International Journal of Technology and Engineering Studies

volume 5 issue 4 pp. 121-128 doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.20469/ijtes.5.10004-3

Revamped Electric Eenergy Meter against Higher Utility Prices

Aamir Khan ∗ Meer Zafarullah Usama Qureshi
Mehran UET SZAB Campus, Mehran UET SZAB Campus, Mehran UET SZAB Campus,
Khairpur Mirs, Pakistan Khairpur Mirs, Pakistan Khairpur Mirs, Pakistan
KaleemUllah
Mehran UET SZAB Campus,
Khairpur Mirs, Pakistan

Abstract: Due to an increase in home appliances, the demand for electricity has much increased in recent years. Many
people are clueless about the energy consumed by various electric appliances. An electric energy meter has the ability
to measure the total amount of energy consumed by home appliances and in business areas. The revamped electric
energy meter is a microcontroller-based electronic circuit which facilitates the consumer to set the limit of units for
home appliances according to his budget. The proposed energy meter facilitates the user to recharge the balance in
meter or to set the number of units according to his requirement;once the half of total balance or units is consumed,
the meter will start alerting the user about the current status of billing and unit consumption through SMS and voice
module. The modified energy meter mainly aims at the middle-class and lower-class families to bring their electricity
bill down with the help of power consumption alert system. It also helps the Government as it helps in reducing the
power consumption and can reduce unusual power usage. The proposed electric energy meter also facilitates to monitor
the meter reading through SMS alert every thirty days.

Keywords: Energy meter, Arduino MEGA2560, GSM module, SMS alert, energy consumption

Received: 1 June 2019; Accepted: 19 July 2019; Published: 26 August 2019

I. INTRODUCTION electric energy meter enables us to look at the electric

system more comfortably and use power resources more
As the national grids are becoming more flexible, efficiently [4]. In Pakistan, the Ministry of power divi-
more efficient and smart to renewable energy technologies sion at this time is looking forward to GSM-based energy
like wind and solar energy, the proposed electric energy meters. The government in the time ahead will need the
meters will increasingly replace conventional electric en- energy supplier companies to install GSM-based clever
ergy meters in order to monitor electrical energy more electric energy meters for the easiness of the consumers
accurately and efficiently [1, 2, 3]. The revamped elec- and currently is making rules and regulations to make
tric energy meter informs the consumers of the amount sure that they do so in a way that is for the benefit of the
of energy they have used via a Liquid Crystal Display consumers including the rules about data access, privacy,
(LCD) installed in their home. The Proposed electric security and specific requirements for weak or power-
energy meter has the cleverness to communicate directly less consumers (i.e., elderly and disabled persons). The
with energy suppliers (i.e., power distribution companies), proposed energy meter is charged by the consumer by
thereby eliminates the need for the staff of the power sup- sending a particular amount to the Arduino through the
ply company to visit homes to read the meter and there is GSM module [4]. Once the set amount is reached, the
no chance of human error in meter reading. The Proposed
∗ Correspondence
concerning this article should be addressed to Aamir Khan, Mehran UET SZAB Campus, Khairpur Mirs, Pakistan. E-mail:
[email protected]

c 2019 The Author(s). Published by KKG Publications. This is an Open Access article distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 .
 Khan, A. et al. / International Journal of Technology and Engineering Studies 5(4) 2019 122

supply will cut-off automatically, but before the supply only [6]. Furthermore, these systems require manual in-
cut-off, it will alert the consumer through SMS and loud- terference by meter reader for consumed electricity, and
speaker and also through display LCD. It is important to there are high chances of human error in the observation
note that the amount to be set by the consumer is virtual. of meter readings. The proposed energy meter is used
to monitor and alert the consumer of their power usage
A. Problem Statement through SMS alert as well as on loudspeaker and can also
The revamped electric energy meter has a number alert the consumer through email and on the website, but
of advantages over the electromechanical and digital me- that will require major amendment in the circuit diagram
ters. Certain disadvantages of the previous system are like instead of Arduino, we shall use Raspberry pi mod-
given below: ule. In our system, we have covered all the drawbacks
• Consumers face meter reading errors. of existing system. Our proposed energy meter is based
• It requires the team of Power Supplier Company on Arduino MEGA2560 but it can also be built through
for meter readings. a microcontroller (ATmega328). Once the set limit is
• No precaution about the wastage of power is taken. reached, it will alert the consumer about his billing status
and will also announce through a loudspeaker so that a
II. LITERATURE SURVEY consumer who is unable to read the message can also be
Following research has been concluded from our aware of his billing status.
studies. In Smart Energy Alert System, they design a
circuit which helps the consumer in taking care of the
III. ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION IN
electrical energy consumption, in order to minimize the
PAKISTAN DURING VARIOUS MONTHS
power utilization.
OF THE YEAR
In GSM-based energy meter, user is informed
about his power consumption status. This system will The following graph shows the maximum usage of
inform the consumer about their usage rate via SMS; electricity in Pakistan during the various months of the
once the maximum set value is reached, power is cut off year. During summer, the power consumption is at the
[5]. This system gives the alert to the consumer via SMS maximum rate.

