AUTOMATIC ENERGY CALCULATION THROUGH

WIRELESS SMART METER USING ZIGBEE

1Ms.Karthiga S, 2Mr.Vignesh S, 3Mr Vignesh S, 4Mr.Alex v Stanislavous,5Mr.Kiran Thomas 1 Assosiate Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, SNS College of Engineering, Coimbatore

2345 UG Scholar, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, SNS College of Engineering, Coimbatore.

Abstract : An energy calculation through wireless

smart meter using Zigbee is proposed for automatic

meter data collection, give intimation through

messages displayed on LCD and energy auditing.

This system operates with multiple channels and

frequency hopping and coexists with potential

interferers. This is the project to meet demand and

to satisfy consumers. Power consumed by the

consumer is monitored by EB through wireless. It

aims to reduce the man power for billing. For

achieving good communication link among consumer and EB, it is very necessary to find

suitable protocol. In this project, we discuss

different hardware techniques for tripping,

indicating, intimating the consumers and power

monitoring, the Microcontroller based system

continuously records the readings and the live meter

reading can be sent to the LCD display. The

microcontroller automatically takes the

responsibility of calculating the bill with the data

received from the energy meter, and the tariff

provided by the operator and displays the same and

also discusses the suitability of Zigbee for required

communication link. Zigbee has major role in

monitoring and for efficient power utilization. It

covers enough area needed for communication and

it works on low data rate of 20Kbps to 250Kbps with

minimum power consumption.

I. INTRODUCTION

The struggle between global warming

and human beings is well recognized by the

international society. Scientists devoted their

effort into the development of renewable

energies while governors/administrators audit

and control energy consumption based on

regulation. In view of the compulsory energy

consumption control in near future, researchers

have developed energy aware technology such

as ZigBee. ZigBee is a wireless sensor network

for home and building automation. Recently,

ZigBee has been widely adopted for both

metering as well as energy management.In the

existing automatic meter reading technology, the

meter reading process is done by the help of

manpower. But this method is subjected to

several disadvantages like errors during

calculation, absence of consumer during billing

time and extra expenses for the billing process.

The project „Automatic Energy Calculation

Through Wireless Smart Meter Using Zigbee‟

aims to minimize these difficulties by providing

automatic energy calculation through wireless

medium.

This method can eliminate the problems

such as manpower requirement for billing and

errors during calculation etc., and can provide

necessary information such as tariff variation

and due date for payment etc. to the consumer

through the wireless medium. The wireless

technology can be implemented by having a

Zigbee enabled transceiver interfaced with the

EB section server as well as in the consumer

side.

COMMUNICATION

TECHNOLOGY

The broadest list of communication

technology such as PLC, GSM, Wi-Fi, Zigbee,

and others, the once that more are used in AMR

are the GSM and Zigbee. GSM (Global system

for mobile communication) is a development

from cellular telephony. GSM adopts digital

modulation and the key technology is time

division multiple access (TDMA). Zigbee is a

two way wireless communication technology

featuring short distance, low complexity, low

power consumption, low data speed, and low

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cost. It is used mainly in data exchange between

low power electronic devices within short range.

There can be as many as 65,000 wireless

communication modules in a Zigbee network,

which is very similar to telecommunication

networks like CDMA or GSM.

Each Zigbee module is like a

telecommunication station, and the modules can

communicate with each other within the whole

network. The communication distance between

the nodes can range from the standard 75 meters

to hundreds of meters and even several

kilometers. The Zigbee network can also be

connected to other networks.

As a result, the energy profiles are

captured. In addition, the aging report and

analysis of electrical appliances can be

conducted by the Zigbee in-home display. Key

applications include alerting the owners of high

surges which may thus cause fire. Other

potential applications include a shutdown of

some appliances in case of shortage of electricity

experienced by the utility, and in such a

circumstance, consumers can enjoy a lower

energy rate.

The proposed system of automatic

energy meter for electrical supply is fully

automated for billing/analyzing individual

Zigbee module to each and every meter.

The data is transmitted from home

module to the Zigbee module in the electricity

board. Then the account data is displayed in a

hyper terminal window. The various other

details are described in the following sections.

II. SYSTEM OVERVIEW

EXISTING SYSTEM

A ZigBee Advance Metering

infrastructure (ZAMI) is a existing one for

automatic meter data collection and energy

auditing and management. In the ZAMI, the

system operates with multiple channels and

frequency hopping and coexists with potential

interferers. By incorporating dual channels, the

delay is improved by 30% to 50%.

