IOT Based Smart Energy Meter for Efficient Energy Utilization in Smart Grid

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IOT Based Smart Energy Meter for Efficient
Energy Utilization in Smart Grid
Bibek Kanti Barman
Electrical Engineering Deptt.
Mizorm University
Aizawl, India
bibekkantibarman01@gmail.com
Shiv Nath Yadav
Information Technology Deptt.
Mizorm University
Aizawl, India
shivnathyadav120@gmail.com
Shivam Kumar
Electrical Engineering Deptt.
Mizorm University
Aizawl, India
shivamkmrsak@gmail.com
Sadhan Gope
Electrical Engineering Deptt.
Mizorm University
Aizawl, India
sadhan.nit@gmail.com
Abstract— Efficient energy utilization plays a very vital role for
the development of smart grid in power system. So, proper
monitoring and controlling of energy consumption is a chief
priority of the smart grid. The existing energy meter system has
many problems associated to it and one of the key problem is
there is no full duplex communication. To solve this problem, a
smart energy meter is proposed based on Internet of Things
(IoT). The proposed smart energy meter controls and calculates
the energy consumption using ESP 8266 12E, a Wi-Fi module
and uploads it to the cloud from where the consumer or producer
can view the reading. Therefore, energy analyzation by the
consumer becomes much easier and controllable. This system
also helps in detecting power theft. Thus, this smart meter helps
in home automation using IoT and enabling wireless
communication which is a great step towards Digital India.
Index Terms— IoT, ESP 8266 12E, smart energy meter.
I. I
NTRODUCTION
The internet of things (IoT) is a network of connected smart
devices enabling to transfer data. The ‘thing’ in IoT could be a
person with a heart monitor or an automobile with built-in-
sensors, i.e. objects that have been assigned an IP address and
have the ability to collect and transfer data over a network
without manual assistance or intervention. The embedded
technology in the objects helps them to interact with internal
states or the external environment, which in turn affects the
decisions taken.
With rapid growth and development, energy crisis has
become a very big issue. An applicable system has to be made
in order to analyze and control power consumption. The
existing system is error prone, labor and time consuming [1].
The values that we get from the existing system are not precise
and accurate though it may be digital type but it is always
necessary that a concern person from the power department
should visit the consumer house in order to note down the data
and error can get introduced at each and every step. Therefore,
the remedy for this solution is smart energy meter.
The smart grid plays a great role in our present society.
Tens of millions of the people’s daily life will be degraded
dramatically because of the unstable and unreliable power grid
[2]. Smart meter is a reliable status real time monitoring,
automatic collection of information, user interaction and
power control device [3]. It provides a two way flow of
information between consumers and suppliers providing better
controllability and efficiency [4]. It provides real time
consumption information providing energy consumption
control [5]. Whenever the maximum load demand of
customers crosses its peak value, the supply of electricity for
the customers will be disconnected with the help of smart
energy meter [6]. In ideal environment with normal work load
condition, the life span of the smart meter is about 5 to 6 years
[7- 8]. But in reality smart energy meter suffers environmental
issues and decreases its life span with abnormal consumption
of energy [9]. The factors affecting lifespan of a smart meter
consists of life expectancy (LE), genetics (GE), environment
factors (EF), change over time (CT) and limited longevity
(LL) [10].
IoT based energy meter system mainly consists of three
major parts i.e. Controller, Wi-Fi and Theft detection part.
Whenever there is any fault or theft, the theft detection sensor
senses the error and circuit response according to the
information it receives. The controller plays a major role in the
system making sure all the components are working fine.
Therefore, IoT can improve the performance and efficiency
of the smart grid mostly in the three phases. Firstly, it increases
the reliability and durability. Secondly, it focuses on
enablement i.e. collection and analyzation of data to manage
active devices within the smart grid. Lastly, controlling can be
done by analyzing the result obtained from the second phase
which helps the grid department to make fine decision for
future upliftment.
The energy meter available till now can only control and
monitor the energy consumption of customers. Smart energy
meter developed using power line communication (PLC) helps
in power loss [11]. Several system using Arduino as well as
microcontroller have been developed though the efficiency to
measure power consumption drastically increased but due to
cost effective it may not be considered as the suitable one. The
consumer cannot have a good and accurate track of the energy
consumption on a more interval basis
.
The conventional meter
has some of the common errors like [12]
• Time consuming.
• Chance of theft.
• Error while taking the information and extra
human involvement.
• Consumer cannot have daily update of his/her
usage.

