AN ELCTRONIC PROJECT

ON

PREPAID ENERGY
METER
SESSION: 2016-2017

M.Sc. Applied Physics

IV Semester

Submitted To:

Ms. Sarika Mehta

(Asst. Prof. In Applied Physics Dept.)

Submitted By:

KIRTI SHARMA

Roll No: - 152972

M.Sc. Applied Physics (IV Sem)

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Our overriding debt is to Dr. Harsh Mohan (HOD, Applied Physics Department) and
Ms. Sarika Mehta (Assistant Professor) for their valuable guidance all through the successful
completion of the project. We are extremely thankful to them for providing us all the guidance
and support. Their constant encouragement and appraisal has helped us a lot in completing the
project.

KIRTI SHARMA
Roll No. : - 152972
M.Sc. Final Applied Physics
 CONTENTS

 Introduction………………………..................................................1
 Block diagram of Prepaid Energy Meter………………………....1
 Aim of the project………………………………………………....2
 Working Principle of Prepaid Energy Meter………………………3
 Circuit Diagram……………………………………………………4
 Description of components used…...................................................5
 Soldering and Desoldering………………………………………..10
 Advantages of Prepaid Energy Meter……………………………..11
 Disadvantages of Prepaid Energy Meter…………………………..11
 Applications of Prepaid Energy Meter…………………………….11
 Conclusion and Future Scope……………………………………...12
 INTRODUCTION

OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT

Prepaid energy meter is an advantageous concept for the future. This advancing technology
overhead the conventional digital meters at home. It facilitates the exemption from electricity
bills. Electricity coupons will be available at nearby shops. Maximum units to be used are
programmed. This data is given by IC 8051 which is connected to energy meter. 8051 is
programmed to decrease the maximum units as a response to the info from the digital energy
meter. Buzzer is used to warn the user. When maximum use is made, relay will cut off and
controller has to be reset.

BLOCK DIAGRAM:

Fig 1: Block diagram of prepaid energy meter.

AIM OF THE PROJECT:

The aim of the project is to design a prepaid energy meter to monitor the consumption of
electricity in domestic needs. The standard business model of electricity retailing involves the
electricity company billing the customer for the amount of energy used in the previous month or
quarter. Here analog energy meter is replaced by a digital energy meter.
The digital energy meter used here is a high accuracy, low cost, single phase power meter based
on the ADE7757. The meter is designed for use in single phase 2 wire distribution system. A
relay is connected in between power lines and the load. The relay is controlled by the primary
controller. The primary controller collects information from digital meter as well as from the
smart card. Smart card gives the information about the limitations of the units. The digital energy
meter reading is compared with the smart card information by the primary controller and hence
suitably primarily controller controls the relay.
WORKING PRINCIPLE:
Over the last few years, Prepaid Energy Meter has been proposed as an innovative solution
aimed at facilitating affordability and reducing the cost of utilities. Prepaid energy meters are
usually installed by electricity suppliers, if it feels that the customer cannot keep up payments of
their energy bills. However, they can also be requested by the customers themselves – and are
often seen as a good method of budgeting. From a technological point of view, the prepayment
system consists of three well differentiated components.

1) The first is service meter installed at the unit where energy will be consumed, such as a
household dwelling or a store. In general, these meters are of the “two – gang” type, and
consist of a user’s interface unit and a current measuring set. The interface unit is a device
installed inside the building, which allows the user to “interact” with the meter. The metering
unit, on the other hand, is the intelligent component that stores credit and consumption
information, and makes up the element that either clears or switches of the electricity supply.

2) The second component of the system is so called credit dispensing unit, which is the vending
machine where consumers can purchase electricity credit. In general, these sales outlets are
located at the utility’s management system. Every user can buy a memory card (is nothing
but an EPROM IC) with a password stored in it using a MC program. The memory card is
available at various ranges (i.e. Rs. 50, Rs. 100, Rs.200 etc.). In our project we have given
the name of memory card as a smart card. When the consumer insert a smart card into the
card reader which is connected in prepaid energy meter with tariff indicator kit. The card
reader will read the stored information and delete the information from the EPROM IC
(smart card) using the MC program. So that the smart card cannot be reused by the others.
According to the power consumption the amount will be reduced. When the amount is over,
the relays will automatically shut down the whole system.

