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Single Phase Energy Smart Meter System Design and Implementation

Using RFID and Based on IoT
To cite this article: Ghufran M. Jasim and Kasim K. Abdalla 2021 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 1090 012093

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ICEST 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1090 (2021) 012093 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1090/1/012093

Single Phase Energy Smart Meter System Design and

Implementation Using RFID and Based on IoT

Ghufran M. Jasim1,*, Kasim K. Abdalla1

1
Department of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Engineering, University of
Engineering, Babylon, Iraq
*E-mail: ghfran881314@gmail.com

Abstract. The measuring of the distributed energy system and billing are complicate and have
many problems such as easily prone to tampering, inaccurate, and requires a large number of
human operators. This paper proposed the design and implementation of modern and highly
accurate single-phase smart energy meter using radio frequency identification (RFID)
technology and based on the Internet of thing (IoT). The proposed system has three units, smart
energy meter and control centre and recharging RFID card system, which contains a unit for
generating a serial number for each card and storing these numbers in the control centre unit.
The transmission of consumed energy and smart meter readings information is sent using Wi-
Fi technology to the central control unit.

Keywords: Smart meter, RFID, Energy meter, Prepaid energy system.

1. Introduction
The energy meter is a device that measures the amount of electric energy consumed by the users. The
energy in Joules, Kilo-Watt-hour (KWh) alternative meter developed by the Hungarian patent of Otto
Blathy and first KWh induction meter was already on the market at the end of 1889. These were first
watt-hour A.C. meters, called Blathy meters. In 1894 Oliver Shallenberger from Westinghouse
Electric Company used the induction principle previously used for A.C. ampere-hour meters [1]. The
conventional electromechanical meter constructs of the induction disk with its spinning velocity that
has been rendered proportional to its circuit strength.
The energy meters are categorized as electromechanically, electronically, and intelligently.
The traditional meter works by electromagnetic inductivity by counting the disk rotation. This rotation
made at a rate proportionate to the power consumption of a non-magnetic, but electrically conductive
metal disk [2]. Electronic meters are using a digital technology, which typically consists of power
rectifier, LCD, microcontroller, (Real Time Clock) RTC and ports of communication. Electronic
meters ensure a high degree of accurate calculation in a wide variety of loads. An intelligent (smart)
meter is an electronic device which records electrical energy consumption and sends information for
monitoring and billing to the electricity provider [3]. Smart meters are connected two-way with the
central control unit. Smart electric meters calculate not only overall consumption but also energy
information, so it is used because it requires low power, low cost, a high-speed data rate and to solve
the fault of the conventional electric meter reading [4]. The smart meter can be included with Global
System for Mobile (GSM), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Internet of Thing (IoT) this
depends on the design and implementation [5].

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ICEST 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1090 (2021) 012093 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1090/1/012093

Recently, the measuring KWh system and billing are old and complicate and have many
problems such as easily prone to tampering, inaccurate and requires a large number of human
operators. Also, the process to take the readings and preparing bills require challenging works. Also,
because recently electrical energy meter consists of a revolving aluminum disc mounted on a spindle
between two electromagnets, this causes errors such as stray magnets, friction, frequency, eddy
current, mutual inductance, and some parts influence by the weather.
In this paper design and implement a modern and highly accurate smart energy meter using
RFID technology and based on IoT, where the transmission of consumed energy and smart meter
information using Wi-Fi technology is sent to the central control unit. At the same time, the building
user interface in the power distribution control central unit uses the node-red as well as generates
prepaid card, recharges the expired one and sending an alarm when the remaining balance is low.
In this paper, a smart prepaid energy meter is designed with accuracy to avoid errors resulting
from manual reading that result in inaccurate bills, from waste and irresponsible use. This system
provides the payment of bills, to avoid problems of theft and non-payment of the bills which the power
distribution company suffers from, which has burdened this institution with accumulated debts.

