International Conference on Trends in Electronics and Informatics

ICEI 2017

Smart Energy Meter Using Arduino and GSM

Sneha Chaudhari, Purvang Rathod, Ashfaque Shaikh Darshan Vora, Jignesha Ahir
UG Student, Electrical Department Assistant Professor, Electrical Department
CGPIT, Uka Tarsadia University CGPIT, Uka Tarsadia University
Surat, Gujarat. Surat, Gujarat.
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— The demand for power has increased exponentially purposes. Electricity meters operate by continuously
with time. One avenue through which today’s energy problems measuring the instantaneous voltage (volts) and current
can be address through the reduction of energy usage in (amperes) to give energy used (in joules, kilowatt-hours etc.).
households. This has increased the emphasis on the need for Energy meters are classified as per principle and operation.
accurate and economic methods of power measurement. The goal Like Electromechanical meters, Electronic meters, automatic
of providing such data is to optimize and reduce their power
energy meter, digital meters etc.
consumption. This paper presents a smart energy meter for
an automatic and superior metering and billing system. The II. PROBLEMS OF ENERGY METER
integration of the Arduino and GSM Short Message Service
(SMS) provide the meter reading system with some automatic Some human mistakes may also occur in manual
functions that are predefined. The proposed energy meter billing. Analyzing the conventional billing some of the
system can incorporate with embedded controller and GSM common observed errors and mistakes are[9]:
modem to transmit the data like consumed energy in kWh, i. It is a time consuming procedure.
generated bill, security services (line Cut/On) over GSM ii. There is always a chance of human error while
mobile network such as data can be then fed and integrated
taking the manual meter reading.[2]
into existing energy management systems located at power
companies or organizations to provide the services among iii. There is no check and balance and verification
the customers without man-power. procedure of this meter reading.
iv. There is always a chance of theft and corruption.[2]
v. Extra human power is required.
Keywords—Electric energy meter, Arduino UNO Micro- vi. Consumer is not updated of his usage.
Controller, IDE(arduino software), RTC IC, GSM module. vii. Consumer may not get the bill slip within due date.
I. INTRODUCTION
An electricity meter, electric meter, electrical meter, or III. BLOCK DIAGRAM
energy meter is a device that measures the amount of electric
energy consumed by a residence, a business, or an electrically
powered device. Electric utilities use electric meters installed
at customers' premises to measure electric energy delivered to
their customers for billing purposes. They are typically
calibrated in billing units, the most common one being the
kilowatt hour (kWh)[8]. They are usually read once each
billing period. The most common unit of measurement on the
electricity meter is the kilowatt hour (kWh)[8], which is equal
to the amount of energy used by a load of one kilowatt over a
period of one hour, or 3,600,000 joules. Some electricity
companies use the SI mega joule instead. Demand is normally
measured in watts, but averaged over a period, most often a
quarter- or half-hour. Reactive power is measured in
thousands of volt-ampere reactive-hours (kVarh)[8]. By
convention, a "lagging" or inductive load, such as a motor,
will have positive reactive power. A "leading", or capacitive Figure 1 Block Diagram
load, will have negative reactive power. Volt-amperes First, The system block diagram of Arduino and
measures all power passed through a distribution network, GSM based smart energy meter is shown in the Fig. 1.
including reactive and actual. This is equal to the product of The energy consumption is being calculated using the
root-mean-square volts and amperes. Electric utilities use analogue energy meter and Arduino(Uno). An Arduino and
electric meters installed at customers' premises to measure GSM based smart energy meter can be divided into as
electric energy delivered to their customers for billing

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ICEI 2017

analogue Energy Meter, LCD, Arduino, GSM module , for their identification. A GSM MODEM can perform the
Optocoupler, RTC IC, etc[9]. following operations:
1. Receive, send or delete SMS messages in a SIM.
A. SMART METER
2. Read, add, search phonebook entries of the SIM.
This will modify our traditional meter with 3. Make, Receive, or reject a voice call.
Arduino and GSM, which leads an advantages and GSM module will interact with Arduino board and
remove errors of traditional meter. This meter send us send and receive data to communicate with system through
accurate,[3] regular information about your energy use. So the receiving and transfer pin of GSM to Arduino Uno.
your bills will be accurate and there will be an end to having
to submit meter readings. This energy monitor shows you how E. RTC(Real Time Clock)
much energy you're using in money. So you can see what A Real-time clock (RTC) is a computer clock (most
you're spending by the minute. Knowing more about how often in the form of an integrated circuit) that keeps track of
much energy things use, will help you choose the way you use the current time. It has some advantages as follows:
them. If you want to get the most out of being a smart meter x Low power consumption (important when running
customer, let us know and we'll update your smart meters to from alternate power)
record readings for time to time. x Frees the main system for time-critical tasks
B. ARDUINO CONTROLLER x More accurate than other methods.
Arduino is an open-source platform used for F. ENERGY METER
electronics projects. Arduino has some advantages over other The energy meter has two standard ratings for unit
controller boards.[6,2] consumption, in which the 1600imp/kWh and 3200 imp/kWh.
x Consists of both a physical boards. The fundamental behind this is the calibrating LED blinks
x One is programmable circuit board (often referred 1600 times to indicate the 1unit of consumption same for
to as a microcontroller) and second is a piece of 3200imp/kWh meter.
software, or IDE (Integrated Development Here, the project is implemented on 3200imp/kWh for
Environment) that runs on our computer, used to domestic purpose. This meter indicates 1 unit when calibrated
write and upload computer code to the physical LED blinks 3200times.
board.
x Easy programming language than C, C++ etc. IV. ALGORITHM
x No extra hardware is needed. 1. Include libraries
x Thus Arduino is basic member of electronics. 2. Declare variables
x It consists of RAM, ROM, supply and analogue and 3. Initialize LCD
digital pins which is required to run electronic 4. Start RTC
system. 5. Fetch time
6. Calculate next minute for sending SMS.
C. OPTOCOUPLER 7. If current minute is not greater than or equal to next SMS
An Optocoupler is a device commonly used to sending minute then go to step 8 else go to step 23.
galvanically separate microcontroller electronics from any 8. Go to step 5
potentially dangerous current or voltage in its 9. Read pulse pin
surroundings[9]. Optocoupler usually have one, two or four 10. If pulse pin is low (No Power) then increase pulse counter
light sources (LED diodes) on their input while on their 11. Clear display
output, opposite to diodes, there is the same number of 12. Display pulse count
elements sensitive to light (phototransistors, photo-thyristors 13. Calculate units and bill
or phototriacs). The point is that an Optocoupler uses a short 14. Display bill On LCD
optical transmission path to transfer a signal between the 15. Wait 0.64 sec
elements of circuit, while keeping them electrically isolated. 16. Go to step 11
17. Display unit consumed
D. GSM Module
18. Wait 1 sec
GSM module is used to establish communication 19. Go to step 5
between a computer and a GSM system. Global System for 20. Increase total counter
Mobile communication (GSM) is an architecture used for 21. Set pulse counter to zero
mobile communication in most of the countries. GSM 22. Go to step 7
MODEM is a class of wireless MODEM devices that are 23. Go to step 11
designed for communication of a computer with the GSM 24. Print total unit consume & total pulse blinked
network. It requires a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) 25. Wait for 1 Sec
card just like mobile phones to activate communication 26. Go to step 5
with the network. Also they have IMEI (International 27. Calculate next SMS sending minute
Mobile Equipment Identity) number similar to mobile phones 28. Convert unit and bill data to string value

