Smart Prepaid Energy Metering System To Detect Energy Theft With Facility For Real Time Monitoring

ABSTRACT

Electricity theft remains a huge loss incurred by electricity distribution companies. This theft arises majorly because of activities carried out by consumers such as energy-meter by-passing, energy-meter tampering etc. This research study offers an approach for handling energy meter by-passing and tampering. The system design is based on the monitoring of the readings of two current sensors by a programmed microcontroller. While one of the current sensors monitors the current drawn by the user’s load, the latter installed   before   the   meter   monitors   current   drawn   by   all   loads. Any discrepancy between the values read, indicates theft. A momentary switch is also installed in the meter to trigger the meter once it is tampered with. Furthermore, the user is provided with a remote access to the energy meter for recharging energy units and for monitoring energy consumption. It was observed that the system accurately measured load consumption and detect any attempt to by-pass or tamper with the energy meter. Lastly, all unscrupulous attempts were reported using GSM technology.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWELDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

1.0      INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
• ORGANIZATION OF THE WORK

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• REVIEW OF THE STUDY
• Electricity Theft Mechanisms
• Causes of Electricity Theft
• Existing Ways of Tackling Electricity Theft
• Electricity Theft Identification in Distribution System
• Review of Related Works

CHAPTER THREE

3.0    METHODOLOGY

3.1      SYSTEM BLOCK

3.2      BLOCK DESCRIPTION

3.3      SYSTEM FLOW CHART

3.3      CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

3.4      LIST OF COMPONENTS USED

3.5      PROGRAMING EXPLANATION

3.6      POWER SUPPLY UNIT

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0  RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

It is impossible for an electric power system to be 100% free from theft. In 1999, Transparency International revealed that close to 15% of the generated power is lost as a result of electricity theft. For instance, between 1998 and 1999, in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), after generating about 14,600 MWhr of electricity, could only account for 11,462 MWhr of billed energy, reflecting a total loss of about 22% [1]. In developing countries like Nigeria, electricity theft remains one of the major problems being faced by the power sector of which the government has little or no control over due to lack of the required technology. While the implementation of Automatic Metering Infrastructure (AMI) has eliminated the need for meter readers, it has adversely increased non-technical losses incurred by power utility companies [2]. It is estimated that Nigeria’s grid has a total transmission and distribution (T&D) losses of about 40% which is tremendously high when compared to United States whose T&D losses are at 7% [3, 4]. Electricity theft is a form of non-technical loss. According to [5], any form of interference done by complete or partial bypassing of the meter to adulterate its values is referred to as electricity theft. The Non- technical losses are caused by human error. This error is an external action that has nothing to do with the characteristics of the power system. These activities include meter tampering, bypassing of meter, billing irregularities and unpaid bills [4, 6, 7]. To respond to the electricity theft and growth trend, the country needs to take appropriate initiatives not only to boost its power generation capacity but also to make residential sector more energy smart and efficient [8].

It is impossible for an electric power system to be 100% free from theft. In 1999, Transparency International revealed that close to 15% of the generated power is lost as a result of electricity theft. For instance, between 1998 and 1999, in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), after generating about 14,600 MWhr of electricity, could only account for 11,462 MWhr of billed energy, reflecting a total loss of about 22% [1]. In developing countries like Nigeria, electricity theft remains one of the major problems being faced by the power sector of which the government has little or no control over due to lack of the required technology. While the implementation of Automatic Metering Infrastructure (AMI) has eliminated the need for meter readers, it has adversely increased non-technical losses incurred by power utility companies [2]. It is estimated that Nigeria’s grid has a total transmission and distribution (T&D) losses of about 40% which is tremendously high when compared to United States whose T&D losses are at 7% [3, 4]. Electricity theft is a form of non-technical loss. According to [5], any form of interference done by complete or partial bypassing of the meter to adulterate its values is referred to as electricity theft. The Non- technical losses are caused by human error. This error is an external action that has nothing to do with the characteristics of the power system. These activities include meter tampering, bypassing of meter, billing irregularities and unpaid bills [4, 6, 7]. To respond to the electricity theft and growth trend, the country needs to take appropriate initiatives not only to boost its power generation capacity but also to make residential sector more energy smart and efficient [8].

