Real time monitoring and controlled power distribution system with SMART meter to support smart grid

Abstract

In order to introduce the smart grid system in Bangladesh, Smart Meter can be the first step to make a change in conventional Billing and metering system. Smart meter is a device that is based on two way communication between consumers and suppliers including Smart monitoring system. In our country, prepaid metering system is available in some areas by DESCO. Digital meter don’t have two way communication facilities and controlling part is not available as well. Smart meter is more reliable compare to digital meter in terms of billing and tampering. Due to real-time monitoring and over-use alarm system, users will be more concern about their electricity usage. At the same time, Government will also be able to monitor power consumption in a better and organized way through the information received from Smart meters. Therefore, this paper basically focuses on the project titled Smart Meter which is designed by BRAC University, Control & Applications Research Centre (CARC). For this project, microcontroller is used in digital electric meters. For current meter, current sensor (ACS712-20A) is used to sense the amount of current which is being consumed. For voltage meter, to get desired and protected analog reading optocoupler has used which can be tolerated by Arduino Uno. Once Arduino converts analog signals to digital signals, measured voltage, current and power factor are multiplied in order to get power at every second and then it sums them up to get the energy consumed. At every second, all the data are stored in SD Card in a text file to back up during power off. Distributors can trip the whole system through a command using database which is made for this project through SocketTest software. Smart monitor is the special feature which is separately boxed and controlled by Arduino Uno from the Main Meter box. Main Meter Monitor is attached with the Arduino Mega and shows the overall power, voltage, current, PF readings in one single tab. Secondary Monitor has three tabs to be controlled with keypad. The overall current (A), voltage (V), power(kWh), PF are the data transferred to Uno. Through this Secondary monitor, consumers will be able to perceive their room-wise electricity consumption, per-unit cost and get notification for over consumption of the electricity.The main motive of this project is to introduce both way communicationsthrough Smart Meterin Bangladesh which is very efficient as well as feasible for the consumers with cheaper price.