Design of Application-Based Power Consumption Monitoring System on

Smartphones

Yusron Aminullah S¹, Agus Kiswantono²

¹˒² Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Bhayangkara University
Email : ¹[email protected], ² [email protected]

Abstract

Bills for electricity use to some postpaid electricity customers do not match the electricity
used. One reason for this is that there were no occupants of the house when the meter was
recorded by the officer so that the officer recorded the use of electric power based on the previous
average usage. With these problems, a system is created that can remotely monitor electricity
usage of electricity customers.Remote monitoring is carried out by utilizing technological
developments regarding the Internet of Think (IoT) so that the use of electric power can be seen
anytime and anywhere via the internet network. The results show that the system can send data to
the Blynk application via the internet network. The average error generated for voltage readings
is 0.043%, while the average error for electric current readings is 6.25% and the average error for
electric power is 6.71%. The error in reading the electric current is caused by the level of
accuracy of the measuring instrument used as a comparison, only 1 digit after the decimal point,
while the error in electric power is due to an error in the electric current. Based on these data, this
system is very suitable for use as amonitoring power consumption because the resulting error is
quite small, and monitoring can be done from anywhere and anytime.
Keywords: electric current, electric voltage, electric power, IoT

Abstract
The bill for electricity usage to some postpaid electricity customers does not match the electricity
used. Oneof the causes of this is that there are no residents of the house when the meter is
recorded by the officer so that the officer recordsthe use of electric power based on the average
previous use. With these problems, a system is created thatcan monitor the use of electrical power
from electricity customers remotely. Remote monitoring is carried out by utilizing technological
developments regarding the Internet of Think (IoT) so that the use of electrical power can be seen
anytimeand
anywhere through the internet network. The results showed that the system can send data to the
Blynk applicationvia the internet. The average error generated for the voltage reading is 0.043 %,
while the average error for reading theelectric current is 6.25% and the average error is 6.71% for
electric power. The error in reading the electric current is caused by the level of accuracy of the
measuring instrument used as a comparison, only 1 digit behind the comma, whilethe error in
electrical power is due to an error in electric current. Based on these data, this system is very
suitable to beused as monitoring of electric power consumption because the error generated is
quite small, and can be monitored from anywhere and anytime.
Keywords: current, voltage, power, IoT
 INTRODUCTION A. Limitation of the Problem

Electrical power has become one of the primary In order for the research to be completed, it is
human needs because all environments require necessary to have the boundaries of the problem. The
electricity, such as homes, workplaces, factories, etc. limitations of the problem in this study are as
Electricity needs in Indonesia are provided by the follows:
State Electricity Company (PLN) where each 1. Using the Nodemcu ESP8266 microcontroller
consumer must pay a fee according to how much 2. Using the PZEM-004T voltage and current
power is used multiplied by the time in kilowatts per sensor
hour, which can be seen on the installed KWH meter. Maximum voltage and current limits
The Kilowatthour Meter (KWH) is a tool used to 260VAC and 100A/22000W.
measure the amount of electrical power used by
consumers such as housing, offices and industry. B. Objective
PLN itself has a customer category for households in
the form of prepaid and postpaid electricity The purpose of making this system is to use electronic
customers. In postpaid electricity customers, devices so that they can influence users to make
customers use services that are provided by PLN in savings on electric power consumption so that waste
the form of electric power and customers make bill does not occur due to excessive use of electric power.
payments according to the electricity used by
customers for a period of 1 month. However, in C. Benefits
practice, errors often occur the recording of
electricity meters by PLN officers which means it can The benefits of making this system are:
cause losses to customers. This happens because
1. Can be used to monitor the use of electric power
during the process of recording checking the meter is
done manually from home to home, sometimes against electronic devices.
problems arise when there are no occupants of the
2. Participate in technology development in saving
house, so the officer cannot check the electric meter,
so usually the clerk will add the next month's bill electricity usage.
based on the previous month's average usage.
D. Basic Theory
Therefore, an Android-Based Electric Power
Consumption Monitoring System Design tool was 1. PZEM-004 T
created to be able to monitor onlinereal time
electricity consumption for 1 month and so on. mem PZEM-004T is an electronic module that functions
Previous research related to power consumption to measure rms voltage, rms current, power,
has also been carried out, such as the use of frequency, energy, and also power factor by
technologyInternet of Thing (IOT) [1]. The use of connecting via a microcontroller or serial device such
IOT technology in households is still rarely carried as a computer [4]. PZEM module
out due to the limited use of appropriate technology 004T is manufactured by a company
in Indonesian society. Installing voltage and current namedPeacefairwith 2 types of models, 10ampere
sensors for power monitoring in households and 100ampere. There are several features in this
also less effective because of the complexity of module including:
integration withtools that have been installed by PLN . Function
Then monitoringpower byreal time should also be
integrated with IOT technology so that recorded data - Measurement function (voltage, current,
can be seen anytime and anywhere [3]. apparent power)
Therefore an Android-based electric power ∙ -Power calculation reset (using
monitoring toolit uses the appsmartphone Blynk aims software)
to provide the latest electricity usage information and
accumulated electricity usage
for 1 month. This tool consists of a nodemcu esp8266
microcontroller which is connected to the internet to
send data from the PZEM-004T sensor which is

