International Journal of Advances in Engineering, 2015, 1(3), 169-173 ISSN: 2394-9260 (printed version); ISSN: 2394-9279 (online version); url:http://www.ijae.in RESEARCH ARTICLE Implementation of Automatic meter reading system using zigbee- Integrated Raspberry Pi,GSM Network K.Priya, R.Palaniindumathi and M.S.Udhaya SKP Engineering College, Tiruvannamalai, India. priyalakshmiit1994@gmail.com Received 23 February 2015 / Accepted 16 March 2015 Abstract: Accurate metering, detection of energy theft and implementation of proper tariff as well as billing system are vital in wise energy management. These objectives can be achieved by using Smart Meters. This paper introduces a microcontroller based Smart Meter using wireless communication and Lab view suitable for the Indian Energy Scenario The advantages these electric metering system offers make it a more accurate measuring device than the conventional electro mechanical meter reading system being used in developing countries like the. AMRs capacity to automatically transmit data real time increases the reliability of this metering system, unlike electromechanical meters which occasionally make use of previous readings as a basis of the consumer's current billing. It also puts consumers at a disadvantage as the accuracy of power consumption readings is being compromised. Keywords - Receiver, Transmitter, Transceiver, Automated Meter, Wireless Transmission, Monitoring System I. INTRODUCTION Electric meters are devices determining billing charges are monthly basis and are computed in kilowatt-hours. Automatic meter reading is the technology of automatically collecting data from energy metering and the transfer of the collected data for billing and analysis. AMR are not only used to measure power consumption, it can also be used to read water consumption, like in where low-power radio transmitters installed on household water meters which send readings to a central server for billing to up to four times a day the two after mentioned are yet emerging technologies since there have been minimal number of applications implemented in the country.the emerging field of wireless sensor networks combines sensing, computation, and communication into a single tiny device. The costs involved in manual reading of the meter are eliminated and the consumption goods becomes more transparent. Manual meter reading systems using electromechanical meters are installed within the premises of residential or commercial consumers and data on information consumption are collected on a monthly basis. However, this present convention has the following is an advantage: Manpower must be hired to go from household after household to read energy consumption, record data and communicate with a receiving module. Use of manual meters could translate to meter reading mistakes and errors of leakage Estimated billing is applied at times when extreme weather conditions occur and meters to be read are not easily accessible to the reading personnel - so as not to invade their customers' privacy. With this, previous energy consumptions would be the basis for the current period's electric bill. With the development of wireless technology and systems automation, the demand for AMR systems is gaining rapid pace not only in the developed countries but also developing nations. The smart meter reading employing ZigBee technology is an innovative alternative and replacement to existing automatic and electromechanical meter reading systems Not only the availability of power is an issue but also the accuracy of metering and billing strategies. The development of wireless communication technology in recent years resulted in evolution of for low cost equipment of wireless networking technology, called ZigBee. It is a short range, low-complexity, low cost, low power consumption, low data rate twoway wireless communication technology with high network capacity, short time delay, safety. On the power distributor side, the need for manpower to manually read the meter would be eliminated - reducing cost and lab or intensity while improving power reading efficiency. Industries and those from the commercial sector using this metering system in the future could be provided with timely comprehensive information about their energy usage for better load balancing and utilities management. The use of AMR systems could benefit both the country and its citizens. This same feature of AMR abets the saving of electricity, since it helps consumers understand how electrical power is used and consumed in their homes. There are numerous applications that are ideal for the redundant, selfconfiguring and self-healing capabilities of ZigBee wireless mesh networks. II. METHODOLOGY AMR system integrating ZigBee as a wireless protocol will be designed and developed in two general parts will be the focus. A block diagram of the proposed design is shown in following fig. The main objective of the system is to send periodical readings of an electricity meter wirelessly to a server in the billing office of the electricity supply company.
