DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
OF SMART ENERGY METER
V.Preethi, M.Tech, Student
Department of ECE
Vignans Lara Institute of Technology and Science
Vadlamudi, Guntur, A.P
Email:preethivejandla.cherry@gmail.com
Abstract--Electricity is one of the fundamental necessities
of human beings, which is commonly used for domestic,
industrial and agricultural purposes. Power theft is the
biggest problem in recent days which causes lot of loss to
electricity boards. In countries like India, these situations
are more often. If we can prevent these thefts we can save
lot of power. This is done using Smart Energy Meter
(SEM). SEM is an electric device having energy meter chip
for measuring the electric energy consumed and a wireless
protocol for data communication. This paper presents a
smart energy meter for an automatic metering and billing
system. In this meter energy utilized and the
corresponding amount will be displayed on the LCD
continuously and communicated to the controlling base
station. The feedback from the user helps in identifying the
usages between authorized and unauthorized users which
helps in controlling the power theft. Communication
between user/household and substation is done using
Zigbee. GSM network is used for sending SMS to the local
authorities regarding the theft cases. This meter can work
as either prepaid or post-paid meter. The proposed system
replaces traditional meter reading methods and enables
remote access of existing energy meter by the energy
provider. Also they can monitor the meter readings
regularly without the person visiting each house.
Keywords--Smart Energy Meter (SEM), Zigbee, GSM.
I. INTRODUCTION
With the rapid developments in the Wireless
communication technology by the use of
microcontrollers, there are many improvements in
automating various industrial aspects for reducing
manual efforts. The traditional manual meter reading
was not suitable for longer operating purposes as it
spends much human and material resource. It brings
additional problems in calculation of readings and
billing manually. Now-a-days the number of electricity
consumers is increasing in great extent. It became a hard
task in handling and maintaining the power as per the
growing requirements. Presently maintenance of the
power is also an important task as the human operator
goes to the consumers house and produces the bill as
per the meter reading. If the consumer is not available,
the billing process will be pending and human operator
again needs to revisit. Going to each and every
consumers house and generating the bill is a laborious
task and requires lot of time. It becomes very difficult
especially in rainy season. If any consumer did not pay
the bill, the operator needs to go to their houses to
disconnect the power supply. These processes are time
consuming and difficult to handle. Moreover, the
G. Harish, Assistant professor
Department of ECE
Vignans Lara Institute of Technology and Science
Vadlamudi, Guntur, A.P
Email:harishgollaprolu@gmail.com
manual operator cannot find the unauthorized
connections or malpractices carried out by the consumer
to reduce or stop the meter reading/power supply. The
human error can open an opportunity for corruption
done by the human meter reader. So the problem which
arises in the billing system can become inaccurate and
inefficient [1].
The availability of wireless communication
media has made the exchange of information fast,
secured and accurate. There are two types of networks,
they are wired and wireless. Wired networks require lot
of setup and maintenance cost. In wireless networks
there are many technologies. In this project we
implemented using Zigbee technology because of its
effective communication, self-healing networks, low
power consumption, zero traffic and they can handle
over 60000 devices and more over Zigbee
communication installation require no special
permissions in most of the places. It uses unlicensed
2.4GHz ISM band which is available worldwide. Zigbee
has range between 10 m to 2 km and it works well with
networks such as Wi-Fi, Ethernet and GPRS and also
provides scalable networking solution which makes it
suitable to be used in controlling and monitoring
applications. And we selected other communication
network to be GSM to send SMS to local authorities in
case of theft, because GSM has a built in transport layer
encryption, which is supported by most network
providers [2].
The digital implementation caused the rapid
utilization of devices such as computers and