In this method if any tariff variation

occurs, the new tariff rate will be changed only

through reprogramming the controller otherwise

the previous tariff rate will be displayed on the

LCD display. This may cause major problems in

billing.

Here, there are no intimations given by

the electricity board to the consumers about the

status of energy consumption. There are no

details about the previous month‟s consumption

and the amount of bill paid. We are focusing

about these draw backs and overcome in our

project „Automatic Energy Calculation Through

Wireless Smart Meter Using Zigbee‟.

PROPOSED SYSTEM

In order to overcome the above

mentioned drawbacks, we are proposing a new

method „Automatic Energy Calculation Through

Wireless Smart Meter Using Zigbee‟ which is

having the advantages such as no need of

manpower, errorless tariff calculation, tripping

can be done from the EB side in case of not

paying the bill and intimation about tariff

variation, amount to be paid and due date for

payment.

This system is designed with two

modules which are as follows:

Consumer module in the system

EB module in the system

Consumer Module

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Figure 2.1: Block Diagram of Consumer Module

The consumer side is equipped with an

energy meter, micro controller, LCD display,

indication unit (can be an indication lamp). The

microcontroller continuously monitors the

energy meter reading and calculates the amount

till last usage. These details can be viewed in the

LCD display and also it will be sent to the EB

server during each month through the Zigbee

transmitter. The indication unit is provided for

the attention of the consumer in case of

exceeding normal usage, delaying the payment

and in case of any tariff variation by the EB.

EB Side Module

Figure 2.2: Block Diagram of EB Side Module

The block diagram of the EB side

module used in the system is represented in the

above figure. The detailed explanation of each

of the block along with the components used is

explained in the following chapters. The PIC

16F877A is the basic component in both the

modules designed for the system of the

automatic energy meter reading using Zigbee

wireless communication for the electricity

board.

The Zigbee is attached with both the

modules. The data from the Zigbee transceiver

in home module passes to the EB Office module

through Zigbee network. In the office side a

similar module receives the data.

The prototype design consist of the

elements: Electronic meter attached to the

consumer module, EB side module. The PIC

controller uses PIC IT programmer in embedded

C as per needs.

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III. FABRICATION AND TESTING

HOME MODULE

Figure 3.1: Circuit Diagram of the Home Module

The above figure depicts the circuit

diagram based on which the home module is

designed.

Working of the Home System

The home module is designed to work

as follows. The „cal‟ LED, which indicates the

consumption of energy, is replaced by an opto

coupler which produces pulses as energy is

being used and transfers to the microcontroller.

The counter which counts the number of times

the „cal‟ LED blinks and sends the data to the

PIC microcontroller. This is received by the

controller as an external interrupt. The controller

is so programmed that it calculates the amount

based on the number of units consumed. These

details will be displayed on the LCD panel

attached to the home module too.

A key button is provided in the LCD

display with EEPROM memory which can

provide the details of previous month‟s payment

and energy consumption to the consumer. The

indicator lamp attached nearer to the LCD

display will indicate the overset limit usage. A

relay is attached to each and every home module

which plays the major role of tripping the

connection, if the bill is not paid in time. Thus

the relay acts as a switching device.

The Zigbee transceiver, which is a

wireless communication module, transmits the

details calculated by the microcontroller

regarding the usage of energy to the electricity

board office once in a month. Thus this

methodology reduces the manual effort to a

great extend. EB can give information about the

tariff variation to the consumer, as notification

on LCD display with lamp indication.

EB SIDE MODULE

The figure which depicts the circuit

diagram based on which the EB side module is

designed is shown in the figure below.

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Figure 3.2: Circuit Diagram for the EB

Side Module.

Working of the EB Side Module

The EB side module is designed to work

as follows. The receiver module is interfaced

with a system which is monitored by the

officials in the electricity board. The Zigbee

transceiver on the EB module receives the data

and displays it in the terminal C window of the

system interfaced with it.

The home module will be reset by the

EB officials as the bill is paid. The thing to be

noted here is that only when the command is

given, board will supply power to the particular

customer. Else the supply will be disconnected

until the payment of the bill. Thereby we

contribute a small part to prevent the power

crises as well.

