Design and Development of Net-Metering based Energy Meter

A smart energy meter measures the quantity of energy supplied to the national grid. Smart energy meters account for imported energy from the grid as well as exported energy to the grid within a specific time period. As photovoltaic panels cannot generate power during the night period, users have to

Project Title

Design and Development of Net-Metering based Energy Meter

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

A smart energy meter measures the quantity of energy supplied to the national grid. Smart energy meters account for imported energy from the grid as well as exported energy to the grid within a specific time period. As photovoltaic panels cannot generate power during the night period, users have to import power from the grid to fulfill power demand. At the end of the month, the supply company charges consumers according to the net balance of the energy meter. Whether the supply company charges the consumer if imported energy is greater than exported energy or the supply company pays the consumer if exported energy is greater than imported energy. 

The objective of this project is to promote the usage of renewable energy resources through a net-metering mechanism to reduce reliance on the power provided by the utility. Exporting units from the consumer side to the electricity grid and vice versa can be done through a bidirectional energy meter. The proposed meter will be based on a 32-bit microcontroller and different current transformers and potential transformers to check the direction and magnitude of power. This model will help to enhance the existing infrastructure of AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) for secure and efficient communication between consumers and supply companies.

Project Objectives

In this project, we work to develop a smart IoT Net-Metering based energy meter that will perform the following tasks:

• Import and Export Energy Measurement.
• Real-time power demand measurement.
• Real-Time power factor measurement.
• Solar Inverter Management.
• Home automation through Android application.

Project Implementation Method

The main project is based divided into two sections 

• Hardware section 
• Software section

The hardware section of the project contains two microcontrollers. One serves as a master controller while the other acts as a slave microcontroller. Two types of instrumentation transformers CT and PT for AC and DC will be used in this project. The slave microcontroller reads values from for solar charge controller side and transmits data to the master controller. The master controller will read data from AC load parameters and check the database communication channel. 

The software section is based on the design of an android application and online database. The master controller will be programmed to upload data to the database whenever real-time data changes. The designed android application will communicate to the database for data monitoring and home automation. 

Benefits of the Project

The proposed model will be beneficial in the following aspects:

• Provide an advanced and secure method of data communication for meter reading in AMI.
• A built-in smart solar charge controller method for grid-tied solar system
• Home automation and real-time data monitoring through a global internet connection between database and energy meter.  
• Power theft protection using blockchain network and end-to-end data monitoring by supply companies. 

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The proposed project will be based on a smart kit for energy meters. The kit will be capable to communicate with every conventional single-phase energy meter. The smart controller of the kit will collect data from the conventional energy meters and upload it to the secure database channel. This kit can be easily modified for three-phase energy meters. 

The hardware kit of the proposed project will be based on a built-in solar charge controller and metering controller. The solar array will simply be connected to the meter terminals. This approach will be more suitable and efficient than other external charge controllers available in the market. The main controller of the meter will directly communicate to the charge controller.

An android application will also be provided with the hardware for real-time data monitoring and home automation. The application will be secured with an online Gmail account and user-provided credentials. After successfully signing into the application user can also use a biometric impression for fast and secure login. Forget password and change password options will also be available in the application. The change password link will be forwarded to the provided email account of the user, using which the user can change the password of the application. 

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Energy

Other Industries

Education , IT , Legal

Core Technology

Internet of Things (IoT)

Other Technologies

Blockchain, Cloud Infrastructure, Clean Tech

Sustainable Development Goals

Affordable and Clean Energy, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com