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Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

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FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research
Vol.3, (2), 2019
ISSN: 2579-1184 (Print) ISSN: 2578-1129 (Online)

Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

1
Akpofure A. Enughwure and 2Matthan M. Idigu
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Nigerian Marine University, Okerenkoko, Nigeria
2
No. 4, Godstino Digital Printing, Jama Plaza, Ehwerhe Road, Agbarho, Delta State, Nigeria
Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract
With advancement of technology things are becoming simpler and easier for us. Automatic
systems are being preferred over manual system. The aim of this project is to design and
construct a GSM based Smart Energy Meter. The meter designed can be monitored and
recharged remotely via SMS. Hardware/Software Methodology was implemented in this
work. Hardware implementation consists of three Key parts: The Metering unit, the micro
controller and the GSM module. The Metering unit measures the energy consumption of the
load and sends the data to the micro controller. The micro controller (the brain of the system)
controls the operations of the meter and sends electrical parameters to both the LCD and
GSM module. The GSM module establishes a communication link from the meter to the user
via SMS. The Software part is responsible for the token generation and meter’s querying
codes which were written in C language in a Visual Studio Environment. The result obtained
from this work is a GSM based Smart Energy meter that can be monitored and recharged
remotely via the use of a SMS
Keywords: Energy Meter, Remote Recharging, ATMega32 Microcontroller, GSM

1. Introduction better, non-intrusive, environmentally-safe

techniques of gauging utilities
Electricity has become the principal factor consumption.
of any economy and it is the catalyst for
development in any country. Electric Considering the cost of power generation
energy is used to drive domestic, and transmission, it is necessary that
commercial and industrial loads as a key electricity (electric energy) is monitored to
source of energy in today’s world ensure it is optimized and accounted for.
(Abdulbari et al., 2014; Jubi and John, For these reasons, energy metering system
2013). has been put in place in recent times.
Metering could be defined as the process
With the rapid demand of power in user’s of effectively determining and monitoring
end (offices, school, and workplaces) power consumption (Na Wu, et al., 2013).
throughout the world and consumers are There are two kinds of metering. They are
asking for better consumer’s service, high analog and digital metering.
accuracy of energy measurement and
healthy power supply along with timely Energy is the total power delivered or
data delivery, it has now become consumed over the interval of time t may
imperative for utility companies to devise be expressed as:

FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Vol.3 (2), 2019 Page 12
 Akpofure A, E., & Matthan M. I : Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

electricity usage, cost, tariffs and other

𝑡
notifications sent by the utility.
𝐸(𝑡) = ∫ 𝑃(𝑡)𝑑𝑡 1.1 The aim of this work is to design and
0
construct a smart energy meter for remote
The instrument used to measure either energy measurement and monitoring unit.
quantity of electricity or energy, over a
period of time is known as energy meter or This paper is organized as follows: Section
watt-hour meter. Energy meters are 1 provide a brief introduction into energy
typically calibrated in billing units, the meter. Section 2 gives a brief literature
most common one being the kilowatt hour survey of related works done over time to
(kWh). Periodic readings of electric meters improve metering. Section 3 provides the
establish billing cycles and energy used methodology used in this work. Section 4
during a cycle (Shomuyiwa and Ilevbare, Due to the advancement of technology and
2013). the demand of consumer for better power
Analog metering consists of mainly supply, Smart meter has been adopted by
measuring the electrical energy. This many. Since smart energy meters have
process uses mainly electromechanical these different
meters whose mode of measurement is functionalities to manage the end user
through a coil and rotating disc. The loads and run them in an optimal way to
electromechanical meters are installed at reduce the electricity bill as well as to
the user’s end. At the periodic intervals, conserve the energy, it’s only proper to
meter readers/inspectors are instructed to review previous works (Rodney et al.,
read the unit on the meter, this reading is 2007).
used to calculate the electric charges for
the user. This system is ineffective because A Bluetooth Energy Meter was invented
of the limited information about the power by (Koay et.al., 2003). The interface
usage (usual monthly electricity bills) between a Meter Reader, PC and the
provided to the end users make it hard for Energy Meter via a Bluetooth can be
them to adjust their energy usage to save categorized into three main distinctive
the electricity bill. The electromechanical portions. The first portion consists of the
meters cannot display real time interface between a PC and the Bluetooth
information of energy usage (Na Wu, et module. The second comprises of the
al., 2013). interface between the Bluetooth module
and the microcontroller; the interfaces in
Digital metering is an upgrade of the the first and second portion are both using
analogue metering (Shomuyiwa and the standard RS-232 protocol. The third is
Ilevbare, 2013; Satheyamoorthy, 2013; about the interface between
Iqbal et al., 2013). In most digital metering microcontroller and Energy Meter,
systems, communication is established whereby the communication link is
between the meter, user and the utility conforming to the Serial Peripheral
company. The meters used in the process Interface (SPI) standard (Ekanayaka et al,
are electronic and smart meters. The 2012).
electronic meter differs from the smart
meter in the mode of communication. The Jubi and John (2013) demonstrated the
electronic meter can only establish a design and implementation of Prepaid
simplex (one direction) communication Energy Meter with GSM Technology with
while smart meter can establish a duplex the aim of minimizing the queue at the
(two directions) communication. In this electricity billing counters and to restrict
system, the consumer is updated with the usage of electricity automatically, if

FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Vol.3 (2), 2019 Page 13
 Akpofure A, E., & Matthan M. I : Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

the bill is not paid (Koay et al., 2003). The circuit designs was carried out using
GSM technology was used so that the Proteus software, Atmel AVR
consumer would receive messages about development kit and a serial port monitor
the consumption of power (in watts) and if via 232 RS connector.
it reaches the minimum amount, it would
automatically alert the consumer to
recharge. A microcontroller AT89S52 is
programmed such that power supply will
switch off by using relay when the unit on
the energy meter is exhausted. This design
will make the users can pay for the
electricity before its consumption. It also
brings a solution of creating awareness on
unnecessary wastage of power and will
tend to reduce wastage of power. The
challenge in this work is that they didn’t
clear define how the system can be
recharge remotely. Since it can send alert
to the consumer about the low credit unit
on the meter, it will be best if the
consumer can recharge the meter on their
same platform. Hence the system can be
improved on by creating a means of
recharging the energy meter remotely.

1. Methodology
For this project, a hardware/software co-
design methodology was used to
implement the GSM based Smart Energy
Meter.
ATmega32 Microcontroller was
programmed in C language-using AVR
Studio IDE. Simulation will be done with
the aid of Proteus and AVR Studio
Software.
The energy meter designed used an
ADE7755 metering chip, ATmega32
Microcontroller and other discrete
components. The SMS communication
with the meter established with the aid of
SIM900 GSM module; AT-commands
were being sent to the GSM module from
a mobile phone for communication. Also,
a 4x3-keypad was employed for loading
energy tokens and obtaining energy
information from the meter; the energy
data will be viewed on the liquid crystal
display unit. Simulation of the electronic

FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Vol.3 (2), 2019 Page 14
 Akpofure A, E., & Matthan M. I : Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

Figure 1: The block Diagram of the GSM based Smart Energy Meter.

FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Vol.3 (2), 2019 Page 15
 Akpofure A, E., & Matthan M. I : Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

Figure 2a: Schematics Layout in Proteus Environment.

Figure 2b: Schematics Layout in Proteus Environment.

FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Vol.3 (2), 2019 Page 16
 Akpofure A, E., & Matthan M. I : Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

1.1 System Specifications was used with the following rating: Input
The system has the following voltage range 7V – 35V; Current rating IC
specifications: = 1A; Output voltage range, VMax = 5.2V
Measurement and VMin = 4.8V.
 Single Phase 2 Wire Voltage and
Power Supply Rectifying Circuit
 Nominal Voltage is 220V Since the AC mains power supply
 Frequency is 50Hz is rectified by the AC/DC adaptor, a half
wave rectifier was used for the power
Current supply. It has the advantage of less DC
 Iop = 10A, Imax = 60A saturation in both cycles of diodes
 Relay Disconnect Indicator conduction; higher Transformer Utilization
Factor (TUF); 10A10 diodes are used as it
Environmental: is capable of withstanding a higher reverse
 Operating Range: -10ᵒC to +70ᵒC voltage of 1000V.
 Storage Range: -10ᵒC to +70ᵒC
Capacitors
Prepayment Designing the values of capacitors
 Capacitive Touch Keypad is essentially dependent on the knowledge
 SMS Mode Enabled of ripple factor, which is given by the
equation below.
Communication Port 1
𝑌= (as the capacitor filter
 16 X 2 LCD Display 4√3𝑓𝑅𝐶

