2021 IEEE International Women in Engineering (WIE) Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (WIECON-ECE)
Proposed Smart Power Monitoring System for
Home through GSM Module
Irin Akter
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
American International UniversityBangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
email: akteririn427@gmail.com
Ummay Afrina Jahan Sutapa
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
American International UniversityBangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
email: afrina.jahan04@gmail.com
Md. Ashikur Rahman
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
American International UniversityBangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
email: ashik.er009@gmail.com
Md. Rifat Shahriar
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
American International UniversityBangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
email: rifatshah098@gmail.com
Abstract— The smart power monitoring system is the newest
revolution in modern technology. Over the years, the traditional
metering system has proven to be very time-consuming,
expensive, error-prone, highly person dependent, and generally
ineffective due to topology and human factors, among other
things. This research aims to use the smart energy meter with a
reading indication by using the global system for mobile
communication (GSM). It has been developed to decrease the
electricity consumption bill by providing the energy meter
reading to the user with an alert message after using over the
month of energy. We have designed a prototype model as well
for the proposed system. GSM will send the information
through a short message service (SMS) to the consumer’s mobile
phone; how much energy has been used and if a bill has been
generated for the used power over the month. The used power
will also be shown in the liquid crystal display (LCD) whenever
it increases with usage. And the monthly bill payment date will
be sent through SMS on the consumer’s phone. The Arduino
will send the monthly bill information, and this information will
be designed through the code that may update automatically.
With this new system, consumers are confident that they are not
being exploited, rogue customers are shut off, and the
considerable revenue loss inherent in the traditional metering
system is wholly avoided.
Keywords— smart meter, digital monitoring, ATmega
avr328P, GSM, proteus design suite
I. INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh has been lacking since the beginning of the
world is starting to be digitalized. With fast advancements in
wireless communication systems and the usage of
microcontrollers, numerous advances have been made in
automation in different industrial elements to save manpower.
We have seen a major transformation in technology and its
impact on our everyday lives during the last twenty years.
Technology and the web are utilized in almost every aspect of
our existence to make it easier and faster. This transformation
enabled individuals with access to computers or mobile
devices with internet connectivity to share information at a
glance, enabling them to self-teach practically anything [1].
There is an app introduced by the Bangladesh government to
check electricity bills which is “Dhaka Electric Supply
Company Limited (DESCO) Finance” on 23 February 2012.
978-1-6654-7849-6/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE
Shishir Roy
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
American International UniversityBangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
email: ashruroy14@gmail.com
This app calculates the monthly bill and shows the balance
available in the account and gives the facility to recharge the
balance of a prepaid meter. But it does not send any
notification or SMS to the consumer [2]. It is a very important
part for the user because a notification can save them from
running out of power at midnight. If the account balance is
finished at midnight, they cannot recharge as all the shops are
closed or the user might not have money in their bank account
or online account, so they have to suffer all night. Only a
notification can save this situation. Moreover, in
underdeveloped countries, most people are illiterate enough
that they cannot operate a smartphone properly or use the apps
wisely. For them, this is the easiest thing to give updates on
through a small SMS. This research's motivation comes from
a desire to avoid these types of unwanted or critical
circumstances.
Traditional manual meter reading was not suited for longterm operation because it consumes a significant amount of
time and human resources. It adds to the difficulties of
individually calculating measurements and charging [3].
Electricity is one of the most important sectors, where so many
revolutions have taken place already. To make the sector
enriching and the lifestyle easier, the smart monitoring system
can have a huge impact on the digital world. Whether
electricity or energy, a meter measuring the utilization of
power in residences, businesses, or electrically powered
devices is a measuring instrument that reads and shows, a
smart energy meter (SEM) is an electronic device that includes
an energy meter device for measuring electronic energy
consumption, a cellular technology for data transfer (like
GSM module), and peripherals for safety, data presentation,
and meter management, among other things [4]. With this
system, the old metering system can be replaced which will be
easy to operate and give an accurate result. Through the
system, overall power can be calculated and consumed by
different loads. This project is also able to send a quick
notification of monthly bills through SMS, which is an
advanced feature of this project.
II. BACKGROUND STUDY
Many initiatives were formerly created to provide a better
and problem-free surveillance system. "Innovation was the
technique of major development in the nineteenth century."
This principle from Alfred North Whitehead, the English
mathematician, and philosopher (1891-1947), relates well to
the chronology of electrical meters improvements, utilizing a
sequence of creations that expand on accomplishments and
encourage future growth. Remarkable findings in
electromagnetics were brought in the first half of the 19th
century. In 1820, Andre-Marie Ampere from France (17751836) found the electrodynamic interaction of current flow.