IV. HARDWARE DESCRIPTION

LCD DISPLAY

Liquid Crystal cell Displays (LCDs) are

used in similar applications where LEDs are

used. These applications are display of numeric

and alphanumeric characters in dot matrix and

segmental displays.

LCDs are of two types:

I. Dynamic scattering type

II. Field effect type

In our project we are using 16 x 2

dynamic scattering type LCD displays. These

display units are connected with PIC 16F877A

microcontroller. These LCD displays are used

for displaying the information to the consumer,

i.e., the messages send by the EB regarding due

date, tariff variation, previous month‟s

consumption and the amount to be paid etc. will

be shown in the LCD display.

LCD INTERFACING WITH

MICROCONTROLLER

PIC 16F877A

MICROCONTROLLER

In this project PIC 16F877A

microcontroller has an important role as it is

used to calculate tariff, display messages, due

date, number of units consumed and amount to

be paid in the LCD display connected with it.

This PIC 16F877A microcontroller having an

inbuilt EEPROM memory. So there is no need

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of an external memory to store the information

previous month‟s amount. We are using Zigbee

transceiver to send and receive data between the

EB side and the consumer side.

PIC 16F877A

PIC - Peripheral Interface Control

16 - Serial number

F - Flash memory

8 - Bit data

77 - Product number

A - Analog Comparator

Figure 4.4: PIC Controller

I/O Ports

Some of pins for these I/O ports are

multiplexed with an alternate function for the

peripheral features on the device. In general,

when a peripheral is enabled, that pin may not

be used as a general purpose I/O pin.

PORTA and TRISA register

PORTA is a 6-bit wide, bi-directional

port. The corresponding data direction register is

TRISA. Setting a TRISA bit (= 1) will make the

corresponding PORTA pin an input. Clearing a

TRISA bit (= 0) will make the corresponding

PORTA pin an output. Inputs are connected to

PORTA.

PORTB and the TRISB register

PORTB is an 8-bit wide, bi-directional

port. The corresponding data direction register is

TRISB. Setting a TRISB bit (= 1) will make the

corresponding PORTB pin an input. Clearing a

TRISB bit (= 0) will make the corresponding

PORTB pin an output. We are using the port B

pins as output pins to stepper motor buffer.

PORTC and TRISC register

PORTC is an 8-bit wide, bi-directional

port. The corresponding data direction register is

TRISC. Setting a TRISC bit (= 1) will make the

corresponding PORTC pin an input. Clearing a

TRISC bit (= 0) will make the corresponding

PORTC pin an output. Port c is used in

transmission, reception and as output port to

buzzer.

PORTD and TRISD register

PORTD and TRISD are not

implemented on the PIC16F873 or PIC16F876.

PORTD is an 8-bit port with Schmitt Trigger

input buffers. Each pin is individually

configurable as an input or output. This port is

used to connect with the output device voice

chip.

PORTE and TRISE register

PORTE and TRISE are not

implemented on the PIC16F873 or PIC16F876.

PORTE has three pins (RE0/RD/AN5,

RE1/WR/AN6, and RE2/CS/AN7) which are

individually configurable as inputs or outputs.

These pins have Schmitt Trigger input buffers.

RELAY

A relay is an electro-magnetic switch

which can be used in case of using a low voltage

circuit to switch on and off a light bulb (or

anything else) connected to the 220v mains

supply, i.e., it is an electrically operated

switch. Current flowing through the coil of the

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relay creates a magnetic field which attracts a

lever and changes the switch contacts. The coil

current can be on or off so relays have two

switch positions and most have double throw

(changeover).

Relays allow one circuit to switch a

second circuit which is completely separated

from the first. For example a low voltage battery

circuit can use a relay to switch a 230V AC

mains circuit. There is no electrical connection

inside the relay between the two circuits the link

is magnetic and mechanical.

The coil of a relay passes a relatively

large current, typically 30mA for a 12V relay,

but it can be as much as 100mA for relays

designed to operate from lower voltages. Most

ICs (chips) cannot operate with this small

current. Thus a transistor is usually used to

amplify the small IC current to the larger value

required for the relay coil. The maximum output

current for the popular 555 timer IC is 200mA

so these devices can supply relay coils directly

without amplification.

COMMUNICATION INTERFACE MAX 232

This unit is used to send and receive the

signals given by the microcontroller /Zigbee. It

is used for the serial communication between

external Zigbee and microcontroller. It also

converts the data into serial manner and send to

the microcontroller as well as Zigbee

transceiver.

