing is done within the interval of 30 seconds, stored and trans-received the process for data collection, storing and billing generation.