RFID Based Prepaid Energy Meter and Home
Automation with Reporting
Muhammad Nafees
Department of Electrical Engineering
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology
Lahore, Pakistan
mnafees@ciitlahore.edu.pk
Abstract— This paper presents radio frequency identification
(RFID) based prepaid energy meter and home automation
system with an android application running at subscriber’s
mobile station. The energy meter is credited though RFID
technology and the automation of different appliances are
controlled by the subscriber via an android mobile application.
The subscribers may check their current credit, consumed units,
current load and they can manage appliances remotely. We have
also introduced a load management system, when load exceeds a
certain defined level then appliances are automatically shut
down. An automatic theft detection mechanism has also been set
in place for the system.
Keywords—Android application, home automation, load
management, prepaid energy meter, Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID)
I. INTRODUCTION
The electric energy meters used in most parts of the world
are post paid in nature. This conventional electromechanical
metering suffers from some significant disadvantages. Its
performance can be altered by temperature and
electromagnetic interference [1]. The users consume
electricity and afterwards pay the bills, usually on monthly
basis. This requires meter readers to turn up, take manual
readings and later on the bills are generated upon whatever
readings had been jotted down. This phenomenon, greatly
leads to a vulnerability of corruption and financial loss to the
power sector, particularly in developing counties. The
governments are not able to expand the existing capacity and
unable meet the ever increasing electricity demands because
the financial loss causes shortage of funds for investments in
the power sector [2].
Moreover, the users have no clue about their unit
consumption until they are handed over a hardcopy of the bill,
generated against the readings taken earlier by the meter
reader. This collection procedure of meter readings becomes
even more challenging and expensive when readings are to be
taken from scattered rural areas [3].
The prepaid energy meters are being increasingly given
attention in the power sector and gradually they are replacing
the conventional metering methods because of significant
benefits of the prepaid energy technologies. Prepaid energy
metering network scheme can deliver a better cash flow in
addition to screening other electrical parameters such as
apparent power, current, voltage and power factor [4].
Applications of RFID touch various domains including
smart homes, asset tracking, surveillance systems, highway
toll collection and animal identification [5].The widespread
applications of RFID technology have brought down the costs
of RFID components and this has opened up ways for
potential users to benefit from the magnificent RFID
technology. RFID is a contactless wireless technology which
uses radio waves for the automatic remote identification of
different objects; we can differentiate between RFID systems
according to the operating ranges of 0-1 cm for close-
coupling, 0-1m for remote-coupling, and greater than 1m for
long-range systems [6].
RFID technology allows the transmission of data through
a small portable tag; an RFID reader reads the data from this
tag and consequently processed as per the requirement of the
given application. There are two major categories of RFID
tags, either active or passive, the passive tags contain no
source of power and are empowered by the RF signals of the
concerned RFID reader [7].
The Android, an open source operating system, encourages
its users to develop incredible applications. Developers use
Java libraries, developed by Google, to write Java source
codes using the platform of Android operating system [8].
Along with a strong mobile operating system, the Android
platform also provides Application Programming Interface
(API) libraries and tools for the application developments in
Java programming language. It is based on Linux version 2.6
to deliver major services including process management,
memory management, network stack and security [9].
In this paper, we have presented RFID based prepaid smart
energy metering system and home automation through an
Android based application. In this metering system we credit
certain units into the meter using RFID technology and we
control the home automation though an Android application.
A GSM modem has been used for the transmission of
information between the android application and the rest of
the system. It also delivers a method for the detection of
electricity theft i.e. if any consumer tries to tamper the energy command. Relays also turn off the loads if the prepaid credit
meter, then the load is automatically cut off and a message is balance goes down to zero.
sent to the service provider. Some related implementations
such as [10], [11] have been delivered recently on the topic. RFID Card
Android
Mobile
However, this proposed system uses novel technique to
incorporate RFID and android platform into an energy
metering system for an increased energy monitoring and
management. Voltage
RFID GSM
Checking
Reader Modem
(P.T)
II. PROPOSED SYSTEM

16X4 LCD
The proposed prepaid energy metering and home
automation system mainly depends on a central Meter PIC18F452
microcontroller, RFID module, electromechanical energy
meter, GSM modem and an Android application as depicted in
Fig. 1. Microcontroller is the central module of this work, it
stores the information of instantaneous energy, units credited, Power
C.T Supply Relays
units remaining, tariff, current load and all relevant (P.T)
information is stored and updated in the microcontroller.

