2017 2nd International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT)
Smart Energy Metering and Power Theft Control
using Arduino & GSM
Automated Smart Metering
Visalatchi S
Post Graduate Student
Department of Electrical Engineering
Zeal College of Engineering & Research
Narhe, Pune.
s.salatchi@gmail.com
Abstract—Energy theft is a very common problem in
countries like India where consumers of energy are increasing
consistently as the population increases. Utilities in electricity
system are destroying the amounts of revenue each year due to
energy theft. The newly designed AMR used for energy
measurements reveal the concept and working of new automated
power metering system but this increased the Electricity theft
forms administrative losses because of not regular interval
checkout at the consumer's residence. It is quite impossible to
check and solve out theft by going every customer’s door to door.
In this paper, a new procedure is followed based on
MICROCONTROLLER Atmega328P to detect and control the
energy meter from power theft and solve it by remotely
disconnect and reconnecting the service (line) of a particular
consumer. An SMS will be sent automatically to the utility
central server through GSM module whenever unauthorized
activities detected and a separate message will send back to the
microcontroller in order to disconnect the unauthorized supply.
A unique method is implemented by interspersed the GSM
feature into smart meters with Solid state relay to deal with the
non-technical losses, billing difficulties, and voltage fluctuation
complication.
Keywords— GSM, power theft, Smart meter, Nontechnical
losses, power monitoring, tampering, automatic billing.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electricity is one of the most important blessings that
science has given to mankind. But this energy used by
unauthorized person cause losses to utility and also pollutes
the environment. Losses in electricity energy sector can come
under two sets: technical and managerial. Technical losses of
electrical energy are caused due to the functional tendency of
the equipment used from generating station to the distributing
station. Non-Technical losses are due to lack of utility labor
interference periodically. These losses are much higher in
developing countries like India.
The proposed system consists of digital energy meter, an
Arduino (microcontroller), GSM modem and SSR. After
switching power on the Arduino and the GSM modem, turn on
the SSR and connects the energy meter to load via SSR. Then
read the EEPROM and display the current data. Arduino
978-1-5090-4307-1/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
Kamal Sandeep K
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
Zeal College of Engineering & Research
Narhe, Pune.
kamal.sandeep@zealeducation.com
checks the readings from voltage and two current sensors i.e.
PT and CT respectively. It measures the current sensor
difference between two CT, supply voltage variation from the
utility to protect the customer equipment. Solid state relay
will disconnect and reconnect the supply by the
microcontroller instruction given.
II. EXISTING SYSTEM: ENERGY METERING
A. Conventional System
Conventional System “Energy meters displays kilowatt-
hour by continuously measuring the instantaneous voltage
(volts) and current (amperes) to give energy used in joules’’.
[2]
The primary type of electricity meter is the
electromechanical induction meter and an electronic meter. In
electromechanical induction meter, the total number of
rotation of the aluminum disc is directly proportional to the
power consumed.
Electronic meters shows the power consumed, power
factor, the reactive power used digitally displayed on LCD or
LED display, and also able to send the energy consumed
readings to remote places through some communication
network. It is a single way communication.
In addition to measuring energy used, electronic meters
can also record other parameters of the load and supply such
as instantaneous and maximum rate of usage demands,
voltages, power factor and reactive power used etc [2].
“Traditionally, the electricity meters are installed on
consumer’s premises and the consumption information is
collected by meter-readers on their fortnightly or monthly
visits to the premises.”[2]
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 Drawbacks of the regular energy meter:
9 Highly depends on meter reader.
9 Human error cannot be avoided for the manual meter
reading.
9 Always there is no cross checking or recheck of human
readers for energy utilization.
9 High chance of stealing and bribery always high to
misuse it especially during events.
9 Possibility to change the reading when taking photos of
energy meter by using software tools.
9 More number of meter reading employees is extra
expenses to the company for hiring them and their
expense on traveling too expensive one.
9 Wherever energy meter installed inside the house, which
may lead to non-checking of reading due to lock.
9 The consumer is not receiving updates of his regular
usage of energy.
9 The consumer may not receive his energy bill as per
regular interval of the due date.
B. Proposed System
A smart energy meter works on communication directly
with wireless data protocol, so there will be precise reading &
there's no necessary for a meter reader to take energy meter
reading in consumer premises. Smart energy meters can
operate in divergent ways with GSM Module. There are so
many different merits of smart energy meter such as:
9 User new smart energy meters send precise reading on a
regular interval in sequence about customer’s energy
usage to utility (Electricity provider). So the bills will be
proper and labor cost is reduced for taking a reading in
consumer residents.