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Thus, we proposed a smart system which enables the consumer
as well as producer to monitor and control the energy
consumption on more immediate basis.
II. PROPOSED
SYSTEM
The proposed system is cost effective and compact, so,
installment becomes much easier. The result is uploaded at
every interval into cloud space called “Thinksspeak” and
monitoring can be done by consumer/customer as well as
supplier/ producer.
In this proposed system, an energy meter is connected to
ESP8266 12E via optocoupler. An OLED display is also
connected to the system. In the driver circuit, ULN2003 is used
to drive the relay in order to switch the loads. A current sensor
is also equipped to determine the power theft. Fig. 1 shows the
functional block diagram of the proposed smart monitoring
system.
Fig. 1: Functional block diagram of smart meter.
The main functional unit of this system is discussed hereafter.
• WiFi module: - ESP 8266 12E is used here which is a
programmable module with 80 MHz Microcontroller.
As the module doesn’t have separate USB port, we
need to use an external USB to Serial adapter such as
our FT232R Serial to UART Board to develop code
using this module.
• OLED Display: - 0.96 inch OLED display is used
here which doesn’t need backlight. The display can
self-illuminate high resolution.
• Energy meter: - The analog meter used here is of
3200imp/kwh. An optocoupler senses the led
calibrated from the energy meter and sends its output
to ESP 8266 12E.
• Optocoupler: It consists of an LED that produces
infra-red light and a semiconductor photo-sensitive
device that is used to detect the emitted infra-red
beam. Optocoupler 4N35 is used here in order to
sense the Cal impulse from the energy meter.
• Current Sensor: - ACS712 current sensor gives
precise current measurement for both AC and DC
signals. These are good sensors for metering and
measuring overall power consumption of systems.
The ACS712 current sensor measures up to 5A of DC
or AC current. In this system it is used in order to
measure the power theft.
• Driver: - A relay driver is used in order to switch the
load connected to the system.ULN2003 is used here.
• Load: - A 100W bulbs are connected as loads to the
system.
• Power supply: - A 230V ac power supply is given to
the system in order to power the energy meter. Wi-Fi
module power is supplied by 5 V DC.
The Wi-Fi module is programmed using Arduino IDE software
in order to calculate the pulse from energy meter. It senses the
pulse via optocoupler and sent the data obtained to the cloud
using ESP 8266 12E.The LED blinks 3200 times for 1 unit.
The blinking of LED is calculated for consumed power in units
along with the cost of the units. The monitoring is done in
every interval. The system also provides a power theft feature
which is done using the current sensor connected to the system.
Thus, the system doesn’t involve human providing less human
error.
III. PRACTICAL
IMPLEMANTATION
To analysis the proposed energy monitoring system, the system
is practically implement in the lab. The details practical
implementations are explained below:
Initially the system is not connected to the main supply i.e the
system is in OFF condition. Fig. 2 shows the hardware
implementation without connecting the main supply. After
verifying all the hardware connection, supply is given to that
hardware system. Fig .3 illustrates that the system is in ON
condition. As soon as the Wi-Fi module is connected to the
server the relay trips and the load energies.
Fig.2: System in OFF condition.
Fig.3: System in ON condition.
WiFi
Module
Energy
Meter
Power
Su
pp
l
y
Driver LOAD
OLED
Display
Current
Senso
r

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Fig. 4 demonstrates that the Wi-Fi module is trying to connect
to the available server. If there is any server available near to
that system, it gets connected. Fig .5 here Wi-Fi module
connects to the server and the system is now ready to take the
information.
Fig. 4: WIFI module connecting to the server.
Fig. 5: WIFI module connected to the server.
After connecting the Wi-Fi with that system, system is ready to
give the information regarding the load or energy consumption
by the customers. Fig. 6 shows the initial information on the
OLED display when the load is not energies i.e. there is no
load connected to the system. As a result, OLED display is
showing ‘0’ reading. Fig. 7 shows the reading on the OLED
display when the system starts taking pulses from the energy
meter. Fig. 8 shows that when the system doesn’t take any
pulses, the system detects that there is a power Theft in the
system and the OLED displays the same information. After
there is a power theft, the system is completely turned off as
shown in Fig. 9. At the same time the system contacts the
Power Department to give the information about the power
Theft and then the Theft data is uploaded in the cloud too.
Fig.6: System is ON (Load not connected).
Fig.7: System is ON (Load connected).
Fig. 8: Theft Detection.
Fig. 9: System is shut down and contact to Power Department

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IV. R
ESULT AND DISCUSSION
The result obtained has been uploaded to an open IoT platform
“ThingSpeak” which help us to store, collect, analyze data
from arduino and other supporting hardware. Initially, no
information is transferred to the cloud via ESP 8266 12E (Wi-
Fi Module) as the load is not energies to the system. After
connecting the load, information is transferred to the cloud
using Wi-Fi module. Fig. 8 shows the initial data transferred to
the cloud with connection of load
.
Fig. 8: Energy consumption data
Fig. 9: Energy consumption pattern for first load set
To verify the system, experimental result is obtained for
various load connection of the system at a particular time. Fig.
9 and fig. 10 respectively shows the energy reading for
different loads connection of a system at a particular time.
Here, we kept the system ON for a while in order to obtain the
results. . Fig. 11 shows the theft data consumed by the system.
Fig. 10: Energy consumption for second load set
Fig. 11: Theft Data.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper provides wireless meter reading system that can
monitor and analyze the data at every interval providing
accurate results with less error. Some of the advantages of
this smart system are: -
• Energy conservation.
• Lots of time and power saving from power
department.
• Automatic control of energy meter.
• To make consumer keep the track of energy meter.
• Power theft detection.
Some of the disadvantages are:-
• Sometime the system takes time to upload the data
depending on the Internet Speed and Module baud
rate.
The IoT concept can also be implemented in various
working environment such as home automation, automatic
water level detector and traffic control system etc.
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