Design of automated remote power management system (arpms)

Project Abstract

<p> </p><p>The magnitude of operational losses<br>in the supply of electricity in Nigeria has been growing &nbsp; significantly. Issues of theft and illegal<br>connection pose major challenges in the energy distribution. This has greatly<br>worsened the current electricity supply in the country; hence, the need for the<br>design of a robust system for identifying or detecting illegal electricity<br>consumption.</p><p>In this study, an Automated Remote<br>Power Management System (ARPMS) was developed for detection of meter bypassing,<br>tampering and illegal load shedding. ARPMS consisted of embedded<br>microcontroller, Current and Voltage Sensors (CVS), and Global System for<br>Mobile Communication (GSM) module for effective detection of meter tempering.<br>The microcontroller was embedded with microprograms for task regulation and<br>control functions. The CVSs were used to monitor and report deviations from the<br>normal signals. The GSM module was used for remote communication and control.<br>The microcontroller was programmed using embedded C. A user-study experiment,<br>which involved fifty (50) purposively selected electrical engineers, was<br>carried out to evaluate the proposed system. The engineers subjected the system<br>to different scenarios of bypass. A structured questionnaire guide was used to<br>capture responses from the engineers. Descriptive analysis was conducted on the<br>performance data of the ARPMS from the engineers.</p><p>The result showed that ARPMS had<br>100% efficiency, 96% acceptance and a remote communication index of 0.99. This<br>showed that ARPMS had high capability for detecting meter tempering. The result<br>also showed that the real time ARPMS was able to evaluate the amount of<br>consumed energy by a building through remote monitoring and control of domestic<br>energy meter, and gave the information about the meter reading to the utility<br>company through Short Message Services (SMS). ARPMS provided regular status of<br>the meter on a predefined interval, and displayed user’s account update in real<br>time. This system also detected electricity power bypass by consumers. The<br>ARPMS controlled technology demonstrated the capability of providing a better<br>mechanism for collecting power consumption bills in advance.</p><p>In conclusion, an efficient ARPMS<br>for preventing power theft has been developed. It also used GSM based<br>technology to perform billing related processes at all times. The system is<br>therefore recommended for electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) for efficient<br>management of energy consumption and prepaid billing.</p><p><b>Keywords</b> &nbsp; &nbsp; Automated<br>Remote, Monitoring, Microcontroller, GSM Communication, Embedded C</p><p><br></p> <br><p></p>