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ICEI 2017

29. Send SMS containing bill and unit value pulses to Arduino from meter through Optocoupler
30. Go to step 7 arrangement.
V. UNIT CALCULATION
As per standards, to calculate unit consumption from
3200imp/kWh energy meter. Pulsating LED will blink 3200
times to indicate the 1 unit of consumption .So,
3200imp/kWh= 1 unit.

Unit Consumption = No. of pulses/3200 Unit

Case Study: If no. of pulses are 1000 then unit consumption
can be calculated as follows,
Unit Consumption = No. of pulses/3200
= 1000/3200
= 0.3125 Unit

VI. UNIT CHARGE Figure 3 Energy Meter Implementation With Arduino,

Unit charge= unit consumption*unit rate Rs. LCD and GSM Module
Case Study: Unit charge at an area is 5 Rs. (assumption) then In above figure, the analogue meter is shown with
unit charge can be as follows, Optocoupler and RTC arrangement which is connected to
GSM module to send data to consumer.
Unit charge = Unit consumption*unit rate Rs.
VIII. RESULTS
= 0.3125*5
= 1.5625 Rs.

This syntax is used to calculate unit charge and unit

consumption in IDE.

Syntax: Void calc_unit( )

{
// calculate unit
Double tem=t_count+0.0;
Cunit=count/3200.0;
Unit=unit+cunit;
Bill=unit*5.0
}
Figure 4 Unit Consumption on LCD
VII. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION Here, the LCD is used to indicate whether the data is
send to consumer’s/organization registration mobile number
on particular time or not and to fulfillment of computer need
to run system.[5]

Figure 2 Hardware Implementation of Smart Energy

Meter
Here, we have connected fixed load of 900 Watts (set
of bulbs) to determine the unit consumption and transferred Figure 5 SMS(Consumption & Charge) on
Mobile

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 International Conference on Trends in Electronics and Informatics
ICEI 2017

Here, figure shows the unit consumed by the LED lighting system control." IECON 2011-37th Annual
Conference on IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. IEEE, 2011.
consumer and its charges on consumer’s registered number on
[6] Md. Mejbaul Haque, Md. Kamal Hossain, Md. Mortuza Ali and
particular time. Md.Rafiqul Islam Sheikh "Microcontroller Based Single Phase
Digital Prepaid Energy Meter for Improved Metering and
IX. CONCLUSION Billing System",International Journal of Power Electronics and
Drive System (IJPEDS),Vol. I, No.2, December 2011.
The Arduino power measurement is an advanced [7] Abhinandan Jain, Dilip Kumar and Jyoti Kedia "Smart and
method of determining power which uses a controller and this Intelligent GSM based Automatic Meter Reading System",
method is more advantages because programming is easier International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology
then C language. It is open source software. This method (lJERT), Vol. I Issue 3, pp. 1-6,May 2012.
[8] Mrs. Mahalakshmi N, Mr.Krishnaiah Pararnesh and Ms. Elavarasi
provides the domestic power consumption accurately, safely E"Design of an Intelligent SMS Based Remote Metering
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consumer to monitors and tracks their usage. Information Consumers", International Journal Of Computational Engineering
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Simulation of Single Phase Intelligent Prepaid Energy Meter",
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In this project, the data communication is through a To Measure The Energy Consumed By A Consumer And To
Pay The Bill” Proceeding of Joint International Conference on
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module can be replaced with IOT(Internet Of Things).If it for long-distance data information transfers which based upon
GPRS”, ISA 2009.
implement in real world, then it can help us to reuse the
analogue meter. This can be possible using Raspberry pi and
Zig-bee boards.

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