A Possible solution of Load Shedding Smart Energy Meter

Load shedding has been a major problem of many countries specially Pakistan. Our economy is severely influenced by load shedding. Not only the planning departments are responsible but some responsibility lies with consumers too. Load shedding facing consumers find alternate means to battle heat of h

Project Title

A Possible solution of Load Shedding Smart Energy Meter

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

Load shedding has been a major problem of many countries specially Pakistan. Our economy is severely influenced by load shedding. Not only the planning departments are responsible but some responsibility lies with consumers too. Load shedding facing consumers find alternate means to battle heat of hot summers by running their fans and lit up their nights with UPS and by other means. These all alternates cause many problems to power system, and are not affordable for all. The use of UPS is causing loss of more than 410MW yearly in national grid. Approximately 102 countries including Pakistan is facing the electricity theft concern due to poor infrastructure, political uncertainty, highly level corruption and low level government efficiency. Pakistan loses approximately 0.89 billion dollars annually due to theft of electricity.

To counter these problems there is dire need to come up with innovative ways. In our project we have proposed GSM based Smart Energy meter that may be the solution of all stated problems.  Usually in load shedding hours the utility use to shut down the whole feeder to decrease the load.  But by implementing this project there will be no need to shut down the whole feeder but just  the load of consumers will be limited by using smart controllers in the smart meters, which will be operated by GSM. The consumers will be allowed to use a particular amount of load depending on connected load of consumer during load shedding hours. The consumers will not require any alternative like UPS during load shedding because that load will be supplied from utility grid.

    Figure 1:  Block Diagram of Proposed system

Project Objectives

We aim to provide an alternate of complete load shedding and present concept of partial load shedding. The proposed project will reduce energy theft and eliminate the use of UPS and other alternatives, which cause power quality and other big problems on overall  power system.

The key objectives of our project are

1. To develop a hardware model as alternate of UPS and load shedding,
2. Compute the load before and after application of smart meters and load management.
3. To limit the load during load shedding hours.
4. To detect the theft of energy.
5. To control the energy meter remotely.

       6.  To get meter readings remotely

Project Implementation Method

Our project is based on smart energy meter for that the design and implementation process is described below

Following are the steps for design and implementation of project

1.   Design and Fabrication of Smart energy meter.

The existing digital meter will be converted into a smart meter using an Arduino UNO as microcontroller and GSM module for commutation with utility and uploading data online. GSM module would send the meter readings to utility grid at  particular intervals throughout the day. A three phase meter will also be placed at each PMT (pole mounted transformer) to measure the output power from the PMT, then this meters reading will be compared to summation of all meter’s readings connected to that PMT. Any difference between both readings will show the losses as well  as theft on each PMT.

2.  To develop a hardware model  to limit the load during peak hours.

A hardware model will  be developed which would be connected with the smart energy meter to limit the load current during peak hours. This hardware will be controlled by utility grid through GSM module within meter. This limitation of load will only be done during load shedding hours.

3.  The load data collected through smart meter will be placed in the database for onward computation to generate the bill and for further assessment.

A database would be developed which would collect the all meter readings, this database would also be able to monitor and control the load as well as energy meter. Load limitation during peak hours will also be done through data base.

Benefits of the Project

If the proposed system is properly implemented, then there are its numerous benefits of it. Some of the benefits are listed below.

1. Consumers: The problem of load shedding will be reduced. There will be no complete shedding of load. The commercial as well residential consumers will have electricity even during load shedding hours.
2. Utility grid: The utility grid will have wider range to manage the load during peak demand hours as well as during off peak hours. Also the utility will not require a meter reader person to collect the meter readings.
3. Use of UPS: The use of UPS will be eliminated, because the load which was previously supplied by  UPS during load shedding hours will now be supplied by utility grid. So the cost of buying a UPS and its maintenance cost will be saved.
4. Power system: Due to elimination of UPS the performance of different power system  equipment will not  be degraded. And losses caused by UPS will be minimized.
5. Theft: The theft of electricity as well as nontechnical losses can be detected and eradicated easily.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Once the prototype of project is complete the final product is a GSM based smart energy meter with  embedded  Arduino as a microcontrollers, latch relay to remotely control the meter a current sensor for the measurement of current, an optocoupler to detect the pulses generated by the digital meter to measure the amount of energy consumed,  and a buzzer to alarm the  user about load shedding time.  All the reading and status of  the system will be displayed on a LCD screen. For the database a smart phone will be used to receive the meter reading  and process further. The GSM module provides the communication between the meter  and respective utility  grid.

Proposed system contains three smart energy meters for practical implementation. One meter will be at PMT and two for the consumers.  The theft will  be detected by comparing the readings of consumer meters and the meter at PMT. The consumer supply will be controlled through latch relay. The SMS signal of load shedding time will be sent through central hub which here will be smart phone and will be received by meter at consumer end. If the consumer uses more load then allocated during load shedding  hours first the buzzer will give the alarm  to consumer and if consumer reduces the load  the buzzer will be off. If  consumer does not  reduces the load, the meter of that consumer will be turned off automatically after 2 minutes of alarm. The meter will restart again when the load shedding time is over.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Energy

Other Industries

Security , Telecommunication

Core Technology

Others

Other Technologies

Others

Sustainable Development Goals

Affordable and Clean Energy, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com