170 Int. J. Adv. Eng., 2015, 1(3), 169-173 Central server at power development department GSM network Home meter1 industry meter2 office meter3 meter Figure.1 General Block Diagram In this block diagram shows that the central server at power development, GSM network, home, industry, office. This premises unit metering information are gathered and processed, In this central server connected to the GSM networks.gsm network also connected to the home, industry, office, remote monitoring. The server in the billing office will have a highly secured database system which enables authorized staff members of the electricity supply company to read and print electricity bills. This added a constraint on the wireless device used for such purpose because such a device should have the capability of both sending and receiving the data. The phases of this study design and creation of the two main parts: the transmitter and the coordinator or the receiving end. The database server and monitoring system is the next phase. Lastly, this will be completed through the evaluation of the proposed study. Phase1: Transmitter/Receiver Design A block diagram of the transmitter is shown in Fig. 2. Its main function is to transfer the data being measured to the receiver end also involves Raspberry Pi that controls the communication from one end to another end and a ZigBee module that serves as the transmitting chip. When data have to be transmitted wirelessly over long distances, it is necessary to have some mechanism at predetermined distances from the sender for temporarily receiving and retransmission of data to the designated receiver. In this way, the said transmitter can also act as a router, so at the time of implementation of the system, each premises unit can be con figured to behave both as a sender (when transmitting its data) and a router (for temporarily receiving/retransmission of data coming from other neighboring premises units) at different times. Energy meter counter Serial ID Enable Data matching transmitter receiver Power line a) Metering device Figure.2 Transmitter/Receiver power line Block Diagram
171 Int. J. Adv. Eng., 2015, 1(3), 169-173 The digital metering device measures power consumption. The device are connected to the Raspberry Pi using a certain connection which is shown in Figure. The said connection is composed of a cable (RJ45 to RS232), 089, Serial to USB Converter, and a USB Hub. The said cable is connected to the Serial to USB Converter through a 089.Moreover;. The information being measured by the device are then converted into electrical signals and go through the signal conditioning circuit that functions to make sure them voltage or current produced by the metering device is proportional to the actual values of parameters being sensed. Then, it is passed to a Raspberry Pi that processes it to the value understandable by human. Metering Device RJ45 to b) Transmitter Raspberry Pi The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that can be connected to electronic devices.. Its main function is to control the communication between the transmitter and the receiver. Also, it controls communication between the transmitter and the other router whenever the ZigBee module cannot transmit wirelessly over the distance. The program on the Raspberry Pi reads the energy consumption, transmitting time and the processed output in digital form are sent to the personal computer through ZigBee transmission. Another feature of Raspberry Pi is that it has its own Random Access Memory (RAM) where data could be stored. It uses Python as its programming language which emphasizes code readability, and its syntax allows programmers to express concepts in fewer lines of code than would be possible in languages such as C. As shown in Fig.5, Raspberry Pi Model B has different parts. Transmitter Raspberry Pi to Arduino Shield Connection Bridge allows to use any of the shields, boards and modules designed for Arduino in Raspberry Pi. It includes also the possibility of connecting digital and analog sensors, using the same pinout of Arduino but with the power and capabilities of Raspberry Pi. Phase 2: Design and Creation of Receiver Receiver: The receiving end, a ZigBee module identical with the ones on the transmitting unit is used to ensure compatibility of the two modules. This allows the periodically-transmitted meter reading to be received and send a command from the receiving end to the transmitting end whenever the user prompted it to send a reading at any given time. Personal Computer The transmitted meter readings are displayed in the Pc. This will be done with the aid of a PHP Coding and AMP Software for its database. It is coded to show the meter reading at a specific time interval. ill addition, a database of all transmitted data is installed in the pc. Phase 3: Database Server and Monitoring System The database server requires software for communication with the premises unit of each consumer and based on the consumption data received. This data received can be accessible to consumers through an online website whenever and wherever they want to check for some updates regarding their energy consumption readings. The online website will consist of three distinct username, password and their respective meter readings and the date and time of acquisition. Before the data will be reflected on the website, in the coordinator side, the data received will be first converted to a comma separated value file(.csv file) which will be uploaded in the database on the website. Phase 4: Evaluation of the Proposed Study in order to prove the effectively of this study, some parameters have to be evaluated. These parameters are the time of transmission and accuracy of the sent information. To evaluate these parameters in relation to the readings of the proposed automated meter, mean square error (MSE) strategy will be used.of transmission, MAD or Mean Absolute Deviation is applicable where n again will be the number of tests performed, Xi is the Transmission time for every test performed and m(x) is the average (Mean) time of transmission of sent information. This statistical tool will evaluate the transmission time of the proposed AMR and this will be done for all the different distances as stated in the methodology. III.CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK An automated meter reading system was used to measure the voltage outputted by an electric outlet for accurate recording of real-time consumption of electricity. The AMR utilizes RS232, which uses few wires by means of serial transmission method, to transfer the data collected to the Raspberry Pi, that is why a crossover must be executed to make the data format collected from the AMR transferrable to and readable by the Raspberry Pi and also to facilitate bidirectional communication between the two. The transmitter (L), receiver (R x), and ground wires of RS232 were connected to DB9 to establish communication between the two devices. Since the RS232 to DB9 connection makes use of the serial transmission method, a serial to USB converter was used to make the connection fit to the USB hub of the Raspberry Pi. To make the data wirelessly transferrable, a ZigBee was attached to the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi alone does not have the capability to transmit and receive data, so a Raspberry Pi to Arduino Shield Connection Bridge was used to interface the Raspberry Pi and ZigBee, since the ZigBee module has to transmitter and receiver capabilities. The collected data will then be transmitted to another Raspberry Pi for the uploading of the collected data to the online database where consumers can access and monitor their voltage usage based on real-time consumption. The meter will start reading the voltage consumption of the user. The data read will be directed to the Raspberry Pi's SO memory card.
