Electro Saving Android App: Smart Electrical Energy Consumption Monitoring and Control

Electricity is the form of energy that can be harnessed to meet human needs for an equilibrated and progressive civilization and is considered the most important blessing that science has given to mankind. Nowadays, electricity usage has become part of modern life and one cannot think of living with

Project Title

Electro Saving Android App: Smart Electrical Energy Consumption Monitoring and Control

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

Electricity is the form of energy that can be harnessed to meet human needs for an equilibrated and progressive civilization and is considered the most important blessing that science has given to mankind. Nowadays, electricity usage has become part of modern life and one cannot think of living without it. The supply and demand of electrical energy need a balance. Hence, energy monitoring is indeed essential for both provider and consumer point of view.

The monitoring of electric power consumption is achieved by energy meters using different metering techniques. The present metering system in Pakistan is of conventional type that requires the staff to visit the consumer at a regular interval to take readings which is susceptible to human error, and unjust billing is the main concern showed by the consumers. Moreover, the current metering system does not provide real-time monitoring of energy consumption. Also, the present energy metering system only provides the aggregated consumption information to the consumer and this information is not available to the provider in real-time. Moreover, the appliance-level consumption is also not provided in real-time to the consumer that prevents efficient utilization of electrical power.

This motivates us to develop an efficient smart distribution load metering/monitoring system for both consumer and provider perspectives. From the consumer perspective, it will help residential, commercial, and industrial consumers to monitor power consumption and remotely control different units using a smartphone. Moreover, using the smartphone, the provider can also monitor the energy consumption in real-time taking necessary action in time (cut-off the supply in case of excess load consumption).  

Project Objectives

The main objective of this project is to design and implement an Android App (Electro Saving) to be used for an efficient smart distribution load metering/monitoring system for both consumer and provider perspectives. The main objectives are:

• Consumer justified billing
• Protection of transformers
• Dynamic charges of tariffs
• Real-Time monitoring of electrical power consumption
• Pointing electricity theft.

1. Consumer Justified Billing: Previously, most users are not aware of their electricity consumption since the utility bills are issued by the electric company (provider) only at the end of each month, without giving any details or breakdown of the utilization. By relying on information supplied in the utility bill, the users cannot determine which parts of their house or building are consuming the most electricity. This is because most utility companies are measuring the energy consumption of a particular house by employing a general meter, which will just give general or overall electricity reading for the whole house.

2.  Real-Time Monitoring, Protection, and Control of Electrical Power Consumption: The Provider can monitor power consumption in real-time. This real-time information helps the Electric Company (provider) in estimating real-time generation, charging the consumer differently for Peak and Off-Peak hours’ consumption. The provider can cut-off the supply of a specific home violating the prescribed allotted load that protects the transformer from overload. A subsequent smart meter will be placed at the feeder and at the area distribution transformer which will compare the values from the home meters and transformer and highlights the irregularities and point’s electricity theft in the area. The provider will be able to monitor the consumption in real-time, monitoring the electricity theft and estimation of generation in real-time, and take measures to improve power quality.

Project Implementation Method

The implementation of an efficient smart load metering/monitoring system includes the following three stages:

• Data acquisition: The voltage and current values from sub-meters installed at the distribution box (DB box) will be wirelessly sent to the main meter through Wi-Fi where the values will be processed and calculation will be done. The data from the main meter installed at the consumer premises and from the subsequent meters at the area distribution transformer will be transferred to the secured cloud through internet connectivity by using the GSM interface (see Figure 1).

                                                                       Figure 1: Schematic of data acquisition

 • Input processing: The system consists of one smart energy meter and an external circuit that collects the meter reading and communicates with the server, along with an external hardware circuit. A web portal and an Android application developed in Android Studio v 3.0 software. Meter readings are passed to the server through the GSM module connected to the energy meter. The external circuit also provides an option to cut the power supply to each consumer with the help of a relay control unit connected through the energy meter section. It provides the useful functionality of remotely switching the power ON/OFF to the user. It consists of a protective relay, breaker control circuit & line breaker. On another side, a web application is provided for energy providers. In this portal, the administrator can add consumers with their related details, update the unit cost for energy, generate monthly bills, send notifications to a consumer for over usage of energy, bill payment details, etc. The administrator can filter the users failing to pay the bills after a fixed time duration and cut their power supply from his office, without visiting the user’s location.

•Android Application: An android application is also developed for consumers and Electric Company (provider) where they can log in to this application using their credentials provided by the administrator. Depending on the login restrictions, the Android app will display data as shown in Figure 2. The consumer can see their consumption behavior and real-time consumption statistics and can remotely switch off the desired section. The provider can get the real-time data from all the main meter and area transformer with highlighted abnormal usage by the consumer as shown in Figure 2. The provider sends a message to the respective consumer meter by GSM that will compare the message stored at the main meter and will cut-off the consumer supply for the time with a notification displayed on the consumer application.

The final implementation of the project is shown in Figure 3.

                                                     Figure 2: Android App structure

                                                                      Figure 3: Final Implementation of the project

Benefits of the Project

“Due to inefficiency, poor recovery through electricity bills and transmission and dispatch (T&D) losses, the country’s power distributing companies (DISCOs) caused a loss of approximately Rs.123 billion in the financial year 2018-19 whereas an Rs78 billion loss was registered due to poor recovery through electricity bills”.

As the problem stated above this project will be beneficial in:

• COMPENSATION IN LOSSES: Loss that is registered due to poor recovery through electricity bills will be compensated to the most extent as the provider can monitor real-time consumption and also can charge the consumer on on-peak and off-peak tariffs.
• PROTECTION: The current metering system is of conventional type, in which there is no real-time monitoring of these ads on the losses on the current distribution network. Most of the consumers go beyond the prescribed allot load that in turn increases the load on the area distribution transformer result in transform damages resulting in millions of rupees spent on transformer repair. The current system as measure consumption in real-time will automatically shut down the specific home with the warning thus protecting the transformer.
• REAL-TIME MEASUREMENT: This real-time monitoring of consumption of provided system helps the provider to pinpoint the exact area where electricity theft is carried out so that authorities take necessary action in time.
• AUTOMATED: This is an IOT based system and hence can be made automated.
• SCALABLE AND FLEXIBLE: By using Raspberry PI, the system becomes scalable and flexible.
• CONSUMER ASSURANCE: The consumer will be justified for the charged bill as they can monitor consumption by pricing themselves by the application.
• USER-FRIENDLY APPLICATION: The Android Application will be user-friendly and no technical expertise will be required to use the android app.
• INDUSTRIAL USE: The industrial consumer will be displayed additional information on power factor consumption on the same app proving him to take necessary action to reduce the charging rate and fine.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The final product will be an integrated system based on hardware and software.

• The Hardware will be installed at the present installed energy meters consisting of Raspberry Pi, Wi-Fi modules, submeters cut-off circuits (Relays), Raspberry Pi SIM800 GSM GPRS Add-on V2.0 Module Shield And hardware of Meter installed at area transformer mainly of Arduino Uno circuit and a GSM GPRS Add-on V2.0 Module Shield.
• The Android application (Electro Saver) will be available at the Android Play store from where consumers and providers can download the app for free.

The final deliverable will be:

1. Hardware and software integrated system

2. Project report

3. Publication in well-reputed journal/conference

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Energy

Other Industries

IT , Energy , Security , Telecommunication

Core Technology

Internet of Things (IoT)

Other Technologies

Internet of Things (IoT)

Sustainable Development Goals

Responsible Consumption and Production

Required Resources

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