withcurrent transformer (CT) to measure voltage and

current using the electricity used, and also displays the
readings on the LCD and the equipped application
smartphone Blynk from microcontrollerreal time.
 theform of interactions between Arduino
andpythonOfLinux Virtual Machine oncloud. The front
view of Blynk can be seen in Fig.

Figure 1. PZEM-004T
NodeMCU
NodeMCU is an open source IoT platform. It
consists of hardware in the form of a System On Chip
ESP826 made by Espressif System, as well as firmware
used using the Lua programming language. The term
NodeMCU by default actually refers to the firmware
used from the NodeMCU development kit hardware Image of the blynk application on a
or can be analogous to the ESP8266 Arduino board smartphone
[8]. Because the heart of NodeMCU is ESP8266
(especially the ESP 12 series, including ESP-12E), the Method
features of NodeMCU will be more or less the same Hardware(Hardware)
as ESP-12. Some of these features include:
System configuration or block diagram can be
a. 10 port GPIO from D0-D10 seen in Fig. It consists of a PZEM-004T sensor as
b. PWM functionality input for a voltage and current reader, then a
c. I2C and SPI interface NodeMCU microcontroller to process data read by
d. Interface 1 Wire ADC the sensor which is then displayed on a 16x2 LCD
display and also sent to the cloud server from the
Blynk application. The power monitor has a separate
power supply with a 5VDC input specification.
The workings of the Android-based Power
Consumption Monitoring System is that the
microcontroller will connect to the internet using a
Picture of NodeMCU Service Set Identifier (SSID) and a password of type
Blink internet service that is used then after connected, the
microcontroller will connect to the cloud server
Blynk is a platform with iOS and android applications
from the Blynk application.
to control microcontrollers such as arduino,
nodeMCU, raspberry Pi and the like over the internet.
By using the blynk application you can control an
LED or a motor fromsmartphone with no ability in
programming. Because in making the application the
interface that is displayed allows us to choosewidget
bydragand last (drag and drop). Blynk is also a free
application for personal use. Each project created in
the application contains several
widget such as graphics, virtualled, buttons, value
displays, or graphs. Allwidget it can be controlled and
integrated on arduino or nodemcu. Projects created can Tool block diagram image
also be shared with friends and colleagues
After connecting withserver, the sensor from the
customer so they can access insmartphone each ofPZEM-004T will read the voltage and current
them. Blynk also supportsCUSTOMERSwhich is notconnected to the household electricity grid, for current
from the microcontroller. Likejavascript, phthon, orreadings it requires a separate CT with a maximum
Lua. This means that projects created can be in
 current of 100A. Then the data is read in the form of
the TTL protocolserial will be processed by the
microcontrollerNodeMCU and obtained power and
power calculations which will then be displayed and
also sent to the applicationBlink.