Main
Loads
Mobile Phone RFID Card Supply
Energy (Tag)
Meter
Fig. 2. Block diagram of the complete system

III. RFID DATA PROCESSING

GSM
Microcontroller RFID
Modem Reader
Fig. 1. Overview of the proposed system
A RFID smart card (tag), is used to credit the units into the
microcontroller through a RFID reader attached to the
microcontroller. The energy consumed by the utilities is
calculated in the microcontroller and the units for the
consumed energy are automatically deducted.
The detailed block diagram of the system is presented in
Fig. 2. In this work, PIC18F452 Microcontroller has been
used since it has strong built in modules like Timers,
Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
(EEPROM), analogue comparators, Serial Peripheral Interface
(SPI), Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART)
and 8 channels 10 bit Analogue to Digital Converter (ADC).
The Current Transformer (CT) helps for the measurement of
the current drawn by the loads, since all loads operate at the
same voltage but different current levels. CT also plays a vital
part in the load management; a certain limit is set for the loads
in terms of watts. If this limit is breached, a warning Short
Message Service (SMS) is sent to the user and authorities.
Potential Transformers (PT) are used, one PT provides two
DC levels of 5V and 12V for operating the microcontroller
and relays respectively. The purpose of second PT is to check
incoming voltages from the main and inform the user about
the fluctuations. Relays are implemented to turn on or off the
appliances through android application, control signal is sent
to the microcontroller and it acts according to the received
RFID technology does not call for physical contact
between the tag and reader, information onto the tag is written
through a RFID controller/programmer module. Once the tag
is in the magnetic field of the reader, it collects information
from valid tag only and rejects the invalid ones. Fig. 3 shows
the overview of the communication between a reader and tag.
We have used prototype tags in our work. In practical
implementations, the user will charge credit to its tag through
a RFID programmer owned and installed by the energy
provider at public places for the ease of access.
The objective of implementing a prepaid system is
achieved through an algorithm illustrated in Fig. 4. The
fundamental idea was to develop an algorithm which allows
the subscriber to be connected to the electricity network as
long as they have a credit or prepaid units and the electricity is
detached if the remaining credit goes down to zero. However,
the subscriber is informed, through a SMS alert, about the
remaining low credit. A minimum threshold (e.g. 50 units) is
set, once credit is less than 50 units, a SMS alert is sent after
every 20 minutes. If the subscriber fails to credit the meter, all
the appliances are disconnected via relays.
Data
RFID Reader RFID Tag
(Transponder)
Time
Energy
Fig. 3. RFID system elements
 Start

Check Credit
(Units)

No Credit <
Minimum
Threshold

Yes
Send an alarm SMS to
Subscriber
Fig.5. Bypassing the live wire

Other possible way is to disconnect the neutral wire and

No ground it as depicted in Fig. 6. In this case current will not
Credit = 0 complete its path through the energy meter and hence there
will be no pulses from the chip of energy meter but in actual
the load will be working. This is the same case as bypassing
Yes the live wire. But this theft can also be detected by measuring
the outputs readings of both the current transformers and load
Disconnect the Loads will be cut off and message will be sent to service provider.
through Relays

Inform the Subscriber

(SMS)

Credit No
Recharged

Yes
Connect the Loads
through Relays

Fig. 4. Algorithm for prepaid metering Fig. 6. Disconnecting Neutral Wire

In worst case if the whole energy meter is bypassed then

IV. THEFT DETECTION
There could be a lot of possible ways for electricity theft.
One of them is when one short-circuits the live wire (phase
wire) or bypasses the phase line as illustrated in Fig. 5. This
could possibly bypass the whole energy meter. But in our
case, two current transformers are used, i.e. one in the live
wire and one in the neutral wire. So, if anyone bypasses live
wire, then there will be difference of readings taken from both
the current transformers and hence if it happens then the load
will be cut off and a message will be sent to the service
provider’s server about the possible theft.
this load will act as an illegal load. In order to prevent this
type of energy pilfering there is a need of one master energy
meter which is observing the energy consumption in some
specific area. The different household meters are in contact
with that master meter and each meter is sending its reading to
the master meter and in this way if there is any problem at any
node i.e. if any household meter is misbehaving then the
master meter will send a possible theft message to the main
server about the misbehaving meter and then the service
provider can take further action on that meter and get rid of
the illegal load.