2. Proposed System Flow Chart

The overall of the proposed system could be divided into three units; smart energy meter unit, control
center part and recharging RFID card unit. The overall system flowchart, which describes all the
operation of these units, is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.Proposed system algorithm

As shown in this chart, when the meter is run, E-Paper, voltage and current (V-I) sensor were
initialized, and the process of consumed KWh is begun. When charging process of smart meter begins,
the microcontroller sends to control centre to check the card validity, where each card has its own
serial number. The control centre cheek this card from the database, if this card valid, the centre sends
a signal to the smart meter that the card was valid and made the charge. After that, the centre will

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1090 (2021) 012093 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1090/1/012093

delete the amount of card so that no one can use this amount again. E-Paper will display the charged
amount in the smart meter, and the microcontroller sends a signal to the conductor to provide the load
unit with electricity power. The V-I sensor will start to calculate the consumed energy, voltage,
current, power, frequency, power factor. Storing and sending these data to the microcontroller which
calculate consumed energy as well as sends these data frequently to control centre. If the card invalid,
the control centre sends the knowledge to a smart meter that the card is invalid, then the
microcontroller sends a signal to E-Paper to display the invalid card.
Code generation unit algorithm for RFID card that generates unique Id code. The first step in
this algorithm is entering the I.P. address, that will establish the connection with the Wi-Fi connection
between the central unit and generating unit. If the connection success the interactive interface open.
In this step can generate RFID cart with unique code.
After the entering the I.P. to the system and success the connection between the central unit
and the charging unit via Wi-Fi, an interactive interface appears from which can verify the card and
can also charge the card with specific values. Experimentally, the system has been programmed to
provide three values for charging the card: 25,000 IQD, 50,000 IQD, or 100,000 IQD.

3. Hardware design system Implementation

Proposed hardware design system consists of four units as follows: -

3.1. Customer Unit (smart meter)

The smart meter has the following parts: -

3.1.1. Embedded Microcontroller System (ESP32)

ESP32 microcontroller is used to be as a heart for the smart meter and connected with all other
components. ESP32 has the following tasks: -
1- Collecting data from other components of the smart meter and take the necessary action
2- Communicating with the control centre.
3- Taking the data from the card reader and send the information to the control unit.

3.1.2. Voltage and Current Sensor (PZEM-004T)

This sensor measure voltage and current, then will calculate and send the power, frequency and power
factor as well as current and voltage reading to the microcontroller to process this information.

3.1.3. Electronic Paper Display (EPD)

This part of the meter uses E-paper with SPI pins of microcontroller ESP32 to display the KWh
consumed, power, frequency, voltage, current, power factor and the balance. When recharging, it
displays the value of the new charged balance.

3.1.4. RFID Card Reader (RC522)

The RC522 RFID is connected with the ESP32 to activate the prepayment system, where the
consumer is supplying the electrical energy to the home by use RFID card, that is previously filled in
the recharging unit.

3.1.5. Clock (Tiny RTC)

The RTC clock is used to adjust the time for the smart meter. In the case of connected the meter to the
centre unit, the RTC works for resetting the time with the world clock, for avoiding errors in the time
and establish the date of sending data to the centre unit. The data is sent periodically on the date that
recorded.

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1090 (2021) 012093 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1090/1/012093

3.1.6. Relay

This device controls the power source to the load. It receives two signals for on or off the power
supply from the microcontroller. When recharging balance is achieved, it receives a signal from the
microcontroller to allow the current to pass other than this not allowed.

3.1.7. Alarm Buzzer

The buzzer is responsible for giving an alarm when the remaining energy reaches threshold point, that
means, it gives attention to the customer that "the balance is low you should recharge your card". The
alarm buzzer signal is received from the microcontroller.
The block diagram in Figure 2shows the wiring connection between all components shown above, that
make up the proposed smart meter unit.

Figure 2. Smart meter unit block diagram.

3.2. Central Unit

This part of the system consists of the following: -
1- Raspberry Pi
2- Node-Red
Node-RED is a powerful open-source programming tool for wiring together hardware devices,
APIs and online services to simplify the programming component.
It used to connect code blocks, which known as nodes, together to perform a task. And this
node when wired together is called flows. Node-RED used to write and upload programs to embedded
boards by special rules of code structuring. Node-Red used in control centre which is preferred on the
other software programs, because of its easiness in writing codes and uploading the code directly to
the microcontroller via USB.
The Node-RED software is running on a Raspberry Pi. The communication between the
microcontroller (ESP32) and the Node-RED software is achieved with the message queuing telemetry
transport (MQTT) communication protocol.

3.3. Charge and Recharging Unit

In this part of the system, the components are: -
1- RFID RC522
2- ESP8266MCU
The user can recharge his card continuously at the control centre or at points of sale authorized
by the control centre.