9 If the consumer did not pay the energy bill within time,
the utility can remotely disconnect the service (line) of a
particular consumer and after payment, the service
continues to the consumer. So we can avoid sending an
employee to cut off energy from the network and again to
reconnect their connection.
9 We have connected lever switch for tampering attempt
detect. When anyone tries to open the meter cover the
button will release and send information to the service
provider.
9 When the power quality is not maintained from the
distribution supply, then the customer equipment can be
protected by disconnecting and reconnecting to the supply
by SSR.
The proposed system consists of digital energy meter, an
Arduino (microcontroller), GSM modem and SSR. After
859
switching power on the Arduino and the GSM modem, turn on
the SSR and connects the energy meter to load via SSR. Then
read the EEPROM and display the current data. Arduino
checks the readings from voltage and current sensor i.e. PT
and CT respectively.
If there is any difference in value between CT’s connected
in phase and neutral line then Arduino turns OFF the relay
sends SMS to the service provider. Also, this Arduino helps
the utility for power disconnection when the bill is not cleared
by the customer. From customer point, this is a benefit to
monitoring their daily/monthly consumption, voltage
fluctuation and get disconnected from the supply.
III. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
The system architecture of Arduino and GSM based smart
energy meter is shown in the Fig. 1. The energy consumption
is being calculated using the energy meter IC and Arduino.
In order to prevent a power theft, detection program is
present in the Arduino. Arduino and GSM based smart energy
meter can be divided into several parts as Energy Meter IC,
LCD, Arduino, GSM modem, Relay, Optocoupler, Lever
switch, Display Unit and Power Supply Unit etc.
LCD
Energy
Meter
GSM
Module
MICRO-
Solid state CONTROLLER
ATMEGA328P
Relay
Lever
Switch
Load
Power
Supply
Fig-1: Architecture Diagram
Voltage Transformer or Potential Transformer
Potential transformers are also called as voltage
transformers. It is fundamentally step down transformers very
accurate turn’s ratio. A standard measuring device used to
measure the change in high magnitude to lower voltage for
step down transformer. It works in technique with more
number of primary turns and less number of secondary turns.
Higher value voltage and current cannot be measured directly.
So we need one voltage sensor and two current sensors for the
proposed system.
Fig-2: Voltage Transformer
.
Fig-3: Solid State Relay
To connect and disconnect the supply a relay is used. To
blown away the various disadvantages for the electrical relay,
alternative relay type called a Solid State Relay or (SSR) can
be established which is a solid state contactless, pure
electronic relay.
“The SSR is completely an electronic device which has no
moving parts with its design. The mechanical contacts have
been replaced with power transistors parts, thyristors or
triac’s. The electrical partition between the input control and
the output load voltage is adept with the optocoupler
type Light Sensor.”[3]
However, being a semiconductor device they must be
anchored onto perfect heat sinks to avoid expected output
switching semiconductor device from overheating.
Fig-4: MICROCONTROLLER Atmega328P
“The high-performance Atmel picoPower 8-bit AVR
RISC-based microcontroller combines 32KB ISP flash
860
memory with read-while-write capabilities, 1024B EEPROM,
2KB SRAM, 23 general purposes I/O lines, 32 general
purpose working registers, three flexible timer/counters with
compare modes, internal and external interrupts, serial
programmable USART”[4]
Fig-5: GSM Module
“GSM/GPRS module establishes communication among a
computer & GSM-GPRS system. Global System for Mobile
communication (GSM) is a structural design used for mobile
cellular communication in most of the countries. GSM
modems possess together with power supply and
communication interfaces (like RS-232, USB, etc) for the
computer. The MODEM is the soul of such modules are
Sim900A-RS232” [5]
IV. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION
Conventional single phase energy meter use one current
sensor and voltage sensor to estimate the KWhr consumed by
the electrical load by the product of current and voltage.
During unauthorized tapping in the lines then any of these
sensors gives zero value and certainly the product of voltage
and current will also be zero resulting in no energy measured
in the energy meter. [7].
By connecting one more current sensor with solid state
relay with minimal variation in the energy meter helps to track
down power theft, connect/disconnect the supply. A constant
5V DC supply given to Microcontroller and LCD unit.