172 Int. J. Adv. Eng., 2015, 1(3), 169-173 The coordinator will send then send a query. If the end devices receive the query, it will respond and will be prompted to send information the ZigBee module. Otherwise e, the reading of the metric data will repeat. Once the end device has responded to the coordinator query, data will be forwarded to the ZigBee module then to the coordinator. Figure.3 Zigbee-GSM based Automatic meter reading system IV.DATA AND RESULTS Three loads-a charging laptop rated at 76Wh, a charging cellular phone rated at 4Wh, and a lamp rated at 9Wh-were connected to the meter. Twelve trials, each lasting for five minutes, were carried out to complete an hour of consumption. Automatic meter reading system central station concentrates on the meter number, Previous reading, current reading, will be entered in the central server and this server shows that the current billing and also the previous billing which is easy to recover our billing charges, and the total bill, current bill, previous bill reading are shows. Two options are implemented by this automatic meter reading system they are send and save, in this send option current reading will be send to the central station Figure.4 Automatic meter reading system at central station
173 Int. J. Adv. Eng., 2015, 1(3), 169-173 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS A demand based smart metering system using Lab VIEW and ZigBee has been designed, which is capable of monitoring energy consumption during peak hours and normal hours separately, alerting the utility provider on energy theft, remote turn ON/OFF the supply of individual consumers and capable of incorporated TOD tariff. The proposed design modify the consumption of the consumers, thereby reduces the energy consumption. The system is useful to both consumers and utility providers. The proposed AMR system, which incorporates ZigBee module in a Raspberry Pi, has been successfully implemented. The Raspberry Pi-to-Arduino Shields connection bridge interfaced the ZigBee module to the Raspberry Pi. The use of the ZigBee module made the wireless transmission of the meter data possible. The transmitted data were received by the coordinator ZigBee and were converted into CSV file through java. The CSV file was utilized so data, specifically the voltage consumption, can be accessed by consumers through the built website hour of consumption. MSE was used to validate the accuracy of the gathered data. The first test rendered a mean square error of only 3.664. The maximum length in which the receiver can still receive the data sent by the transmitter was also determined. The five trials rendered a result of a mean distance of meters, rendering a MAD of only 3 further proving the system's efficiency in transmitting data over long distance. The third test involving the use of a repeater further improved the distance covered by the transmission of data, reaching to up to a mean distance of 185.6 meters and producing a MAD Proven in the experimentation, the Zig8ee module acted as a transceiver, as each module can both receive and transmit data. ZigBee's transceiver capability allowed data hopping, which permitted the transmission of data from the meter to the coordinator, even when the distance was beyond ZigBee's transmissible range. The group recommends the automatic execution of the Python program upon the boot-up of the Raspberry Pi so that the use of peripherals (i.e. monitor) will be minimized. It is also recommended that energy reading be included. This can be done by attaching load to the meter. Moreover, the group REFERENCES [1] W.L. Sunshine, (no date). Pros and cons of smart meters [Online]. Available: http://energy.about.comlod/metering/a/pros And ConsOf- Smart-Meters.htm [2 ] T. Ahmedet, "Automatic electric meter reading system: A cost-feasible alternative approach in meter reading for Bangladesh perspective using low-cost digital wattmeter and WiMax technology," M.S. thesis, Dept. Comp. Science, American International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2010. [3] L. Quan-Xi and L. Gang, "Design of remote automatic meter reading system based on ZigBee and GPRS," in Third futernational Symposium on Computer Science and Computational Technology, P. R China, 2010, pp. 186-189. [4] T. Tamarkin, "Automatic Meter Reading, Public Power, vol. 50, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2002. [5] T. Jamil, "Design and implementation of a wireless automatic meter reading system," presented at World Congress on Engineering, London, United Kingdom,2008. [6] C. Dayao. (2010, July 25). The high cost of electricity [Online]. Available: http://www. thepoc. net/commentaries/8970-the highcost-ofelectricity. html. [7] "FAQs. " Internet: http://www. raspberry. org/faqs,nd [March 18,2013].