3) Microcontroller AT89S52 acts as the primary controller. The primary controller collects
information from energy meter as well as from smart card which is IC AT24C02 (EPROM
chip). Smart card gives information about the limitation of units. The energy meter reading is
compared with the smart card information by the primary controller. Depending on the result,
the primary controller will activate the buzzer if the credit is low and the controller will
trigger the relay if the credit goes very low. Once the relay is triggered, the electricity supply
will be cut. The supply will start again only when the meter is recharged with enough credit.
CIRCUIT DIAGRAM:

Fig 2: Circuit diagram of prepaid energy meter.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPONENTS USED:

1. POWER SUPPLY:
IC7805: 7805 is a voltage regulator integrated circuit. It is member of 78xx series of fixed linear
voltage regulator ICs. The voltage source in a circuit may have fluctuations and would not give
the fixed voltage output. The voltage regulator IC maintains the output voltage it is designed to
provide +5V regulated power supply. Capacitors of suitable values can be connected at input and
output pins depending upon the respective voltage levels.

2. MICROCONTROLLER AT89S52:
The power down mode saves the ELSE but freezes the oscillator, disabling all. The AT89S52 is
a low power, self confidence CMOS 8-bit microcontroller with 8K bytes of in system
programmable flash memory. The device is manufactured using Atmel’s high density variable
memory technology and is compatible with the industry standard 80C51 instruction set and pin
out. The on chip flash allows the program memory to be re-programmed in system or by a
conventional non volatile memory programmer. By combining a versatile 8-bit CPU within
system programmable flash on a monolithic chip, the AT89S52 is a powerful microcontroller
which provides a highly flexible and cost effective solution to many embedded control
applications. The AT89S52 provides the following standard features:
a. 8K bytes of flash
b. 256 bytes of RAM
c. 32 I/O lines
d. Watchdog timer
e. Two data pointers
f. Three 16-bit timer/counters
g. A six vector two-level interrupt architecture
h. A full duplex serial port
i. On chip oscillator
j. Clock circuitry
In addition, the AT89S52 is designed with static logic for operation down to zero frequency and
supports two software selectable power saving modes. The idle mode stops the CPU while
allowing the RAM, timer/counters, serial port, and interrupt system to continue functioning other
chip functions until the next interrupt or hardware reset.
3. LIQUID CRYSTAL DSLAY (LCD):
LCD (Liquid crystal display) screen is an electronic display module and find a wide range of
applications. A 16*2 LCD display is a very basic module and is very commonly used in various
devices and circuits. A 16*2 LCD means it can display 16 characters on 5*7 pixel matrix. This
LCD has two registers, namely, COMMAND and DATA. The command registers stores the
command instructions given to the LCD. A command is an instruction given to LCD to do a
predefined task like initializing it, clearing its screen, setting the cursor position, controlling
display etc. The data register stores the data to be displayed on the LCD. The data is the ASCII
value of the character to be displayed on the LCD.

4. RELAY DRIVER IC ULN2003:

The ULN2003 is a monolithic high voltage and high current Darlington transistor arrays. It
consists of seven NPN Darlington pairs that feature high-voltage outputs with common cathode
clamp diode clamp for switching inductive loads. The collector current rating of a single
Darlington pair is 500 mA . The Darlington pairs may be paralleled for high current capability.
Applications include relay drivers, hammer drivers, lamp drivers, display drivers etc. The
ULN2003 has a 2.7k series base resistor for each Darlington pair for operation directly with TTL
OR 5VCMOS devices.

5. CARD READER:
A card reader is a data input device that reads data from a card-shape storage medium.
Historically, paper or cardboard punched cards were used throughout the first several decades of
the computer industry to store information and write programs for computer system, and these
were read by punched card readers. Most modern card readers are electronic devices that use
plastic cards imprinted with barcodes, magnetic strips, and computer chips or other storage
medium.
6. RESISTORS:
Resistors are used as a part of electrical network and electronic circuit. There are special types of
resistors whose resistance varies with various quantities. Like the resistance of thermistors varies
greatly with temperature whether external or due to dissipation, so they can be used for
temperature and current sensing.
A resistor is a two terminal electronic ohmic component designed to oppose an electric current
by producing a voltage drop between its terminals in proportion to the current, i.e. in accordance
with Ohm’s Law: V= IR . The resistance R is equals to the voltage drop V across the resistor
divided by the current I through the resistor. S.I unit = Ω

Fig 3: Resistors

7. CAPACITORS:
A capacitor is a passive electrical component that can store energy in the electric field between a
pair of conductors. The process of storing energy in the capacitor is called as “charging”, and
involves electric charges of equal magnitude, but opposite polarity, building up on each plate. A
capacitor’s ability to store charge is measured by its capacitance, in units of FARADS.
Capacitors are also called as “condensers”. These are used in electronic circuits as energy-
storage devices. They can also be used to differentiate between high and low frequency signals.
These have series resistance, internal leakage of charge and series inductance.