Fi

figure 4.8: Serial Interface of MAX 232

Description

The MAX232 is an integrated circuit

that converts signals from an RS-232 serial port

to signals suitable for use in TTL compatible

digital logic circuits. The MAX232 is a dual

driver/receiver and typically converts the RX,

TX, CTS and RTS signals.

The drivers provide RS-232 voltage

level outputs (approx. ± 7.5 V) from a single

+ 5 V supply via on-chip charge pumps and

external capacitors. This makes it useful for

implementing RS-232 in devices that otherwise

do not need any voltages outside the 0 V to

+ 5 V range, as power supply design does not

need to be made more complicated just for

driving the RS-232 in this case.

The receivers reduce RS-232 inputs

(which may be as high as ± 25 V), to standard

5 V TTL levels. These receivers have a typical

threshold of 1.3 V, and a typical hysteresis of

0.5 V.

The later MAX232A is backwards

compatible with the original MAX232 but may

operate at higher baud rates and can use smaller

external capacitors – 0.1 μF in place of the

1.0 μF capacitors used with the original device.

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When a MAX232 IC receives a TTL

level to convert, it changes a TTL Logic 0 to

between +3 and +15V, and changes TTL Logic

1 to between -3 to -15V, and vice versa for

converting from RS232 to TTL. The RS232

Data Transmission voltages at a certain logic

state are opposite from the RS232 Control Line

voltages at the same logic state.

Serial transmission is used where one bit

is sent at a time.

Microcontrollers are proven to be quite

popular recently. Many of these have inbuilt SCI

(Serial Communication Interface). Serial

communication reduces the pin count of these

MPU‟S.

ZIGBEE

Zigbee is a specification for a suite of

high level communication protocols using small,

low-power digital radios based on the IEEE

802.15.4-2003 standard for Low-Rate Wireless

Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANs), such as

wireless light switches with lamps, electrical

meters with in-home-displays, consumer

electronics equipment via short-range radio. The

technology defined by the Zigbee specification

is intended to be simpler and less expensive than

other WPANs, such as Bluetooth. Zigbee is

targeted at radio-frequency (RF) applications

that require a low data rate, long battery life, and

secure networking.

Roll of Zigbee in this Project

Using this Zigbee communication

network we can send information such as data,

messages, tariff amount and intimation etc.

without using human effort. EB will calculate

the amount to be paid and sends this information

through Zigbee to each of the consumers. It is

very useful in reducing expenses for meter

reading and errors during manual meter reading.

Any tariff variations by the EB can also

informed to the consumers through this method.

V. CONCLUSION

An automatic energy calculation

through wireless smart meter using Zigbee

communication has been designed, fabricated

and tested successfully. This reduces the work of

the office person to a great extend. It also

reduces the difficulty faced by the people when

readings are taken manually. It simplifies the

work of the electricity board in tripping the

supply to a particular customer in case bill is not

paid. It helps the customer in knowing about the

due date for the payment of bill. The project

may be further extended by adding an additional

feature of payment of the electricity bill from

home itself using some pre paid banking cards

or such techniques.

VI APPENDIX

Consumer Module Experimental Setup

Figure 7.5: Experimental Setup of the Consumer

Module

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EB Side Module Experimental Setup

Figure 7.6: Experimental Setup of the EB Side

Module

Lab view Work Page

REFERENCES

[1]Chih-Hung Wu, Etc,(2004) “Design of a Wireless Arm Based Automatic Meter Reading and Control System ”, Power Engineering Society General Meeting. IEEE 6-10, Vol.1, pp.957-962.

[2]Bo Chen; Mingguang Wu; Shuai Yao; Ni Binbin, (2006) “Zigbee Technology and its Application on Wireless Meter-Reading System”, Industrial Informatics IEEE

International Conference on, vol., no., pp.1257-1260,16-18 doi:10.1109/INDIN.275820. [3]Zigbee Development Kit Users Guide (2008), MeshNetics Doc. S-ZDK-451-01 v.1.10.

[4]K.F.Tsang,H.Y.Tung,K.L.Lam,(2009)“Zigbee:From Basics to Designs and Applications”, Prentice Hall. [5]Li, Xiaoguang Hu, (2009) “Design of an Arm- Based Power Meter Having Wifi Communication Module” IEEE.

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