telecommunication devices. Communication media like
the internet, GSM networks, Zigbee exists everywhere.
SEM puts more control into the hands of consumers by
giving them more detailed information about power
consumption. That information is sent to the base station
regularly using Zigbee and in case of power theft an
SMS is sent to local operator from base station using
GSM. As there is no human intervention in the entire
process, there is no chance of human error and
corruption.
II. EXISTING SYSTEMS
For this work existing meter reading techniques
in India are analysed and conducted an extensive study
on different energy measuring instruments available
now. 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. [3]
Wireless electric power management and
control system for short distance is developed using
Zigbee technique [4], [5]. For this IEEE 802.15.4
standard protocol is used as a Zigbee standard,
microcontroller is used to manage energy data and
Zigbee to enable communication between the energy
meter and data centres. The secure mobile agent concept
was presented in [6], instead of one person for one meter
according to geographical area energy meters can be
organized. For one location energy meters a security
manager can do his work. Local mobile agent can do his
duty for a specific location to avoid the visit of external
mobile agent to energy meters directly. If there are any
queries of security manager local mobile agent can solve
at his level and visit energy meters. The embedded
energy meter concept [7] is based on the prepaid
recharge concept of mobile recharge, where maximum
demand of energy of a consumer is indicated in the
meter. After exceeding the maximum demand, the meter
and hence the connection will automatically be
disconnected by an embedded system inserted in the
meter itself.
The major disadvantage of a post-paid system
is that there is no control of usage from the consumers
side. There is a lot of wastage of power. Since the
supply of power is limited, as a responsible citizen, there
is a need to use electricity in a improved and efficient
way. There are clear domino effect from many countries
everywhere a prepaid system has reduced the usage
(wastage) by a great quantity. Additional advantage of
the prepaid system is that the human errors made
reading meters and processing bills can be reduced to a
great amount. Wireless meter can be used in residential
apartments and especially in industrial consumers where
bulk energy is consumed [8]. Advance in technology
have made exchange of information in very high-speed,
protected and truthful. Advance in wireless technology
caused rapid change in field of telecommunication
system. Communication system like internet and GSM
are available in India. This paper presents a system
which can act as either prepaid or post-paid meter [9].
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM
of prepaid energy meter, which can control the usage of
electricity on consumer side to avoid wastage of power
and is a concept to minimize the electricity theft. As the
billing process is done automatically in the proposed
system it mainly reduces the manpower.
A. Problem Statement
The Electricity Board have got used to the
manual process and they go along with it even though
there are many concerns associated with it. Because of
the human errors after getting faulty bill, it is problem of
user to get it corrected from the energy supply board. In
that case customer has to visit the office, stand in a
queue and get it corrected. The problem is just because
of human intervention. To avoid human intervention in
the billing process, in this new generation, an automatic
reading meter system came into use.
B. Block Diagram of Smart Energy Meter
The proposed system has two sections mainly,
one is Home Section and another one is Electrical Base
Station (EB). Communication between these two
sections is done through wireless network. This system
monitors the load, monitoring means calculating the
power consumed exactly by the user at a given time.
Energy utilized and the corresponding amount will
displayed on LCD continuously and communicated to
the controlling base station. The feedback from the user
helps in identifying and controlling the power theft. An
SMS containing monthly bill along with the due date is
sent to the respective meter owner using GSM module
which is present in the EB section. This module also
helps in alerting the authorized people through an SMS
during the power theft.
Fig. 1 Block Diagram of Users House Module