Georg Simon Ohm (1787-1854) from Germany found the
connection between voltage and current in a conductor in
1827. The rule on induction was developed in 1831 by British
Michael Faraday (1791-1867) depending on the behavior of
generators and motor transformers. The first meter was the
lamp hour meter, patented by Samual Gardiner (USA) in
1872.
Fig. 1 shows Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), who
introduced the first electrical distribution systems for lighting
using direct current, held that electricity must be sold just like
gas – also used for lighting at that time. His ‘electric meter’
patented in 1881 (USA patent No. 251,545) used the
electrochemical effect of current. It contained an electrolytic
cell, into which an accurately weighed strip of copper was
placed at the beginning of the billing period. The current
passing through the electrolyte caused the deposition of
copper. At the end of the billing period, the copper strip was
weighed again, and the difference represented the amount of
electricity that had passed through. The meter was calibrated
so that the bills could be rendered in cubic feet of gas [5].
analysis to build a smart meter and smart grid [9]. There were
so many conditions and situations that were applied to perform
this analysis, and moreover, they have only shown a way to
make their research successful but are unable to design any
prototype. Finally, they mentioned completing this project
through construction in the future. Then it will be completed
and can be applied in the home. Where our project is
completely built and shows the way people can apply it in their
real life. Kumaresan P has published a paper regarding the
same topic entitled “Smart Home: Energy Measurement and
Analysis” [10]. They claimed that their smart meter could be
replaced with an old power energy meter during the metering
process. Home appliance power consumption can be shown
and controlled with various sensors. This is a good idea, but
in this fast era, people may not have this much time to see
which appliances are using how much power, then control
them individually. Other than this, everybody does not
understand these readings or calculations. Our aim is to reach
everyone, from urban to rural, and give them the advantage of
making life easy. Everyone likes to do their work within a
short period of time, so it’s better to have one read and notify
them about the charge so that they can pay their bill on time
without extra charges.
III. SYSTEM DESIGN
Fig. 2, system architecture, shows the process by which the
circuit is developed on the breadboard. The load will be
connected to the Arduino and the voltage and current sensors
will be connected through the Arduino to the load it will
calculate the power. The power supply will be given to the
Arduino then the motor will generate power that will be
calculated by Arduino. Power, current, and voltage will be
calculated by the code developed on the Arduino. After
calculating all the data, it will send those data to the LCD that
will show the power consumed by the load. The Arduino will
send the total bill after calculating the used power to the GSM
module.
Fig. 1. Edison’s patent no. 251,545 [5]
A. Traditional Electricity Meters and Types
There are several sorts of meters. Even while the timely
development of energy meters aids consumers in gaining
knowledge about power usage, consumption data cannot be
modified. The following are some of the most common types
of electricity meters [6]: 1. Electrolytic Meter 2. Commutator
Meter 3. Mercury Motor Meter 4. D.C Watt Hour Meter 5.
Single Phase Induction Meter 6. Poly-Phase Watt Hour Meter
[7].
B. Earlier Research
There are lots of researchers who have worked with smart
meters in the last couple of years. Like “Usage Monitoring of
Electrical Devices in a Smart Home” by Saba Rahimi, this
project was built to analyze the loads connected to the meter
by adding sensors to each device [8]. But the total energy was
not evaluated for this project nor the bill according to power
consumption by the loads. Again, “Home Energy
Management System internetworking with Advanced
Metering Infrastructure’’ by Jeong In Lee proposed this thesis
Fig. 2. System architecture [11]
IV. SIMULATED AND HARDWARE RESULT
Here, Fig. 3 shows the simulation obtained from the
Proteus design suite software. Before designing the prototype,
we verified through this software whether our design was
going to work perfectly or not. The Arduino will generate a
signal after giving the power supply to it, and the GSM will
also connect to the power supply. After some milliseconds of
delay, the Arduino and GSM will be ready to use and send
information. The Arduino will give power to the motor, and
the motor's current and voltage will be measured by the
current and voltage sensors. Here, the voltage sensor is
developed using the divider rule to measure the motor voltage.
The total power is calculated by Arduino. The microcontroller
IC is added only to make easy use of the Arduino pin. The 12v
motor is converted into 5v because the microcontroller cannot
calculate more than 5v. The calculated data will be sent to
GSM, and GSM will finally send the bill to the consumer’s
phone.
Fig. 3. Generated circuit from proteus design suite
In Fig. 4, the microcontroller ATmega avr328P is used over
the Arduino so that we can easily use the Arduino pin from
the outside. The current sensor (ACS712T) is connected to its
analog pin and Arduino’s PC2/ADC2 pin, and Vdd is
connected. The current sensor analog pin relates to Arduino’s
PC1/ADC1 pin or A1 pin. The motor is related to two resistors
that are connected in series. Then the other side is grounded to
the motor. Resistors series connection relates to the Arduino’s
PC0/ADC0 or A0 pin, and the second resistor is grounded on
the breadboard. Another voltmeter relates to the
relates to PD7/AN1 pin of the Arduino. And the last D3 pin
relates to PD6/AN0 pin of the Arduino.
V. MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS
A. Power and Energy Analysis
Power:
Power is product of voltage (v) and current (A)
P=V * I
Watt=P/1000
Unit of power is watt or kilowatt.
Energy:
Energy is product of power (watt) and time (hour).
E= P * t
kWh= (watt * time)/3600
Unit of energy is watt hour or kilowatt hour (kWh) [12].
B. Voltage & Current Measurement
Voltage is measured with the help of a voltage divider
circuit. As the ARDUINO analog pin input voltage is
restricted to 5V, the circuit designed the voltage divider in
such a way that the output voltage from it should be less than
5V. A Hall Effect current sensor, ACS 712 (20 A) is used to
measure current. In the breadboard diagram, an electrical
motor is shown as a load, but the actual load is different.
Fig. 5, the flowchart shows the workflow of the research,
we need to switch on the battery first then the system will
Fig. 4. Implemented circuit
A3(PC3/ADC3) pin of the Arduino. The GSM SIM900 RX
pin relates to the TX pin of Arduino which can also be defined
as PD1/TXD. The TX pin of GSM relates to RX(PD0/RXD)
pin of the Arduino. In Vdd in voltage supply has been given
and GND is grounded. The GSM is a bidirectional kit, and it
is used to send SMS in phone with monthly bill and the
payment date also. The LCD (16*2) is used to show the
voltage current and power rating in the display. The Vdd (pin
no. 2) and E| (pin no. 6) of the LCD is connected to the
voltage supply. D0 pin from the LCD relates to the
PB1/CC1A pin of the Arduino. D1 pin relates to
PB0/CP1/CLKO pin of the Arduino. D2 pin of the LCD
Fig. 5. Flowchart of Proposed Power Monitoring System
start to run. Then the voltage and current will be calculated
through sensors, it will calculate power in watts. After finding
the power, it will be converted into energy using the, E = P *
t equation. Where ‘t’ will be calculated in milliseconds and
the output energy will be found in kWh. Energy will be
calculated until 30 days are finished. Here, total energy =
1+2+3+.........+30 represents the summation of 30days
energy. After that, Arduino will make a decision if it is a yes
then it will send the energy reading and total bill to GSM.
Then GSM will notify the user through SMS. If it is a no, then
it will return to the beginning. Then the system will continue
to work with this flow for all the time. Fig. 6, shows the final
result concept.
TABLE I.
Serial
1
2
3
4
5
Voltage
(V)
1.52
1.84
1.99
2.18
2.45
ENERGY ANALYSIS STRUCTURE OF METER
Current
(A)
1.73
1.92
2.24
2.50
2.76
Power
(W)
2.6296
3.5328
4.4576
5.4500
2.5520
Time (s)
30
60
120
150
210
Energy
(kWh)
0.0219
0.0589
0.1486
0.2271
0.39445
During the simulations and analysis, the results confirmed that
an intelligent monitoring system could change the old energy
monitoring system with a new revolution. It solves the
problem of manual meter reading. It provides additional
features such as unit cost monitoring, total power monitoring,
bill monitoring, and an SMS alert on several operations in the
system. Consumers can get monthly bill reminders via SMS
on the authenticated number. And the database can store the
current month and the previous month's data in the system.
The government gets a chance to establish a new electronics
sector.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank Sabbir Muhammad Saleh, PhD
student of the Department of Computer Science, University of
Western Ontario for his direction and encouragement in all of
our research works.
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Fig. 6. GSM SMS
VI. FUTURE SCOPE
The proposed project has a large-scale future scope to
work further. The device can be developed based on a mobile
application instead of GSM. Along with that, an alarm system
can be added to the device so that consumers can get a quick
notification if the phone is not in their hand. The system can
also be modified to control loads of a home. It is also possible
to build a system for adjusting power factors and surveillance
energy efficiency. We can be able to determine that mobile
and web consumers are growing fast and frequently in
Bangladesh [13]. We are also planning some software services
for smartphones (as it is growing are so vast in our country as
well as all over the world) through “Service Oriented
Architecture” framework and the software.
VII. DISCUSSIONS & CONCLUSIONS
Nowadays, life is getting more comfortable and more
accessible with the help of modern technology. In this work,
an intelligent energy monitoring system is presented. The
project is based on GSM to make an old energy meter into an
innovative energy monitoring system. Intelligent energy
monitoring has been established after discussing all the
limitations and drawbacks. The proposed design was
simulated and constructed, and the circuit was run and proven.
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