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1090 (2021) 012093 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1090/1/012093

In the proposed system, the charging and recharging unit consist of the RFID-RC522
reader/writer connected with the ESP8266 microcontroller. When the card is near the RFID reader, it
reads the card I.D. and sends the signal to the centre to check whether this card is in the database, the
charging unit cold charges this card, if this card is not in the database, the charging unit refuses to
charge it. This process is to save the card from copies and reuse it more than once for a single charge.

3.4. Wireless Communications System (Wi-Fi)

The Mosquito Broker for MQTT communication protocol has been used to communicate Raspberry
Piwith other units in the system. The broker is primarily responsible for receiving all
messages, filtering the messages, decide who is interested in it and then publishing the message to all
subscribed clients.
Communication between a Raspberry Pi running the Node-RED software and an ESP8266
and ESP32 using MQTT as shown in Fig. 3 (a), MQTT is a superior lightweight publish and subscribe
system, and it is a simple messaging protocol, designed for constrained devices and with low-
bandwidth. So, it's the perfect solution for Internet of Things applications.
It can make several charging nodes to facilitate the process of recharging the card. Each point connects
with the centre unit by MQTT communication protocol, as shown in Fig. 3(b).

(b)
(a)

Figure 3. Wireless connection between the central unit and (a) smart meters (b) several charging units.

4. Smart Meter Calibration and Experimental Test Results

Testing the proposed, designed smart meter, central, charge and discharge and wireless connection
units have been done experimentally. All the readings of the smart meter Figure 4(a) are compared
with the standard calibrated clamp power meter LEM-2050 Figure 4(b).

(a) (b)

Figure 4 (a) The proposed smart meter. (b) The standard calibrated meter

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1090 (2021) 012093 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1090/1/012093

LEM-2050.

The experimental loading tests of the smart meter are achieved, where the smart and standard
calibration meters are connected between an A.C. single phase 50 Hz source and inductive, capacitive,
and resistive loads as seen in Fig 5 (a, b and c), respectively. The smart and standard calibration
meters measure the V, I, P.F., P and KWh only for a smart meter.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 5. Wireless connection between the central unit and (a) smart meters (b) several charging
units

Figure 6 depicts the measurement readings for the phase voltage, phase current and phase
KWh when loading the smart meter for about 1.5 hours with different loads. From Figure 6(a) shows
that the inductive load (induction motor at no load and power factor 0.17) voltage and current readings
during cumulative results for the KWh measurement readings because the load is not pure inductive
loads. Figure 6 (b) shows approximately fixed voltage, current and KWh readings for a pure capacitive
load. The KWh is zero reading in this case due to nearly zero power factor, while Figure 6(c)
represents resistive load readings. Also, the voltage and current readings are almost fixed, but the
KWh readings are cumulative results.

Table1 show the smart meter, standard calibrated meter (LEM-2050) and control central unit.
The experimental selected readings that they are KWh, voltage, current, power factor, frequency and
power for inductive, capacitive and resistive loads which are displayed by e-paper for a smart meter,
LCD screen for LEM-2050 and by the computer for the central control unit. The percentage error can
be calculated by the percentage difference between the two components and then divided by one of
these components, which its results used to show the quality of the system. The percentage error
results between the smart meter and central control unit for different loads are zero, and that indicates
the operation of transmission data of smart meter to control centre by Wi-Fi are accurate.

5. Comparing with Other Works

In this paper, an integrated system is designed that consists of a smart meter, a control unit, and a
recharge point. The function of the proposed system is to display the meter data on the screen and
know whether the RFID card is valid or not and avoid stealing the value of the balance by deleting
from the database. Comparing the proposed system with other works, [6] is suggested a design of
smart meter to read consumed electrical energy by using Node-MCU controller and sent data to the
control centre via GSM/SMS technology. Also, the bills and consumption reading are calculated at the
control centre, and the centre sends a text message (SMS) when its credit runs out. In [7], a
prepayment meter developed with an RFID card reader, and SMS is sent to the user before the credit
on the card runs out. For that, the distribution company does not have any information on

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ICEST 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1090 (2021) 012093 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1090/1/012093

consumption, that means [7] is not building an integrated system. But [8, 9] suggest a design a
prepayment meter with Arduino, that allows the user to online recharge. In [10], allows user to
monitor his consumption through the Internet while bills are

(a) (b)