The current system of electricity billing is error

level and also time consuming. Errors introduced at
every stage are due to electro-mechanical meters, human
errors while noting down the meter reading, errors while
processing the paid bills and the due bills. Smart energy
meter is a technique which can reduce the problems
associated with billing and also reduces the deployment
of manpower for taking meter readings. It has many
advantages from both suppliers as well as consumers Fig. 2 Block Diagram of Base Station Module
point. This paper is also intended to present an overview
C. Working of Smart Energy Meter In the normal case an SMS containing power consumed
and its bill along with the due date is sent to the
The proposed system mainly operates in two modes: consumer. The above process clearly explains how SEM
is operated in post-paid mode.
1. Prepaid Mode
2. Post-paid Mode

In Prepaid Mode:

Here the mode switch is used for selecting

either prepaid or post-paid mode. When the SEM is in
Prepaid mode first it checks whether the smart card is
inserted or not. If the smart card is not inserted (or) even
if it is inserted wrongly then simply a message Please
insert the smart card is displayed on the LCD. If the
smart card is inserted correctly then it undergoes the
following process.

Displays prepaid mode on the LCD and the

power consumption (in watts) along with the total
recharged amount in the smart card. Based on the power
consumed with respect to time that corresponding
amount is deducted from the total amount and is
displayed on the LCD continuously. If the recharge
amount reduces to half of the total amount a buzzer is
activated and continuously alerts the consumer. Even if
the amount reaches to zero, some additional amount is
provided for the benefit of the customer means
providing some more time for him to recharge the
amount. If he doesnt use this facility then power is
turned off automatically using relay circuit.The above
process clearly explains how SEM is operated in prepaid
mode using smart card.
The above flow chart clearly explains the
operation of SEM in both the modes. Irrespective of
In Post-paid Mode:
mode first it checks whether the power is greater than 10
When the SEM is in Post-paid mode, it simply or not (in order to verify whether it is actual load or
displays the power consumption (of load) and the some unwanted value). In the prepaid mode initially I
corresponding amount on the LCD continuously and have recharged an amount of 1000.If it is less than 500
that information is transmitted to the base station the buzzer alerts the consumer, if it crosses -20 then the
regularly. I have used one of the system files available power is turned off automatically. In the post-paid mode
for calculating the monthly consumption of the along with the data transmission it also identifies the
consumer and sending an SMS to him from the base power theft cases.
station. This consumption information of the consumer
D. Experimental Results of Smart Energy Meter
is stored/updated in the database automatically (using
some options in the system file), which is done by the
The software tools used in my project are keil
local meter reader in the existing systems. As the
IDE, embedded c and flash magic for the working of
consumption is sent to the base station regularly this
SEM. The Vision IDE from keil combines project
feedback from the user helps in identifying the theft
management, make facilities, source code editing,
cases there by the local operator is alerted using SMS,
program debugging, and complete simulation in one
so that he takes the necessary actions. In this mode, the
powerful environment. The Vision editor and debugger
following process takes place.
are integrated in a single application that provides a
Displays Post-paid mode on the LCD and the seamless embedded project development environment.
power consumption (in watts) along with the The Vision IDE is the easiest way for most developers
corresponding amount. That information is sent to the to create embedded applications using the keil
base station regularly. The authorized person in the base development tools. Flash magic is a PC tool for
station monitors this process. If there is any difference programming flash based micro controllers, which
between the total power sent and the feedback then it is allows us to easily access the features of micro
identified as power theft case and then the local operator controller device.
is alerted with an SMS.
 Fig. 6 shows that SEM is in post-paid mode. Here mode switch is used
Fig. 3 represents the module at Users House consisting of several for selecting the mode (Prepaid/Postpaid).
hardware components.
In the receiving section base station module is
connected to a Personal Computer (PC)/Laptop .In my
project a system file (application) is being used in PC
and if we open it a window is displayed as shown in the
Fig. 7. As shown in Fig. 8 we can select for how many
days the bill should be generated and sent to the
consumer. Also we can specify to which mobile number
the SMS alert has to be sent. We have to specify the
local operator number in order to alert him regarding
power theft cases.

Fig. 4 represents the module at Base Station consisting of Zigbee and

GSM modules.

The following are the results of my project in the

transmitting section.
Fig. 7 shows a window that is displayed when we use the system file.
This window consists of list box, text box, message box and buttons.

Fig. 5 shows that SEM is in prepaid mode. The power consumption Fig. 8 shows a window where we can select number of days and can
(in watts) and its corresponding amount are displayed on the LCD specify the mobile number.
continuously.

Fig. 9 shows that 690 units are consumed in 30 days and an SMS is
sent to the specified mobile number regarding the number of units
consumed, bill along with due date.
The SMS alerts are received in the following way when
I tested my project.
Fig. 10 shows how an SMS is received to the consumer and local
operator (in theft case) from the base station.
IV. CONCLUSION
The progress in technology about electrical
distribution network is a non-stop process. In the present
work wireless meter reading system is designed to
continuously monitor the meter reading and to shut
down the power supply remotely whenever the
consumer fails to pay the bill. It avoids the human
intervention, provides efficient meter reading, avoids the
billing error and reduces the maintenance cost. It
displays the corresponding information on LCD for user
notification. The advantages of SEM are it requires less
manpower, there is no need to chase payments, power
theft detection is possible, bill is sent to the consumer
with due date, the meter can act as either prepaid or
postpaid meter, can minimize the power consumption in
a house.
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