 Display Screen: 56mm(Length) X is used)

16mm(Width) f = frequency of AC = 50Hz
. R = Resistance calculated = V/IC
V = Secondary voltage of
1.2 Design of the Power Supply Unit
transformer = 12√2 = 16.97V. Therefore,
The basic components that were
used to design the power supply for the R = 16.97V/1.0A = 16.97Ω, hence
integrated circuit are: standard 18Ω resistor is chosen.
 Step down transformer (inside C = Filtering capacitance
AC/DC adaptor) The capacitance for filtering was
 Voltage regulators determined as shown below:
 Capacitors 𝑌=
𝑉𝑎𝑐−𝑟𝑚𝑠
 Diodes 𝑉𝑑𝑐
𝑟 𝑉
𝑉𝑎𝑐−𝑟𝑚𝑠 = 2√3
Transformer 𝑉𝑟
The step down transformer steps 𝑉𝑑𝑐 = 𝑉𝑀𝑎𝑥 − 2
the mains supply voltage to 12V with a 𝑉𝑟 = 𝑉𝑀𝑎𝑥 − 𝑉𝑀𝑖𝑛
current rating of 1.0A. The input voltage to ∴ 𝑉𝑟 = 5.2 − 4.8 = 0.4𝑉
the voltage regulator is the range of 7V –
𝑉𝑎𝑐−𝑟𝑚𝑠 = 0.3464, 𝑉𝑑𝑐 = 5𝑉, 𝑌
35V. Hence I chose a 12-0-12 transformer,
since 12√2 = 16.97V. = 0.06928
Therefore, the capacitor value is
Voltage Regulator found out by substituting the value of the
Since a 5 V output voltage is ripple factor, Y, into equation 4.1. Thus, C
required, an LM7805 voltage regulator IC

FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Vol.3 (2), 2019 Page 17
 Akpofure A, E., & Matthan M. I : Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

= 2314μF and the standard 2200μF was R1 and R2 (10kΩ) each. The pin
chosen. configuration for the microprocessor, LCD
The datasheet of 7805 prescribes to use a and the metering chip ADE7753 were
0.01μF capacitor at the output side to given from the Atmel ATMEGA 32
avoid transient changes in the voltages due datasheet, LCD 016M002B datasheet and
to changes in the voltages due to changes ADE7753 datasheet (RTC1307, 2016;
in load and a 0.33μF at the input side of Atmel ATMEGA, 2016; LCD-016M002B,
the regulator avoid ripples if the filtering is 2016). The Values of R4, R5, R6, R7, R8
far away from the regulator (Transistor and R9 are 10kΩ, 10kΩ, 1kΩ, 1kΩ, 1kΩ,
TIP41, 2016). 1kΩ respectively which were obtained
from the ADE7753 datasheets as well as
Where the values of C7, C8, C9, C10, C11, C12, C13’,
Vmax = Maximum Voltage of LM7805 C14, C15, C16, C17, C18, C19, and C20 are 33nF,
Voltage Regulator 33nF, 33nF, 33nF, 33nF, 33nF, 10µF,
100nF, 10µF, 100nF, 100nF, 10µF, 22pF,
Vmin = Minimum Voltage of LM7805
Voltage Regulator 22pF respectively. The Value of the
internal crystal of the Energy sensing chip
Vac-rms = Root mean square alternating ADE7753, X2 is 3.58MHz given in the
voltage data sheet of ADE7753 (RTC1307, 2016).
Vdc = Direct Current Voltage 1.3 Operation of the GSM based
Smart Energy Meter
Y= Ripple factor Energy is measured by the principle of
integrating power over a period of time.
Vr = Output Voltage Range
The outputs of the voltage and current
Given the transistor parameters from its Sensors are fed into the metering chip
datasheet [16] (ADE7755). The metering chip converts
the signals from the voltage and current
Vb=5V, Vbe= 0.7V, Ib = 0.4A sensor into their digital forms and sent
From the expression: them to the microcontroller. The
Microcontroller (ATmega 32) acts as the
(Vb−Vbe) primary controller. The primary controller
R3=
Ib collects information from energy meter as
well as from the GSM module. The energy
(5−0.7)
= = 10.75Ω, but the researches meter reading is compared with the
0.4 information by the microcontroller. The
chose 10Ω resistor in this design. Controller will trigger the Relay which cut
The values of C3-C6 are 1µF respectively off and restore power supply depending on
which were obtained from the Max232 the amount of unit in the meter. The LCD
datasheet (Edison Electric Institute, 2011). is interfaced to microcontroller using
The Value of the crystal oscillator X1 is parallel port connection. The
32.768kHz which was obtained from the microcontroller based system,
RTC 1307 datasheet (Max 232 data sheet, continuously records the readings. The
2016) as well as the value of the resistors GSM modem is serially connected with the

FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Vol.3 (2), 2019 Page 18
 Akpofure A, E., & Matthan M. I : Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

controller which is the major

communication module between user and
meter. The GSM uses its own network for
the transfer of information. The
programming makes use of messaging
features of GSM AT command. And, once
the relay is triggered, the electricity supply
will be cut off. The power will be supplied
again only if the meter is recharged with
enough credit.
GSM technology is included to send
messages to the customer about the
balance amount and if the amount is totally
used up then will shut down the power
after alerting user.

FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Vol.3 (2), 2019 Page 19
 Akpofure A, E., & Matthan M. I : Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

Figure 3: The Flow Chart of GSM based Smart Energy Meter

FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Vol.3 (2), 2019 Page 20
 Akpofure A, E., & Matthan M. I : Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

3.2 Token Generation user’s state code, unique meter serial

The Token Generator used was created in number as well as the number of units
a Visual Basic Environment which will be he/she wants to purchase, the token
used to generate tokens/pin code for the generator will generate a unique token for
energy meter. the user.
The PIN code used to recharge the meter is When the generated token is loaded into
an encryption of three key parameters. the meter via the keypad or SMS by the
They are: user, the meter decrypt this information,
1. The Meter Serial Number cross check if it is correct before it loads it.
2. Supply Group Code (SGC) If the token is invalid, the meter makes an
3. The number of units that consumer alarm sound and invalid token is displayed
want to purchase. on the LCD. If the token is valid, the meter
For the design, I used the combination of is recharged and an SMS notification is
the meter serial number, number of units to sent to the user as well as being displayed
be loaded into the meter and the state code. on the LCD.
When the utility sales personnel insert the

Figure 4: The Token Generator for the GSM based Smart Energy Meter

FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Vol.3 (2), 2019 Page 21
 Akpofure A, E., & Matthan M. I : Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

4.0

Test and Discussion

This test was carried out to ensure that the
meter readings are correct. I loaded the
meter with various loads and my
observations are shown below:

Table 4.1: GSM based Smart Energy

Meter Observation Table
S/N Item Meter’s Power
Output
1 HP Laptop 80-95W
with 65W
power output
with a Nokia
Phone with
2 HP Laptop 63-70W
with 65W
power output

With the following observations, it is safe

to say that the power measurement in
within acceptable range. Since energy is a
function of power and time (equation 1.1),
the GSM based Smart Meter is good shape
for energy measurement and monitoring.

Conclusion
The GSM based Smart Energy Meter was
designed and constructed. This project has
really exposed me to the use of electronic
components. To a large extent I have come
to appreciate the theories learned over the
years.
This work will improve the metering
system in Nigeria as well as aid the user to
remotely monitor the energy consumption
as well as remotely recharging the meter.

FUPRE Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Vol.3 (2), 2019 Page 22
 Akpofure A, E., & Matthan M. I : Design and Construction of GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter

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