Abstract
In recent years, electricity demand in South Africa
rises to approximate maximum supply capacity during peak
hours. A new tariff plan is proposed by Eskom to bill consumers
according to off-peak and peak times in an attempt to curb peaktime
loads. In this paper, the design of a smart distribution box
controller is proposed in order to assist consumers to control
or regulate energy consumption during off-peak and peak times.
The designed smart system assigns various loads to different
priorities and removes non-priority loads during peak times.
It also monitors the voltage, frequency, current and sunlight.
Results show 25 % reduction of energy consumption and cost
savings up to 40 % are possible with the use of smart distribution
box.