6. Conclusion The meter developed here uses SMS for communication through the GSM modem.

As
shown in the Usage Command Development section, several commands are used for communication
with the meter for monitoring. Some of the information the communications seek include, unit balance,
unit consumed, time of power failure and time of power restore. Other monitoring communications
capabilities of the meter are checking the token recharge into the meter, credit warning alert, wireless
meter disconnection and connection. The SMS communication is a two-way communication and this
enables the activities of the meter to bemonitored Science, wirelessly. The results obtained show that
SMS is very efficient, effective and successful in achieving the monitoring aspects of this work as
proposed. The success of recording negligible duration in the SMS communicationand high success rate
in the command reliability test are dependent on the efficiency of the chosen mobile network, though
this was notinvestigated. The outcome of this work shows that the consumers and the distribution
companies can communicate with the meter to obtain information through the GSM SMS platform at
will. These information can be used for various purposes for the benefit of both parties especially in
energy usage monitoring and auditing. With this, the objective of thiswork which bothers on
communicating and monitoring of Prepayment Meters through SMS has been fullyrealized. References
1. D. S. Sounak and K. T. V. U. Kiran, “Home Base
This chapter contains all the relevant information gathered from different sources before the start of the
project. The first part provides details of the studies on the relevant theories associated with GSM based
and ZigBee Based smart meters. An overview of energy meters, microcontrollers and GSM technology is
presented together with their applications in the project. Smart Metering and its communication
technologies were also explored as well. Again software applications used for the design are introduced
here. The chapter also contains review of a number of research reports, articles, papers, thesis related
to the project. Finally, a brief methodology of the entire project is introduced. 2.2 Details of Relevant
Theory The main components of a GSM energy system consist of the energy meter, microcontroller,
ZigBee, GSM communication, and the software programs. 2.2.1 Energy meters An electric meter or
energy meter is an electrical measuring device that is used for the recording of electrical energy
consumed over a specified period of time [2]. Electricity companies use meters mainly to register the
power consumptions of customers for 7 billing. Energy meters can be AC meters or DC meter depending
on the nature of supply. Measurements are normally done in AC since the energy supplied is AC [2]. The
main parameter that is measured by energy meters is the electrical power or energy consumed/supplied
within a time frame. Electrical power measured in Watt is defined as the time rate at which electricity is
used to do work. Energy on the other hand represents the amount of work a system is capable of doing
[2,4]. For a two terminal section of an AC electrical circuit the instantaneous power, p(t) is given by 𝑝(𝑡)
= 𝑣(𝑡)𝑖(𝑡) (2.1) Where v(t) and i(t) represents the instantaneous voltage and current respectively. The
electric energy (W) flowing through the same section is also given as 𝑊 = ∫ (𝑡) 𝑑𝑡 𝑡2 𝑡1 (2.2) Where 𝑡1
and 𝑡2 represents the initial and final time. The energy measurement unit is the joule but for electric
energy the Watt-hour or kilowatt hour is most common. One kilowatt hour is equal to a load of one
kilowatt over a period of one hour [2,4]. The apparent power(S) measured in VA demand is divided into
two parts thus the reactive power and the real power. The reactive power (Q) measured in VAR is the
component of that is consumed by inductive loads like fans, washing machines, motors etc. On the other
hand, the real power(P), measured in W denotes the power consumed by pure resistive loads like
heaters, lamps etc. the distortion of electric current by loads can be measured using the ratio of real
power to the apparent power called the power 8 factor. 𝑆 = 𝑃 × 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 (2.3) Reactive power to
an extend is considered as losses power system and hence the higher a load consumes reactive power
(Q) the higher the loses [2]. The basic principle of meters used nowadays is common in most countries.
Energy meter calculate instantaneous power using the measured voltage and current as indicated in
equation (2.1). The energy is then computed by integrating the power against time. Depending on the
mechanism meters use in the calculation of energy there are three types of meters. The
electromechanical, the mechanical and the Smart energy meter [2]. However, the smart meter is
considered as hybrid of electronic meter.