Design of smart power meter for local electrical power generators in Baghdad city

Abstract

The shortage in electrical power generation in Iraq due to several wars, forced the people to use an alternative solution. One of such solutions is the local power generators that distributed rapidly in Iraqi cities. The investors whom owning these generators make the prices for delivering the power to the consumers without power meters. In this paper, a smart power meter for such generators can be used in each customer place. The smart power meter simply is composed of an Arduino Pro Mini microcontroller with an ACS712 current sensor and DS3231 Real Time Clock. The sensed data is proceed using simple algorithm to calculate the required bill according to the consumed average amperes multiplied by the ampere price setting by the provider during the delivery period. The proposed meter with its low cost and fair bill calculations can be used at each end-user location for local generators.