Prepaid Energy Meter

using Smart Cards

Overview

 Efficient scheme of electricity billing

 Functionality
 Beneficial to consumers, power plant, revenue,
power sector reforms
General block diagram

POWER
SOURCE

MICRO POWER POWER

UTILITY CONTROLLER SWITCHING DESTINATON
CARD SECTION
The metering system

 Utilities and revenue system

 Present electricity billing system
• Advantages and disadvantages
 Present prepayment metering system
• Advantages and disadvantages
• Market scopes
Prepayment metering system

 Improved operational efficiencies

 Reduced financial risks
 Better customer service
 Market drives:
Power sector reforms, Increasing non-technical
reforms, opportunities in markets
 Market restraints:
Customer behavior, Initial investment, rapid tech
changes, uncertainty over success
Recent initiatives and plans

 South Africa and England

 Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Singapore, Iran
 West Bengal– Sundrebans
 Tata power – in Delhi and Jamshedpur
 Mumbai BEST service
 US patents released
Present prepayment system

 Difficult to install and costly

 No communication back to utility
 No knowledge on consumption and tampering
info on utility
Smart cards

 Same size as a standard credit card

 A microchip embedded in a plastic card to store
information
 Latest silicon technology, does not require use of
batteries
 The chip can be programmed to carry out specific
functions
Advantages & applications of smart cards

 Convenience, portability, capacity, durability,

security and ability to check forgery

 ID card, log card, garage card, hotel key card,

health care, vehicle id, banking, prepayment
electricity
The proposed system

 Use of prepayment system

 Smart card usage
 Communication with utility system
 3-tier implementation
 Supply management with added security
Advantages

 Reducing reading expenses

 Bad debt collection
 A/c transfer expenses & credit debt expenses
 Greater awareness on consumers consumption
habits
 Improved cash flow management
Large scale implementation

 User has a ID card

 Gives money to ATM and gets the smart card
credited
 Customer terminal and service terminal manage
electric supply and comm. With service
 Utility services update with the data and
consumer behavior
Hardware Requirements
 AT89S51 µC
 LCD Lampex 16ₓ2
 SLE4442 smart card reader/writer, MAX 232
 EEPROM AT24C256
 Relay and Power supply
 Optocoupler cosmo 2010 4N35
 Meter and load
 DB9 connector, resistors, capacitors and sip resistors
Software requirements

 Keil C compiler µVersion 3

 µFlash
 Orcad
Prepayment energy meter using smart card

Relay Load
Energy meter

Opto
LCD
coupler
8051
microcontroller
MC Smart card
Reader/writer

EEPROM Power supply

Schematic diagram

 Port 1 is connected LCD

 Port 3 is connected to EEPROM
 Port 0 to relay
 Smart card module is connected via DB9
connector and max232 to microcontroller
 Meter is connected to load and optocoupler and
one end of load to relay.
Working

 The consumer inserts the pre-paid card in the

energy meter
 The value in the card is transferred to the meter
and load is ON
 The meter keeps track of the number of units
consumed as per the slab rate and updates it to the
controller via cosmo 2010
 When the value in the card comes to electricity
supply is cut off
Conclusion

A better solution for utility management and

beneficial to consumers, power reforms and
market.
A prototype for customer terminal is
successfully constructed