Fig 4: Capacitors
8. CRYSTAL OSCILLATOR:
It is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of
piezoelectric material to create an electric signal with a very precise frequency. This frequency is
commonly used to keep track of time, to provide stable clock signal for digital integrated circuits
and to stabilize frequencies for radio transmitters and receivers. The most common type of
piezoelectric resonator used is the quartz crystal so oscillator circuits designed around them are
known as “crystal oscillators”.

Fig 5: Crystal Oscillator

9. LED (LIGHT EMITTING DIODE):

LED emits light when an electric current passes through them. It can be damaged by heat while
soldering but the risk is small unless you are very small. LEDs are available in red, orange,
green, blue and white. Blue and white LEDs are more expensive than others.

Fig 6: Symbol of LED

10. ENERGY METER:
It is a device that measures amount of electricity consumed by residence, business or an
electrically powered device. Commercial use of energy meter started in 1880’s.

Fig. 7: Energy Meter

11. PCB (PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD):

PCB is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using
conducting pathways, or traces, etched from copper sheets laminated on a non conductive
substrate. These are rugged, inexpensive and are highly reliable.

Fig 8: General purpose PCB.

SOLDERING AND DESOLDERING:
Soldering is a process of joining two or more metals at a temperature below their melting point
using filler metal having melting point below 450ºC.
1. Clean the 2 surfaces to be soldered thoroughly so that surfaces are free from all dust
particles, grease, oil and chemicals etc. preparation of components lead is done.
2. The component lead may get rusted during storage. It is difficult to solder such leaded
components. Thus leads of such components of wires need to be tinned.
3. Apply small amount of flux on the surface to be soldered. Select an iron bit of correct size
and temperature.
4. Clean the tip of soldering iron with sponge. Select correct gauge of solder. Ensure the
eutectic combination (63% tin & 37% lead) is used.
5. Apply the soldering iron to the joint from one side. Heat up the surface to be soldered.
6. Apply solder directly to the component and not the tip of soldering iron. The joint should
give a shiny bead like appearance. If not, apply a little more flux and reheat the joint.
7. Extra length of component leads may be cut off with the help of a suitable cutter.

Fig 9: Soldering
Desoldering wicks contain plenty of flux that will lift the contamination from the copper trace
any device leads that are present. This will leave a bright, shiny, clean junction to be resoldered.
ADVANTAGES OF PREPAID ENERGY METER:

1. Pay before use

2. Lower overheads
3. No bill production
4. No bill distribution
5. No need to chase payments

DISADVANTAGES OF PREPAID ENERGY METER:

1. Because of the huge electronic hardware involved in the system, the overall system
consumes more electric energy.
2. Since it is a prototype module, because of huge hardware the system occupies more
space.
3. The consumer or the electrical department has to spend more accounts for installing this
kind of smart energy meters. Economically it is not advanced.

APPLICATIONS OF PREPAID ENERGY METER:

1. In homes
2. In malls
3. In hospitals
4. In industries and factories
5. In rental accommodation
6. In festivals where electricity is required only for few days.
 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE
CONCLUSION:
 Prepaid energy meter with tariff indicator is a concept to minimize the electricity thefts with
a cost effective manner.
 The users are not bound to pay excess amount of money, users have to pay according to
their requirement.
 It can reduce problem associated with billing consumer living in isolated areas and reduces
development of manpower for taking meter readings.
 Prepaid energy meter with tariff indicator is more reliable and user friendly.

FUTURE SCOPE:
 The prepaid energy meter for India, has the potential to change the future of the energy
billing system in India. It could help the energy distribution companies to reduce costs and
increase profits, improve billing accuracy and efficiency and contribute to the energy
sustainability.
 The recharge method used here can be replaced with the GSM modems and can be extended
to make the energy billing system more wide spread and make it one system for the entire
state.
 The mode of payments by the users can be extended to credit cards, internet based
payments, ATM centers etc. This makes the recharging system simpler and eliminating the
need for customers to go to recharge centers allowing the user any time recharge.
 Instead of recharging the chip, the readily available recharge cards (smart cards) can be
introduced which will enable easier recharging of meters. These cards can be made available
at all super markets, grocery shops etc.
REFERENCES:

1. www.wikipedia.com

2. www.google.com

3. Basic Electronics - B L Thereja

4. Electronic Devices And Devices - Sanjeev Gupta