Fig. 1. Electricity consumption in Pakistan during various months of the year

IV. PROPOSED SYSTEM • Provide a unique feature to control different appli-

A. Objectives ance
• Develop user-friendly sustainable appliance control
B. Methodology
system
• Reduce Electricity Bills Project starts working as under. The power supply
• Design innovative solutions is given to the energy meter, and load is connected with
• Provide hands-free control system energy meter through a relay. The supply from energy
123 Khan, A. et al. / International Journal of Technology and Engineering Studies 5(4) 2019

meter is continuously given to the Arduino MEGA2560, uously reads the data from Arduino Mega and displays
and Arduino is consistently monitoring the energy con- data according to the instructions from Arduino or micro-
sumption by the load. When the set limit is reached, controller [7]. This project is powered by external power
Arduino produces a signal which is given to the GSM supply or by stepping down voltage from supply and
module and speaker. GSM module receives a signal from converting to DC supply. The energy meter consistently
Arduino mega and then sends an SMS (Short Message sends pulses to the Arduino when the load is connected
Service) alert to the user about his current status of bal- with it. The impulse ratio can be found by the following
ance or units.[5] LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) contin- relation:

Pulse rate o f the energy meter × load in watts × duration o f load in seconds)
Pulse rate =
(1000 × 3600)

C. BLOCK DIAGRAM

Fig. 2. Block diagram of advanced electric energy meter

D. Design optocoupler is connected with the pin number (D8) of

Arduino for the detection of pulses which are coming
In the circuit diagram, which is shown below, the from the energy meter. The optocoupler will switch ON
energy meter measures the power with respect to the time; when a pulse appears from energy meter, the digital pin
the power is calculated by multiplying the current and D8 of arduino gets digital 0, otherwise it is not active and
voltage signals. The energy meter generates a number of is in undefined condition. In our proposed prototype, the
pulses according to real power utilization, and there will GSM module is interfaced with the Arduino MEGA2560.
be blinking of an LED for its every pulse and the speed The data communication pins (RX & TX), the RX pin of
of LEDs blinking depends upon the load; if a heavy load Arduino & TX pin of GSM module are connected with
has been connected, the blinking of LED will be at the each other and vice versa [8]. A valid SIM card must be
higher rate. An optocoupler is connected along with this installed in the GSM module before connecting with the
LED, so the optocoupler will be switched whenever LED Arduino, and all the ground (GND) pins are connected
blinks. The LED of the energy meter cannot be connected with each other. A relay is being used for the switching
with the Arduino board directly because the LED of the reason. As we know that the Arduino MEGA 2560 can
energy meter possesses an analogue output signal while supply roughly 25mA, therefore, we cannot connect Ar-
we are working with the Arduino on the digital area. The
 Khan, A. et al. / International Journal of Technology and Engineering Studies 5(4) 2019 124

duino directly with the relay. So, ULN2003 IC or relay nected with (7,6,5,4,3,2) pins of Arduino for the utilized
driver is used for relay connection with the Arduino for energy and current balance status [9, 10].
switching (ON/OFF instructions). A display LCD is con-

E. Circuit Diagram

Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of the proposed energy meter

F. Applications rate is,

• Apartments 1600 × 1000 × 120
Pulse rate = = 53.33
• Industries 1000 × 3600
• Energy Saving The power factor is calculated by:
• Domestic purpose Load in watts
• Smart Homes Infrastructure Power Factor =
60 minutes × Pulserate
• Load Control & Energy management. 1000
Power Factor = = 0.3125 watt
60 × 53.33
G. Components used Now, the units can be calculated as follows:
• Single Phase Energy meter Power Factor × Total number o f pulses
• GSM Module Units =
1000
• Arduino Mega (2560) Total pulses f or 120 seconds = 53.33 × 120 = 6399.6
• Relay (Power Factor) × (Number o f pulses)
• Optocoupler Units calculation =
1000
• LCD (16x2) 0.3125 × 6399.6
• Speaker Units calculation =
1000
• Potentiometer Units calculation = 1.999 units per 24 hours
• Jumper wires
The above number of units are obtained for the load
H. Software of 1000 watts when connected for 24 hours.
• Arduino IDE VI. SHORTCOMINGS OF THE CURRENT
• PROGRAMINO IDE for Arduino STUDY
Like all other devices, this proposed meter also
V. CALCULATION OF UNITS lacks in a way that it requires programming if there is
If the load of 1000 watt is connected for 120 min- a change in the price of electricity on per unit. So, to
utes with energy meter of 1600 imp/KWH, then the pulse overcome this shortcoming, proposed meter is to be sent
125 Khan, A. et al. / International Journal of Technology and Engineering Studies 5(4) 2019

