AUTOMATIC METER READING OF ELECTRICITY BY USING

POWER LINE COMMUNICATION

Abstarct
Power is the soul of world which is relevant to the electricity and “ELECTRICITY” is the word
which now rules the world. So, proper utilization of this commodity is of immense important to
us. Hence, it is required to measure power consumption. Conventional system require an
individual and agent to physically come and take down the readings and report to house hold or
office the amount one has to pay. The aim of this project is to measure and monitor the
electricity consumed by consumers in a locality and transmitting the measured reading between
the consumer and utility. The concept of Power Line Communication is used for the transfer of
data between consumer and utility. Power Line Communication uses the high power line for the
communication. The important advantage of this system is that no additional transmission line is
needed for the transmission of data. It gives the useful functionality of switching the power ON
or OFF to the user based on the signal sends to it from the controller corresponding to the status
of bill payment.

INTRODUCTION
Automating kilowatt-hour meter reading has become a necessity for most energy suppliers as
deregulation, freer customer choice and open market competition occur in the energy supply
sector. Basic inspection of meters is time consuming and labour intensive. A study conducted by
Eyre, had shown that a human meter reader can only achieve an equivalent average information
rate of about 1bit/s, which is slow. Some meters are located in places of poor accessibility that
greatly increase the difficulty of reading energy meters.

This project is mainly implemented for the purpose of getting an automatic electricity billing
system. The aim of this project is to measure the electricity consumed by consumers in a local
area and transmitting the measured reading between the consumer and EB office. It also helps in
reducing the malpractices and damages of the meter. Using this system the Electricity Board can
access all data regarding the consumed power at each consumer. The system can monitor the
power usage and can warn the users when the power usage is getting close to the prescribed
energy usage level.

LITERATURE SURVEY

AMR is the modern Power measuring device. It is being used in measuring electricity. It has
advantages in safety; real time measuring and time save as well as it has a better user interface
and digital data analysis. AMR appears in various types depends on measured data type and data
transfer technologies. AMR is the best solution to measure, collect and analyze data for the large
networks like the electricity transmission and distribution network.[1].

In 1886, the first ac transmission line was installed. Since this age, it was very important to
measure the energy that consumers pay for. The first generation of power meters was found
which Watt-Hour meter is. As most of us know, the first generation (traditional meter reading
devices) is being used told now in many places .It has a lot of demerits that we will mention
 later. To minimize this disadvantage we have to modify a new energy meter reading system that
provides remote reading, safety, on-time readings. That is what meter provides successfully [1].

BLOCK DIAGRAM

Optocoupler
LCD Current
sensor

Energy
meter
Power line
Microcontroller
module

Relay

RTC Buzzer
AC Power lines
Alert Msgs
to
consumer
EB station RS232 Power line
(PC) Converter module

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION:
The customer section consists of digital energy meter. The output of the processor is a digital
pulse which depends upon the load used. These digital pulses are given to the input of second
section through the optocoupler. Hence the energy consumed by the consumer is measured
digitally. The control section in customer section is the heart of the system which consists of the
micro controller. For every 3200 pulse the micro controller receives it increases the number of
units consumed by the consumer by 1 which is stored in the EEPROM. The vendor section
consists of the PLC MODEM which is a transceiver i.e. it can receive as well as transmit data.
The PLC modem receives the input from the microcontroller and transmits it to the EB office.
These are received by the modem placed in the EB office.
Every month starting or month ending bill be generated using RTC and intimates the consumer
by switching on Buzzer and same data will be transmitted to EB station with unique user id and
billing information.

The consumer will access the supply, EB office will apply charges on relevant readings and
consumer will pay the bill. if a consumer fails to pay the bill then EB office will cut off the
supply by sending command to consumer unit. As consumer will pay the bill then consumer will
access the supply with the help of utility action.
Hardware Required:
 Microcontroller ATmega328
 PLC modem
 Energy meter
 RTC
 LCD 16*2
 Optocoupler
 RS232 Converter
 Relay
 Buzzer
 Power supply
 Current sensor

Software Required:
 Arduino IDE
 Hyper terminal

CONCLUSION

The proposed automated system saves time and money, increases customer satisfaction, reduces
complaints and worker injuries. Utilities should look beyond basic meter reading expenses to
determine how an automated system will drive efficiencies and savings throughout many
departments in the organization. If the customer fails to pay the bill the automated system, cut
OFF the customers supply and restoration takes place only after the bill is cleared. Even though
there are new modern methods of communication of billing data, because of use of existing
power line this system is most economical and readily adaptable system as compared to the other
systems. Thus this system proves to be very efficient, the one which might become the bench
mark in the history of automation.

REFERENCES:

[1] Poonam Borle, Ankita Saswadkar, Deepali Hiwarkar, Rupali S. Kad “Automatic Meter
Reading For Electricity Using Power Line Communication” International Journal of
Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering Vol. 2, Issue 3,
March 2013

[2] M V Aleyas, Nishin Antony, Sandeep T, Sudheesh Kumar M, Vishnu Balakrishnan

“Automatic Meter Reading and Load Management Using Power Line Carrier
Communication” International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and
Instrumentation Engineering (An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization) Vol. 3, Issue 5, May
2014
[3] G. Sujatha,D.Murali,R.Ramkishor “Automated EB Billing and Supply Control using
Power Line Communication” International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 45– No.7, May 2012

[4] Namita N. Jinde, Rashmi K. Bhojane , Reetesh V. Golhar “Power line Communication
Based on Energy Meter Automation” International Journal of Electronics Communication and
Computer Engineering Volume 4, Issue (2) REACT-2013, ISSN 2249–071X

[5] Bhushan D. Sawarkar, Mrs. Snehal S. Golait “A Review Paper on Automatic Meter
Reading and Instant Billing” International Journal of
Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering Vol. 4, Issue 1, January 2015