On applicationBlinkdata in the form of voltage,

current and power will be displayed in real time,
complete with average values, highest values, current
graphs, and also the total power that has been used
while the tool is in use. The connection from the Display image on the blynk application
PZEM-004T sensor to the microcontroller can be
seen.
Measurements were made in the form of voltage and
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION current calibration on the PZEM-004T sensor with a
In this study before getting the results and discussion standard measuring instrument in the form ofclamp
it is necessary to do a test. The tests carried out in this meter. The PZEM-004T module will issue a red
study were in the form of testing the calibrated PZEM- indicator light when it is active. Testing of this module
004T sensor was carried out five times at different times using a
withclamp meter to find out the level of accuracy of the computer load that has a power of ±75 Watts.. Current
PZEM-004T sensor and compare the data obtained by
the sensor whether it has the same value as what is testing is done by comparing the readingsclamp
displayed in the application. After multimeter with PZEM-004T usecurrent transformer
ensure that the sensor works properly, the overall system (CT). 1. Voltage Testing
design is made as shown in the figure, namely the first Voltage measurements are carried out as shown in
time connecting the microcontroller to the Blynk server Figure 9.Probe onclamp The meter is connected to the
via the internet network using the esp8266. Once AC voltage input on the PZEM-004T and then the
connected, the microcontroller sends voltage, current readings are compared at a certain time. Time difference
and power data to be displayed and to the Blynk server.
The Blynk application displays electric current data, Measurements are taken every 1 minute for 5 times to get
voltage electricity, electric power and fees charged to 5 values that are compared betweenclamp meter with the
electricity customers. PZEM-004T sensor. Each data obtained is compared
with the value that appears on
applicationBlink.Does the data sent with the data
displayed in real time on the LCD have the same value
for voltage.

Schem
atic image of voltage measurement
Comparison of the power of the PZEM-004T
sensor with calculations fromclamp meter using
the formula without doing sums on the total power
accumulated during each 1-minute interval. From
the results of the comparison of power
Image of tool using laptop load.
measurements from the sensors, it shows that the
percentage of error is above 5% because of the
current measurement there is a difference in the
level of accuracy of the reading. This is due to the
limited ability of the standard measuring
instruments used.

Conclusion
 Based on the tests that have been carried out, it
can be concluded that the PZEM 004T sensor
used to monitor electric power consumption has a
high accuracy value with a percentage of ± 6%.
The percentage of power error is more than 5%
due to the accuracy of the measuring instrument
which is lower than the PZEM-004T sensor.

REFERENCE
[1] M. Ali and M. K. Paracha, “An IoT BasedApproach
For Monitoring Solar Power Consumption With
Adafruit Cloud”, International Journal of Engineering
Applied Science and Technology, vol. 4, pp 335-341,
January 2020.
[2] V. L. Morales, T. R. J. Romero, R. G. Herrera, SD.
Morinigo, and R. R. A. Osornio, “Smart Sensor
Network For Power Quality Monitoring in Electrical
Installations, Elsevier, vol. 103, pp 133 – 142, June
2017.
[3] Elamvazuthi, M. K. A. A. Khan, S. B. B. Shaari, R.
Sinnadurai, and M. Amudha, “Electrical Power
Consumption Monitoring Using A Real Time”, in Proc.
2012 IEEE Conference on Sustainable Utilization and
Development in Engineering and Technology, Oct. 2012,
pp 295 -298.
[4] A. Wahid, Junaidi, and I. Arsyad, "Analysis of
Electric Power Capacity and Needs to Save Electrical
Energy Use at the Faculty of Engineering,
Tanjungpura University", Journal of Electrical
Engineering, Tanjungpura University, vol. 2, 2014.
[5] Tukadi, W. Widodo, M. Ruswiensari, and A.
Qomar, "Realtime Monitoring of Electric Power
Consumption Based on the Internet of Things", in
Proc. National Seminar on Applied Science and
Technology, Sept 2019, pp 581 – 586.
[6] C. Sookasame and W. Zhongdong, “Real Time
Power ConsumptionMonitoring Using Arduino”,
International Journal of Research and Scientific
Innovation, vol. 6, pp 6-12, January 2019.
[7] B. G. Melipurbowo, "Measurement of Real Time
Electrical Power Using a Current Sensor ACS 712", in
Engineering and Social Development Scientific
Magazine, March 2016, pp 17-23.