Analogue meters which are still widely used in most parts of the nation, pose lots of challenges for monitoring the power consumed by users. In addition, with the analogue meters, operators must go to the consumer’s house to disconnect his power supply if he does not pay up his bills. Even in most cases, the operators accept bribes from the consumer so that their supply will not be disconnected. Consumers also have been known to tamper with the energy meters in order to reduce or stop the meter from reading without the knowledge of the operators. With traditional analogue meters, consumers have no way of disconnecting power in their houses when they travel and forget to disconnect or turn off their appliances. This leaves the meter running, incurring more payment for the energy consumer. Prepaid meters have provided a better way of monitoring power consumption by users. The motivation of this study is based on the fact that electricity theft as a result of energy meter by-passing and energy meter tampering has constituted a major problem to the power supply stabilization and has also resulted in a huge loss of revenue to the Nigerian power sector.

This study aims at developing a system with energy meter theft and tampering detection systems that can accurately measure and monitor the supply and distribution of power. In addition, it provides a remote energy management system for the consumer to disconnect or connect his load at free will.

1.2       Problem Statement

1. To reduce human error or high assumption done while taking the reading by human.
2. To reduce manpower going house by house taking reading every end of the month.

iii.        Time and labour consuming of energy provider companies

All these problem is solved using this project research work, the system design to be a     solution to many issue in the energy meter management both for the customer and the energy distributors.

1.3       Aim and Objectives

The aim of the project is to design and construct an intelligent prepaid energy meter that will be able to dictate any bypass by energy theft as well as to recharge the meter through GSM technology.

The objectives include:

1. To design a Prepaid Energy Meter System to control the amount of energy supply based only on the prepaid amount.
2. To designed a system that will do proper interfacing before microcontroller and the GSM modem.

iii.       Write a programme that can accurately monitor sms command.

1.4       Scope of the Study

In order to solve the problems stated, there have two levels required to develop the      Prepaid Energy Meter System. The levels mentioned are:

1. The designed and development of the system will be microcontroller based using Atmel and GSM module.
2. The system will be capable of generating accurate meter reading, calculating the total balance after toping up-unite, send a remind SMS when unit its low and cut-off the supply when the meter.

1.5       Significant of Study

The Global system for mobile communication (GSM based prepaid energy meter is very easy to use). This system includes a mobile set or mobile modem and a recharge number as subscriber identity module (SIM). The customer will send the recharge number to his energy meter in the form of message. The meter will read the message and will recharge (update) itself for the told duration. The meter will pass on the energy as told it in the message in form of coast. In this system the meter will be digitalized and will configure all the functions in the digitalized form. When customer temper the system will automatically disconnect the customer and can only be reconnected via sms from the providers. The project categorized into three part, the first part of this project is the hardware design or electronic using processor chip (microcontroller) and the second part is the C programming for the firmware design and implementation. Each of the part will be designed and test separately to ensure is fully working.

The hardware comprised of the circuitry and the interfacing with processor chip, while the software comprised of the programming aspect for the firmware. Finally, the integration of the parts to complete the project, the figure 1 shows a typical block diagram used in this project work.

1.6       Organization of the Work

The report for this project comprises of five chapters, The chapter one is the introductory chapter that gives the statement of problem, aim, significance, scope and justification for the project. Chapter two discusses the historical background and the detailed literature reviews of related past works and developments in the industry. It deliberates on different related works done by several authors with dates. It also discusses on the limitations of some of these works. Chapter three discusses the design analysis, discussed the practical system analysis based on internet usages. Also discussed is the requirement analysis, which is all the information, gathered form a wide research on router and internet usage, data analysis, system design approaches, top-down, bottom-up, choice of design approaches, data flow arrangement and the system flow chart are also discussed. Chapter four discussed possible ways of implementation. Chapter five gives out the conclusion and recommendation.