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ICEST 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1090 (2021) 012093 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1090/1/012093

(c)
Figure 6.The V, A and KWh measurements for (a) Inductive (b) Capacitive (c) Resistive

Table1.Parameter comparison between Smart Meter and LEM-2050 and control centre.
load Measuremet Measurement Value Measurement Value
Parameter
LEM- Smart Percentage control Smart Percentage
2050 Meter Error % center Meter Error %
Ind. KWh - 5.2 - 5.2 5.2 0
Voltage (V) 232.6 232.8 -0.00085 232.8 232.8
Current (A) 5.31 5.25 0.0112 5.25 5.25
P.F 0.19 0.189 0.005 0.189 0.189
Freq. (Hz) 50.8 50.9 0.00196 50.9 50.9
Power (W) 226.1 228.5 -0.0106 228.5 228.5
Cap. KWh - - 5.3 5.3 0
Voltage (V) 239.6 239.3 0.00125 234.9 234.9
Current (A) 2.08 2.11 -0.0144 2.11 2.11
P.F 0 0.005 1 0.005 0.005
Freq. (Hz) 50.5 50.6 0.00197 50.6 50.6
Power (W) 2.6 2.4 0.076 2.4 2.4
Res. KWh - 5.3 - 5.3 5.3 0
Voltage (V) 231.2 231.5 -0.00129 231.5 231.5
Current (A) 3.12 3.13 -0.0032 3.13 3.13
P.F 1 0.976 -0.0245 0.976 0.976
Freq. (Hz) 50 49.9 -0.002 49.9 49.9
Power (W) 721 708.1 -0.017 708.1 708.1

calculated at the cloud. In [11], the data and bills will be store in the cloud through the Internet, while
consumption information sent to the user by message.
The studies mentioned above are adequate studies, but they do not match the actual reality that
exists in the electrical network in Iraq, because we have problems with telecommunications
companies. Because the current network is not a smart network, payment cannot be made through the
Internet, and there is no agreement with the banks so that the bill is deducted from the consumer's
bank card. This study solves problems which the distribution department suffers from, represented in
the collection and failure of the consumer to pay the amounts that were consumed.

6. Conclusion
The proposed system works to establish the principle of energy conservation, whereby the user must
pay his needs in advance under the principle of "pay and then use". In this case, the consumer avoids
neglect using energy because when his pre-filled balance runs out, the electric power is lost. The
proposed design of the smart meter is accurate and suitable for practical uses as it is tested with
different types of loads and has proven its worth and reliability when compared with calibrating meter.
The data transfer process between the meter and the control centre is done using Wi-Fi without the
need for the user to have a subscription to the global network of the Internet .The interactive graphical
user interface of the control centre is easy to deal with by the workers. It also displays the meter's
information effectively and does not include the energy consumed only, but includes the current,
voltage, frequency, power factor, as well as the balance and location of the meter.

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1090 (2021) 012093 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1090/1/012093

7. References
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[2] K. S. K. Weranga, S. Kumarawadu, and D. P. Chandima, "Smart Metering Design and
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[3] F. Toledo "Smart Metering Handbook " Penn Well Corporation 1421 South Sheridan Road Tulsa,
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[4] C. Beard," Smart Metering for dummies" 2nd edition, Copyright by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
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[5] O. Seog-Chan and A. J. Hildreth, "Analytics for Smart Energy Management". Springer
International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
[6] D. V. N. Ananth, "Smart Electricity Billing Using Node-MCU Smart Electricity Billing Using
Node-MCU," International Journal of Science Research in science, Engineering and
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[7] R. Teymourzadeh, S. M. Iwan and A. J. Abueida, " RFID-based prepaid power meter," IEEE
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doi:10.1109/SCOReD.2013.7002594, Submitted on 17 Jun 2018
[8] C. P. Sabina, P. I. Sajina, and S. Sreelakshmi, "Prepaid Electricity System Using RFID Card"
International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering & Research (IJRTER),
Vol. 05, Issue 04, pp. 3681–3683, 2018.
[9] D. Abhishek, "Smart Energy Meter Using IoT ", International Journal of Recent Trends in
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[10] M. Muzammil and M. Mufassirin, "Development of IoTBasedSmart Energy Meter Reading and
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[11] A. Chore, D. Vyanjane, and V. Karwar, " IoT Based Smart Electricity Meter and Billing System"
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