to the manufacturing company for the current price of similar to mobile phones for communication with the net-
electricity on per unit or technicians are to be trained to work. In our proposed energy meter, the GSM module
resolve this issue. SIM card inserted in the GSM module is used for sending or receiving SMS alert (to or from)
must have balance for communication with the consumer. customers. The GSM module sends the current status of
the consumed balance or units to the consumer around
VII. DESCRIPTION any corner of the world; the only requirement is that the
A. Single Phase Energy Meter SIM inserted in the GSM module should have balance for
Energy meter calculates the amount of electric en- communicating with the consumer.
ergy used in the residential homes, in the business area or
any industry. In electric energy meter installed at homes
or business premises for billing purposes, Kilowatt hour
(KWH) is the most common type of energy meter being
used.

Fig. 6. SIM800L GSM module

D. Relay
A relay is used for switching purpose; a relay is
used where it is necessary to control a circuit. In our
Fig. 4. Single phase energy meter
proposed energy meter, a relay is used in order to switch
on and switch off the power supply. Once the set limit
B. Arduino MEGA2560 of units or balance is reached, the relay will cut off the
The Arduino MEGA2560 is a 54 digital pins (for supply from the load. We have used Arduino relay mod-
input or output) ATmega2560 microcontroller-based de- ule because it is easier to interface with Arduino than an
vice. It has 16 analogue inputs. It can be empowered ordinary electronic relay.
with either AC or DC power supply or can also be con-
nected with laptop or PC through USB cable. Arduino
MEGA2560 is the main part of the proposed project. In
place of Arduino MEGA2560, we can also use Arduino
UNO but keeping in a view the memory storage, Arduino
MEGA2560 is suitable because Arduino UNO can store
less data.

Fig. 7. Arduino relay module

E. Optocoupler
Optocoupler (4N35) is used in our proposed energy
Fig. 5. Arduino MEGA2560
meter for detecting pulses coming from the energy meter.
The reason for using optocoupler is that the output of
C. GSM Module LED of the energy meter is analogue in nature, but we
GSM is used for mobile communication in most are working on the digital area of the Arduino. There-
of the countries. The GSM module requires a SIM card fore, 4N35 optocoupler is used which takes the output of
 Khan, A. et al. / International Journal of Technology and Engineering Studies 5(4) 2019 126

LED and communicates with the Arduino accordingly. It

is connected with the digital pin eight (D8) of Arduino
MEGA2560.

Fig. 11. Picture of the prototype in working mode

IX. FINANCIAL DETAILS

Fig. 8. 4N35 optocoupler In this project, we have used the following compo-
nents, and their prices are:
F. 16x2 LCD TABLE 1
FINANCIAL DETAILS OF COMPONENTS
16x2 LCD is interfaced with the (7,6,5,4,3,2) pins of
Arduino. The reason for interfacing it with the arduino is Components Price
to display the current status of balance or units consumed.
Arduino Mega 2560 PKR. 1100
Energy Meter PKR. 2000-2500
LCD PKR. 180
Relay PKR. 40
Potentiometer (POT) PKR. 10
Optocoupler PKR. 35
Jumper wires PKR. 70
Fig. 9. 16x2 LCD Note: The above price is in Pakistani rupees

If the manufacturing of this project is done in the

VIII. PICTURES OF THE PROTOTYPE
industries, then it would be much cheaper because in
place of Arduino MEGA2560, only microcontroller (AT-
MEGA328) is enough which is cheaper one; same goes
for other components. As a result, there will be enough
reduction in price. This whole project can be set on one
board; hence, its size will also shrink.

Fig. 10. Picture of the prototype in off mode

127 Khan, A. et al. / International Journal of Technology and Engineering Studies 5(4) 2019

X. RESULTS

Fig. 12. . Communication between revamped electric energy meter & the consumer

XI. CONCLUSION pp. 101–109, 2016. doi: https://doi.org/10.20469/

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