Design and Implementation of a Single-Phase Energy Meter with SMS Controlled and Monitored Recharge Capability

The Nigerian power sector is faced with poorly organized billing and consumer relations management. Tariff billing and collection has been a big problem in some community in Nigeria even with the introduction of prepaid meters. The process of payment is cumbersome and stressful as consumers have to go and pay in banks and then take tellers to power utility office to confirm their power bills payment before they can recharge their cards. The major purpose of this work is to design and implement a convenient, cashless, automated and transparent electricity metering, billing and payment system. This project combines the power electronic meter with a communications network which in this case is a GSM (global system for mobile) network. Remote electricity billing is a unique concept, in which the electricity board can collect the consumed units’ data from consumer on mobile phone using GSM network. A unique property of this system is that, the electricity board can disconnect or reconnect consumers from remote location through the mobile phone. As this project works on GSM network, the system can be controlled from any part of the countr

Wireless Intelligent Electricity Metering and Billing System (WIMBIS)

This paper presents a novel smart meter design with a focus on the peculiarities of energy metering and billing challenges in Nigeria. The smart meter can be remotely configured at the control centre to work in either pre-paid or post-paid mode which allows for flexibility for various types of customers. The microcontroller based meter communicates with the energy company control centre via SMS using the embedded GSM Module. Using an LCD display or the globally accessible web based portal, the customer can track and manage their energy usage according to their financial means

Prepaid meter tariffing for actual power consumption in an average house hold: A case study of Nigeria DISCOs

Prepaid meters have many applications in generation, transmission and distribution of electric power in Nigeria, this makes their actual power measurement to be an important issue. In this work, actual power consumption of each load was determined and was used to study the time each load will use to consume 30.8 EEDC units when it is constantly connected to power supply. The analytical method was used to investigate the collected date for different appliance consumption rate with respect to time. This experiment was conducted in Achara Layout of Enugu South Local Government Area, Enugu state. Each of the load was subjected to test to determine the current and voltages across them. The actual power consumption of each load was calculated. The time for each actual power to completely consume 30.8 units was calculated. The corresponding amount in naira per day of the actual consumption of each load was calculated. The results show that, phone and lighting points will take longer time (18421.05 and 5589.8 hours) to drain the 30.8 units; while electrical pressing iron will take 8.95hours to drain the 30.8 units. It is also seen that lighting points and phones have the least and highest consumption cost per day. By optimal combination of these loads, it will make economic sense for the subscribers of prepaid meter, and hence reduce the phobia faced by the subscribers (if not total elimination).Keywords: Actual Power, Economic Sense, Prepaid meter, Nigeria DISCOs, Tariff

Mobile Water Payment Innovations in Urban Africa

This study assess mobile payment options for water service bills in four urban African contexts. Systems are evaluated to identify differences in adoption levels and motivations and barriers to uptake; how costs are distributed among water service providers, mobile network operators, and customers; and mobile payment applications and designs. Data was collected through interviews with water service providers, mobile network operators and service regulators, as well as a household survey in one of the study regions and the aid of World Bank and national water regulator data. Mobile water payment adoption rates were low, but there was also evidence that key barriers such as limited awareness, lack of physical proof of payment, and high transaction tariffs, could be overcome. Increased mobile water payment is found to result in considerable savings in time and money for consumers, revenue for mobile network operators, and perhaps most importantly, strengthened finances for water service providers to improve their ability to provide sustainable service

Design and Simulation of Single Phase Intelligent Prepaid Energy Meter

In this paper, the design and simulation of Intelligent Prepaid Energy Meter (IPEM) has been presented. The objectives of this work  are :( i) to model an IPEM,( ii) to show its reliability on  load measurement ; and (iii) to show graphical behavior of energy consumption pattern of different loads connected to power supply.  The design methodology is Artificial Intelligent (AI) based-using “ knowledge-based” and “cognitive simulation” approach.  The intelligentce properties and expected results of the proposed digital meter was modeled into the system; and was simulated using Matlab /Simulation tool. Results obtained were very satisfactory. If  fully implemented, on one hand, the estimated bills or irregular billing imposed by Power Holding Company of Nigeria(PHCN) on her customers will stop; and on the other hand ,revenue loss through unpaid bills suffered by PHCN will greatly reduce. This will have an overall effects on the nation’s economy as revenue collection will increase. Keyword:Artificial Intelligence, Prepaid Energy Meter, Model, Simulation, Matlab/Simulin

Real Time Monitoring Technologies for Pro-Poor Access to Electricity

Existing literature strongly and consistently reports the high upfront cost of energy technology hardware as one of the main demand-side barriers to increased use of modern energy services by the poor. Existing literature also shows that lack of control over monthly bills and unawareness of consumption levels lead to inefficient and sometimes insufficient electricity consumption patterns by the poor. Innovative technologies drawing from existing power metering and mobile payment technologies are now targeting the barriers of affordability and financial sustainability of electricity provision to the poor by allowing fee-for-services and rent-to-buy schemes for the sale of electricity, tariffs related to actual consumption, consumers’ control of their electricity bills and suppliers’ more efficient collection of payments. Real time monitoring (RTM) of on-grid electricity consumption has a long history, with prepaid meters being used in several developed and developing countries. However, new mobile technologies are enabling their use in off-grid systems, including both mini-grids and mobile household systems.DFI

Perancangan Monitoring Prototype kWh-Meter Prabayar Berbasis Short Message Service (SMS)