Communication will be connected between microcontroller
and utility center through GSM modem. Lever switch
provided to detect the physical disturbance (tampering) given
to the smart meter. To track down the unauthorized loads
tapped before the meter is beyond the scope of this proposed
concept.

Fig-6: AVR system Implementation Circuit Diagram
V. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT
Arduino programs are used to write in any programming
language with a compiler concept that produces executable
binary machine code. Atmel affords an improvement of this
environment for proposed system’s microcontrollers, AVR
Studio and the newer Atmel Studio.
The Arduino development using project with IDE works
on cross-platform application concepts in Java. IDE is useful
for a beginner of any programming languages.
Arduino programmer called as Sketch. Arduino library
most useful to add many readymade predefined inputs to our
project. It supports C & C++ using special organize code.
“A typical Arduino C/C++ sketch consist of two functions
that are compiled and linked with a program stub main() into
an executable cyclic executive program:
setup(): is used for initializing settings which run one time
at the start of a program.
loop(): is used to run the same function multiple times till
the board powers off.”[6]
CONCLUSION
This paper is the combined hardware advantage for both
utility and the customer. Arduino, SSR, and GSM stationed
Energy Meter for smart metering, power theft detection, and
voltage variation is built which is able to read and send data
via wireless protocol using GSM technology through GSM
modem, capable of managing and controlling the supply to
that meter through SSR. In the case of power theft, defaulter
meter line cutting/joining labor system is reduced. Power
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consumption, power quality, and its accuracy can be
monitored by the consumers directly in their mobile. This
process will reduce the labor work and human error in the
distribution system and also protect the consumer equipment.
References
[1] Dineshkumar.K, “Development of ARM Processor based Electricity
Theft Control System using GSM Network”, 2015 International
Conference on Circuit, Power and Computing Technologies [ICCPCT]
[2] Md. Masudur Rahman; Noor-E-Jannat; Mohd. Ohidul Islam; Md.
Serazus Salakin, “Arduino and GSM Based Smart Energy Meter for
Advanced Metering and Billing System” 2nd Int'l Conf. on Electrical
Engineering and Information & Communication Technology (ICEEICT)
2015 Jahangimagar University, Dhaka-I 342, Bangladesh, 21-23 May
2015
[3] http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_5.htm retrieved on 21/12/2016.
[4] http://www.atmel.com/devices/ATMEGA328P.aspx retrieved on
21/12/2016
[5] http://www.engineersgarage.com/articles/gsm-gprs-modules retrieved on
21/12/2016
[6] http://cyborg.nitrkl.ac.in/assets/publication/tutorial/id_number_37.pdf
retrieved on 21/12/2016
[7] Nabil Mohammad, Anomadarshi Barua, and Muhammad Abdullah
Arafat, “A smart prepaid energy metering system to control electricity
theft”, in proceedings of International Conference on Power, Energy and
Control (ICPEC), vol.562, no.565, pp.6-8, Feb.2013.
Visalatchi Senthilnathan was born in Chennai, T.N, and India.
She received B.E degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering
from the Crescent College of Engineering (Anna University),
Chennai, T.N, India and M.B.A degree in HR from SVCET (Anna
University), Chennai T.N, India. She is having 2 years working
experience as a Network engineer from The World Bank (IBRD), Chennai.
Pursuing master degree M.E in Power System from Zeal College of
Engineering, Pune (Savitribai Phule Pune University).
Kamal Sandeep Karreddula was born in Guntur, A.P, and India.
He received B.Tech degree in Electrical & Electronics
Engineering from the Vignan's Engineering College , Guntur, A.P,
India, in 2007(JNTU), & M.Tech degree in Control Systems -
(COEP), Pune, MH, India, in 2009. From 2009-12, he worked as a
Lecturer in AP State, and in 2012 he worked as a Lecturer in
Abhinav Engineering College, (Shivaji University), in 2013 he worked as an
Assistant Professor in NESGOI, (University of Pune). Since 2014, he has been
with Electrical Engineering Department, ZCOER, (Savitribai Phule Pune
University) as an Assistant Professor. He taught different subjects for UG and
PG students. He is the Technical consultant for emerging start-ups like
InnovatorsGuru and White Phoenix Technologies, India. His current research
interests include Control Systems, Power Electronics, Industrial
Measurements and Instrumentation, Alternate Energy Sources, Robotics and
Numerical Methods.