Smart Energy Metering Solution With Monitoring And Control Capabilities For Efficient Demand Side Management

A soft UPS will be designed that has smart energy metering solution with monitoring and control capabilities for efficient demand side management. The battery and hence AC to DC and vice versa inverters used in a traditional UPS are eliminated therefore, the power losses and harmonic losses are erad

Project Title

Smart Energy Metering Solution With Monitoring And Control Capabilities For Efficient Demand Side Management

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

A soft UPS will be designed that has smart energy metering solution with monitoring and control capabilities for efficient demand side management. The battery and hence AC to DC and vice versa inverters used in a traditional UPS are eliminated therefore, the power losses and harmonic losses are eradicated. The electricity from grid passes through a voltage sensors, current sensors and magnetic contactors that are connected to an Arduino. The current values, voltage values and power calculated at run time are displayed through an Arduino using the Lora Wan technology on an application server known as the Cayenne Server (GUI). This allows user to view their electricity consumption on their smart devices and adjust their pattern such as the total price of electricity used is low. The Arduino is fed with load shedding times and the maximum power allowed to be consumed during load shedding. During normal operation hours all magnetic contactors are on thus all phases receive power, however, during load shedding the Arduino sends a signal to the contactors and all of them except the one on the phase connected with UPS are turned off. If the current and voltage sensor sense a power value greater than the allowed limit during load shedding all the magnetic contactors are turned off and a warning message is generated for the user.

In order to establish the need of the new soft UPS a market survey has been carried out that has been filled by more than a thousand participants residing in Pakistan. The participants belong to the age group of 15 to 50 years and have filled responses for both residential and commercial establishments such as hospitals, offices and schools. So far more than 80% people who have filled the survey are not satisfied with their existing alternate power sources and are willing to purchase the soft UPS. Furthermore, the current, voltage and power waveforms for traditional UPS have been analyzed to determine its efficiency and distortion.

The soft UPS and traditional UPS models have been designed on an IEEE 30 Bus distribution system on ETAP. Their power flow and harmonic analysis will be carried out on ETAP to determine the negative impact on batteries in traditional UPS on the grid and compare the difference in the efficiency of the two types of UPS. Since, the UPS model available on ETAP does not show its impact on the grid the traditional UPS model has been designed using generator to show harmonics and load to show the power taken by battery.

Project Objectives

Today, innovation is the need of hour and in the past couple of decades we have seen rapid transformational changes due to the availability of technology. Pakistan is facing one of the worst crises in its history due to shortage of power generation and inefficient distribution of electricity. According to NEPRA’s state of industry report Pakistan’s electricity generation capacity of the year 2020 is 42,332 MW while the planned generation is 31,344 MW and the demand is expected to be 31,574 MW during peak hours leaving a deficit of 230 MW .This deficit is expected to increase even more by the year 2030 so consumers will soon need alternative power supply such as UPS during load shedding hours. This obstacle can be overcome by the purchase of a soft uninterruptible power supply (UPS) which provides users with electricity for critical load during power shortage hours with distinctive features such as continuous power monitoring on application server, longer battery duration and consumption of less space. Soft ups would reduce the burden on the limited resources like electricity will ensure an uninterrupted supply of energy. It will increase the agency of WAPDA and lessen the financial burdens of buying batteries and more UPS systems for the users. The money previously being spent by citizens on inefficient devices would then be given to the government for a better replacement.  The aim for the project is to connect the UPS with IOT controlled magnetic contactors which would get switched off for all phases except the ups phase at times of load shedding and would allow controlled power flow from grid to household for specific time frames to allow better management of overall power. The device will be working on limiting the load for certain hours of the day and the users will be expected to abide by the regulations to ensure a fair share of electricity in all domains.

 The second objective is to develop an application with which people can monitor their daily electricity usage, leading to energy conservation in the future. With daily information of their electricity usage, citizens will be encouraged to minimize wastage and maximize efficiency. Our last target is to set up a cheaper price of the soft ups than that of the traditional ups so it can be easily purchased by users and readily available in the market. Not only will this minimize Pakistan’s UPS related imports but will also provide its citizens with a much more reliable, cheap and efficient power providing system. This will make the citizens more aware of their responsibilities in terms of energy consumption and promote minimalism. It will also lead to growth of schools, hospitals, rural areas and industries leading to a stronger Pakistan.

Project Implementation Method

An ETAP model of the soft UPS has been made on an IEEE 30 distribution bus system. A power flow and harmonic analysis is run on the designed model to see the expected power loss and voltage and current distortion. The traditional UPS model is designed using a generator that adds harmonics to the grid through reactive power and a load that consumes power that is taken by the battery. The base case is made by keeping all generators on and adding reactors to keep all buses in normal conditions. In order to simulate load shedding three out of six generators available in IEEE 30 Bus model are turned off. The entire system is divided into five parts with 6 buses in one area, to simulate load shedding power is cut in one to two areas at a time. Without cutting power for one to two areas some of the buses will go into transient instability when load shedding is simulated in the traditional UPS system.