Abstract - At the moment, people who use electricity as their daily necessities still use the methods that have been in the past, namely by purchasing an electric voucher that has been available several digits of code entered into the prepaid kWh meter via the keypad. This method is considered to be less effective and less efficient in a period that has experienced a lot of progress, especially in the field of technology. Especially when the electric pulse has reached the minimum limit of the prepaid kWh meter, it only gives a warning to the sound of the buzzer alarm, it can only be heard by the customer if he is inside the house. so that the customer cannot find out if the customer is out of the house. Automatically the kWh meter customer is not prepared to deal with it if the user is not at home. So from that the research that will be made is a prototype prepaid kWh meter based on Short Message Service (SMS). In addition to being able to control the remaining electricity pulses remotely, this tool will also be able to charge electric pulses without having to enter the voucher code into the kWh meter directly but with this tool the customer can fill in by sending a short message or SMS set by the customer. The system contained in this Short Message Service (SMS) prepaid kWh meter prototype is controlled by 16 ATM AVR Microcontrollers. When the prepaid kWh meter value shows a value of 5 kWh, the system automatically provides information on the remaining kWh meter electricity through short message or SMS and marked with the buzzer sound and LED indicator. That will be made is considered to be more effective and flexible. From the results of the research data that have been collected, it can be seen that the performance of SMS-based prepaid kWh meters with the overall test results is successful and the percentage of success almost reaches 100%. Keyword:’ Prepaid kWh Meter, Short Message Service (SMS), Buzzer, Microcontroller ATMega16.’Abstrak –‘Pada saat ini masyarakat yang menggunakan listrik sebagai kebutuhan sehari-hari masih menggunakan metode yang telah ada pada sebelumnya , yaitu dengan cara membeli voucher listrik yang telah tersedia beberapa digit kode yang di masukan ke kwh meter prabayar melalui keypad. Cara tersebut dinilai kurang efektif dan kurang efisien dizaman yang telah mengalami banyak kemajuan terutama dalam bidang teknologi. Apalagi ketika pulsa listrik telah mencapai batas minimum kwh meter prabayar hanya memberikan peringatan sebatas bunyi alarm buzzer saja hal tersebut hanya bisa didengarkan oleh pelanggan jika sedang di dalam rumah. Sehingga pelanggan tidak dapat mengetahuinya jika pelanggan tersebut sedang di luar rumah. Secara otomatis pelanggan kwh meter pun tidak ada persiapan dalam mengatasi hal tersebut jika pngguna tidak ada di rumah. Maka dari itu penelitian yang akan di buat ini merupakan suatu alat prototype kwh meter prabayar berbasis Short Message Service (SMS). Selain dapat mengontrol sisa pulsa listrik secara jarak jauh alat ini juga nantinya dapat melakukan pengisian pulsa listrik tanpa harus memasukan kode voucher ke kwh meter secara langsung tetapi dengan alat ini pelanggan dapat melakukan pengisian dengan cara mengirimkan pesan singkat atau SMS yang telah di setting oleh pelanggan. Sistem yang terdapat di alat prototype kwh meter prabayar berbasis Short Message Service (SMS) ini, dikontrol oleh Mikrokontroler AVR atmega 16. Ketika nilai kwh meter prabayar menunjukan nilai 5 kwh, secara otomatis sistem ini langsung memberikan informasi sisa pulsa listrik kwh meter tersebut melalui pesan singkat atau SMS dan ditandai dngan bunyi buzzer serta indikator LED. Alat yang akan dibuat ini dinilai akan lebih efektif dan fleksibel. Dari hasil data penelitian yang telah di kumpulkan, dapat diketahui bahwa unjuk kerja kwh meter prabayar berbasis SMS dengan hasil pengujian keseluruhan berhasil dan presentase keberhasilan hampir mencapai 100%. Kata kunci : kWh Meter Prabayar, Short Message Service (SMS), Buzzer, Mikrokontroler ATMega16.â€

Design of Consumer Participative Device for Smart Grid Initiative

This paper will discuss about design of consumerparticipative device for smart grid initiative. Indonesia conditionis taken as the case, because smart grid initiative will depend onobject and environment condition. It is found that electricityprovider has difficulties to provide Advance MeteringInfrastructure (AMI), and that will be the area where consumermost probably be able to contribute for smart grid. As consumerdevice, it should be designed to give additional benefits forconsumer at affordable cost. Functionality requirements of thedevice for customer benefits are mapped. A smart meteringdevice is designed and proposed, which has capability to collectdata and report to electricity provider via IP network, withoutinterfering existing provider's traditional meter. It is based on alow cost microcontroller with GSM/GPRS communicationcapability and optional autoswitch function to alternative sourceof energy. The experiment is done by making the deviceprototype. It shows that customer benefits and cost constraintcan be achieved with proper design of the device, to make feasiblethis consumer participative device concept for smart gridinitiative

Design of Consumer Participative Device for Smart Grid Initiative

This paper will discuss about design of consumerparticipative device for smart grid initiative. Indonesia conditionis taken as the case, because smart grid initiative will depend onobject and environment condition. It is found that electricityprovider has difficulties to provide Advance MeteringInfrastructure (AMI), and that will be the area where consumermost probably be able to contribute for smart grid. As consumerdevice, it should be designed to give additional benefits forconsumer at affordable cost. Functionality requirements of thedevice for customer benefits are mapped. A smart meteringdevice is designed and proposed, which has capability to collectdata and report to electricity provider via IP network, withoutinterfering existing provider’s traditional meter. It is based on alow cost microcontroller with GSM/GPRS communicationcapability and optional autoswitch function to alternative sourceof energy. The experiment is done by making the deviceprototype. It shows that customer benefits and cost constraintcan be achieved with proper design of the device, to make feasiblethis consumer participative device concept for smart gridinitiative