Fig. 7. Bypassing the whole meter
There is also a possibility that some professional tries to
open the energy meter and alters it to show less reading or no
reading at all. In order to prevent this tampering two lever
switches are placed on either sides of the energy meter and
both are connected to 5V DC and in normal state they give 5V
DC to the external interrupt pins of microcontroller; as shown
in Fig. 8. If someone opens the energy meter, the switches go
to off state and an interrupt is generated to the microcontroller.
Detecting that interrupt the microcontroller cuts off the load
and sends a message to the main server about the tampering
along with the meter number and other possible values.
Fig. 8. Use of lever switch against meter tampering
V. ANDROID APPLICATION
The Android Software Development Kit (SDK) is used to
build, test and debug the Android application as it provides
necessary API libraries and developer tools. Eclipse Integrated
Development Environment (IDE) is used as it provides multi-
language environment for software developments in Java and
Android Development Tools (ADT) plug in for Eclipse IDE is
used because it offers a comprehensive integrated
environment for building applications on Android platform.
The ADT enhances the capabilities of Eclipse, it allows quick
set up of projects, creation of application user interface,
adding packages and debugging using Android SDK. Fig. 9
shows a screenshot of the developed Android Application,
there are mainly five tabs in the application. When the Units
tab is pressed, the user inquires about the used and remaining
units from the system. The response of this inquiry brings
back the consumed and remaining units and is shown to the
user. The Devices tab is designed to control the appliances at
home under the home automation scheme, by pressing this tab
the user is switched to the total number of loads present which
may be remotely controlled through the application.
Fig. 9. Graphical User Interface of the Application
Fig. 10. LCD output
The information of current load on the system in terms of
watts is retrieved when the Load tab is pressed. The supplier
can credit units through GSM from the Charge Unit tab; it is
an optional feature and requires a credit conversion agreement
between the electricity supplier and the mobile company
operator. In this optional feature, if implemented, the
electricity supplier would enter units to be credited, the units
will then be added to the system of the particular consumer
and updated units are then displayed on the LCD. Through
this feature the consumers can credit their prepaid meters by
paying cash to the electricity supplier. The Change Number
tab allows the supplier to transfer the application control from
one mobile number to another. The last two tabs can only be
available for the electricity supplier’s application, and not
available for the consumers. The hardware implementation of
the complete system is depicted Fig. 11.

Fig. 11. Hardware Implementation
VI. POSTPAID AND BILLING OPTION
The meter can also be used as a postpaid energy meter
along with using it as prepaid. This functionality allows the
user to consume some units (predefined by the service
provider) beyond the prepaid units which were charged using
RFID tag. So, in this way a user has a little flexibility for
consuming electricity in case he can’t charge energy units
using RFID tag. These units will be stored separately in the
microcontroller as postpaid units and will be sent to the
service provider after every month or whenever the service
provider wants to know the postpaid units just in case to
generate electricity bills accordingly. If the postpaid units’
limit is crossed then the load will be cut off and the user will
be requested through message to either pay the bill or recharge
through RFID tag.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a new economical prepaid energy metering
system using RFID technology has been presented. An
android application was developed to remotely monitor the
energy consumption and to control the appliances through
home automation. We have shown a prototype of the
presented work and successful testing of the prototype was
performed. This prepaid energy metering is highly effective
because it eliminates manual meter readings, equips users to
be updated about their electricity consumption and remaining
prepaid units though a remote application running on their
mobile phones. It also delivers effective load management and
theft detection mechanisms to make it more versatile for the
practical deployments. Large scale implementation of this
system will reduces power theft, false meter reading and may
be valuable if integrated within future smart grid systems.
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