Abstract
M.Tech. (Electrical Engineering)
A new generation smart meter was developed in this research investigation that can be used for domestic electricity management. The developed smart meter can measure electricity consumption and the measurements are available to the consumer using a mobile phone with android application installed or SMS application from anywhere in the world. The medium of communication between the smart meter and the mobile phone is a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). With the mobile phone, the smart meter can also be recharged remotely where there is GSM coverage. This smart meter also enables electricity consumers to manage their appliances remotely via GSM. After the development of the smart meter, the developed smart meter was used to collect empirical data on the electrical energy consumed by the load during 20-minute intervals over a period of 6 hours. This is compared with the expected energy consumption. The electrical load that we used in this study are three 11 W domestic light bulbs. The empirical data collected by the smart meter is used to calculate the electrical energy accuracy recorded against the expected energy consumed. Empirical data on electrical energy consumption was also collected using other commercially available smart meters. The same data collected by individual smart meters was used to calculate the accuracy of the electrical energy reported for the same load measured by the commercial smart meters. Lastly, the electrical energy accuracy of the smart meter developed was compared with the electrical energy accuracy of the smart meters being rolled out. The findings indicate the improved accuracy of the developed smart meter compared to the commercially available smart meters. Finally, the reliability of the communication technology (GSM) used on the smart meter was tested by simulating the BER (Bit Error Rate), the bits received in error compared to the transmitted bits.