Design and Implementation of a Single-Phase Energy Meter with SMS Controlled and Monitored Recharge Capability

Abstract

The Nigerian power sector is faced with poorly organized billing and consumer relations management. Tariff billing and collection has been a big problem in some community in Nigeria even with the introduction of prepaid meters. The process of payment is cumbersome and stressful as consumers have to go and pay in banks and then take tellers to power utility office to confirm their power bills payment before they can recharge their cards. The major purpose of this work is to design and implement a convenient, cashless, automated and transparent electricity metering, billing and payment system. This project combines the power electronic meter with a communications network which in this case is a GSM (global system for mobile) network. Remote electricity billing is a unique concept, in which the electricity board can collect the consumed units’ data from consumer on mobile phone using GSM network. A unique property of this system is that, the electricity board can disconnect or reconnect consumers from remote location through the mobile phone. As this project works on GSM network, the system can be controlled from any part of the country