Project Overview

<p> </p><p><b>INTRODUCTION</b></p><p><b>1.1 Background to the Study</b></p><p>Electricity is very crucial to the<br>socio-economic and technological development of every country. One of the<br>indices used to measure the development of an economy is uninterrupted power<br>supply. It is widely accepted that there is a strong correlation between the<br>availability of electricity and socio-economic development. The supply of<br>electricity in Nigeria incurs substantial capital. The enormity of these costs is growing astronomically across the<br>globe. To decipher the unlawful users of electricity in a bid to enhance the<br>economy of utility company, efficiency and protection of the grid, a novel<br>procedure for scrutinizing electricity usage patterns of customers and<br>recognizing illegal consumers is proposed and implemented. Nigeria electric<br>power network operator, electricity Distribution Companies of Nigeria (DISCOs)<br>has for a long period of time been combating the problem of revenue collation.<br>This is majorly attributed to the fact that electricity bills are sent to<br>consumers after consumption. Consumers are usually unwilling to pay electricity<br>bills as a result of epileptic nature of the electricity supplied which is not<br>usually mirrored in the bills which are basically estimates of power usage and<br>not usually commensurate to the true amount of electricity consumed by the<br>respective consumer.</p><p>The low reliability of electric power supply<br>has little bearing on the network operator because whether power is provided or<br>not, in the post-paid method, the monthly electricity bills are still sent to<br>consumers. Hence, the user bears the cost of generating power for their<br>personal usage as well as that of the electricity that was never provided by<br>DISCOs. Due to the enormity of the debt accrued by customers, the network<br>operator initiated a cash collection policy named Revenue Cycle Management<br>(RCM) which involves collecting monies owed through private establishments.<br>This failed to give the anticipated results; hence DISCOs came up with the<br>digital pre-paid meter in 2006 whose operation is somewhat synonymous with the<br>loading of an airtime voucher in the Global System for Mobile communication<br>(GSM) handset. If power is available and the pre-paid meter is loaded with units,<br>the loaded unit diminishes only when the load is connected and stops when power<br>is interrupted. In the last decade, smart cards evolved from basic memory cards<br>to complex systems on chips with a processing power that can be expanded. This<br>became an avenue for the invention of many applications used in the world<br>today. The smart card, an intelligent token, is a credit card sized plastic<br>card embedded within an integrated circuit chip. A smart card usually consists<br>of a Read Only Memory (ROM) or flash memory, Electrical Erasable Programmable<br>Read Only Memory (EEPROM) and a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The smart card<br>operating system controls access to data on the card. The card operating system<br>does not only make the smart card secure for access control, but also has the<br>capability to store a private key for a public key infrastructure system.</p><p>Recently, the industry has come up with 32-bit<br>smart card processors having more than 400Kbytes of EEPROM, and a memory<br>management and protection unit serving as a firewall for the hardware. This<br>hardware firewall enables secure separation of adjacent applications, as well<br>as being the basis for secure downloading of applications. The self-containment<br>of smart card makes it somewhat attack proof as it does not need to be relied<br>upon potentially attack susceptible external resources. Due to this feature,<br>smart cards are often used in diverse applications which require strong<br>security and authentication. In addition to information security, smart cards<br>achieve greater physical security of services and equipment, because a smart<br>card limits access to only authorized users.</p><p>Furthermore,<br>the smart card can be used as a credit/debit bank card which makes it relevant<br>for e-commerce applications. The multi-application smart card, along with the<br>advent of open platform smart card operating systems, brings the only viable<br>option for handling multiple electronic transactions these days. It is a cost<br>effective secure way to manage transactions electronically Manufacturers, issuers<br>and users have come to appreciate the value of one card that manages<br>multi-applications. A multi-application card will be able to amongst other<br>things do an automatic update of new services as well as existing applications,<br>change and store user profiles for each application and be usable on a range of<br>devices. One of the most valuable applications is in using the smart card to<br>buy energy. Recently, the portal technology has been playing an increasing role<br>in computing. Service providers are rolling out portals to allow users to<br>create customized web sites that display exactly the information on the Card<br>and transformer. Corporations are rolling out portals to provide employees and<br>business partner’s customizable access to corporate information. For web enabled<br>energy services, and with the introduction of home networking technology, power<br>companies and service providers can offer value-added services to the homes,<br>like energy management, to generate additional revenue as well as to increase<br>convenience and loyalty. In this research work, we propose a novel and simple<br>prototype of a web enabled smart card based solution for controlling the<br>consumption of electricity in a home environment. The proposed system can<br>calculate the total voltage consumption and the structure health condition of<br>the transformer as well as the total voltage distributed by the transformer.<br>For a while now, energy conservation has been a topical issue. In practical<br>terms, people use much more power than what they actually need and that is<br>responsible for the consequent huge loss of energy.</p><p>Moreover, the continuous increase in the<br>universal energy prices has led to a colossal economical loss. Thus, we are<br>proposing a prepaid electricity smart card based system that will enable people<br>to buy specific quantum of energy for use only when needed. People can<br>subscribe for this service and recharge their accounts through the Mobile<br>Phone. The power meter used in this study interrupts the controller at a rate<br>of 0.75Wph based on the particular tariff used and the amount of power<br>consumption needed, the correct amount of money to be loaded into the card can<br>be easily calculated and programmed into the chip. The unique feature about<br>this system is that the electric utility in the home environment can be<br>accessed remotely from the supplier server. The study provides people with the<br>opportunity of buying electricity in advance, using the prepaid electricity<br>cards. Thus, people can use only the amount of power they really require.</p><p>The proposed power management system will benefit the end<br>customer as well as the electric utility in that the customer can recharge his<br>account wirelessly from his home using Mobile Communication Module and the<br>status of meter is indicated through a Short Message Services (SMS). The device<br>will show the remaining balance so that the user knows how much he has consumed<br>and can plan ahead and know when he needs to recharge the account and moreover,<br>this strategy provides the utility companies the avenue to collect the expenses<br>from customers in advance. Thus, they will no longer have to deal with late<br>payments or non-payment of bills by the customers. This also helps to reduce<br>electricity theft through bypass.</p><p><b>1.1.1 Motivation</b></p><p>Losses that occur during<br>generation can be measured, but Transmission and Distribution (T&amp;D) losses<br>cannot be quantified completely from the end where information is sent.<br>According to Depuru (2012), distribution losses in several countries have been<br>reported to be over 30%. Substantial quantity of losses proves that<br>Non-Technical Losses (NTL) are involved in power distribution. Total losses<br>during T&amp;D can be evaluated from the information like total load and the<br>total energy billed, using established standards and formulae. In general, NTL<br>are as a result of factors external to the power system. Electricity theft<br>constitutes a major chunk of the NTL.</p><p>Electricity theft can be defined<br>as, using electricity from the utility without a contract or valid obligation<br>to alter its measurement. The world<br>over, T&amp;D losses are more than the total installed generation capacity of<br>countries such as Germany, the UK, or France. It is estimated that around the<br>world, utilities lose more than $25 billion every year to illegal consumption<br>of electricity. It has also been discovered that the illegal consumption of<br>power by the local business sector is on the increase. The quality of the power<br>generated, transmitted, and distributed has an impact on the power system<br>components and customer appliances. Due to the illegal consumption of<br>electricity, estimating the overall load in real time becomes very difficult (Depuru,<br>Wang, &amp;Devabhaktuni, 2012).</p> <br><p></p>