The current and voltage waveforms of the traditional UPS are further analyzed on fluke to determine the efficiency of different types of models already available. The harmonic distortion waveform of current and voltage of the traditional UPS are found on fluke and a similar distortion waveform is designed on ETAP to for the traditional UPS analysis.

Furthermore, the soft UPS model has been designed on a breadboard using a 5 Ampere current sensor at 12 Volts. This model consists of an Arduino UNO, transformer, relays, 12 V bulbs, current sensor and voltage sensor circuit using potentiometers. The current sensor senses the input current, whereas the voltage is sensed using a potential divider circuit with resistors. These values are sent to the Arduino that also has the load shedding schedule in it. After getting proper current, voltage, and power waveforms and observing the loads turn on and off according to the schedule fed to the Arduino  this circuit will shifted to 220 V using sensors of bigger value and real loads. After the circuit successfully works at the actual voltage with real loads the Arduino UNO will be replaced by Wimodino. Wimodino has built in Arduino which would allow radio interfacing using the Lora technology to send sensor data and would be connected to the Lite Gateway. The Lite Gateway receives and transmits sensor data via raspberry pi. It is linked with networks servers such as the things networks which allows configuration of device id, the network session key and the app session key. The voltage, current and power outputs are displayed on an app on smart devices at run time. Once this model is successfully developed its PCB will be designed and it will be implemented in households.

The Simulation for the project on proteus:

Benefits of the Project

Soft Ups can benefit the society in several ways like prevention of data loss, the top advantage of ups, as the computers in offices do not have batteries and in situation of power outage, the data can easily be lost. Some common reasons for data loss can be due to lightning strike, fallen tree, flooding, car and utility accidents. These power abnormalities can permanently damage hardware, cause data corruption and loss and severely impact a data center or organization’s reputation as well so in those state soft ups would ensure that the system is running and data is secured and protected. On top of that, Hospitals also use a UPS to ensure continuous operation of critical equipment like life support systems. Its use in hospitals would be highly beneficial for both the doctors and the patients as doctors can continuously monitor the health of the patients in cases of emergency without the interruption of power supply to equipment. Other applications such as communication, aircraft tracking and landing, security and military equipment also cannot tolerate the loss of power.

Fluctuations in voltages are frequent, particularly in industrial areas, zones and organizations where a lot of machinery and equipment is used and exposure to surges can unwittingly cause appliances to overheat and fail, which is dangerous as well as interruptive. Soft UPS would not only detect any fluctuations but also provide power surge protection by delivering stable power from its own system whenever there is bad power supply and would ultimately prevent devices and gadgets from being damaged or degraded. It will also supply the ideal amount of power to run equipment and machinery that is needed so as result it modifies the quality of power and can considered as an insurance policy for business. Soft Ups is of immense importance for various industries that rely on it and its connection with the machines. It can highly affect the quality of work output if there is any kind of power disruption and therefore soft UPS has now become an indispensable need when it comes to smooth operation of work. Depending on the features and other add-ons, the UPS system for a hospital, data center, communication, tracking or military service, for example, might be a high investment, but its payback period tends to be very less. For the long-term, an efficient UPS can pay for itself within a few years based on reduced energy costs alone. Its maintenance cost is way cheaper and affordable than the generators, which require a lot of maintenance. This is one of the many benefits of uninterruptable power supply systems.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Market Survey will judge public’s response to the soft UPS and their opinion about the alternate power supply that they are using. Furthermore, people will also suggest the extra features that they would like their alternate power supply to have.

ETAP model of the soft UPS will show it has low power loss and harmonic distortion as compared to the traditional UPS. Some of the buses go into transient instability during load shedding when a traditional UPS is connected however; in case of the soft UPS the buses operate in normal conditions in all cases.

A hardware model of soft UPS will show the actual system will operate. It will show reduced losses and distortion proving the results determined through software simulation. Initially the soft UPS prototype will be designed at 12 Volts that will be moved to 220 Volts. After successful implementation in the lab, PCBs will be designed and the soft UPS will be installed in households. The overall circuit will consist of a 220Vrms supply, Magnetic contactors, relay module for powering the loads and ensuring limited power is used in times of load shedding. Hall current sensor, voltage sensor will be interfaced with Arduino to measure instantaneous power. For the final demo, a Wimodino will replace the Arduino so that the Soft UPS can be connected to the Cayenne server. This will connect the Soft UPS to the mobile application leading to run time power usage display.

The Flow diagram of the project:

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Energy

Other Industries

IT

Core Technology

Internet of Things (IoT)

Other Technologies

Clean Tech

Sustainable Development Goals

Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production

Required Resources

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