Energy meter reading and tampering protection through powerline communication channel

Abstract

Power utility companies have suffered revenue losses due to uncollected bills and energy tampering for many years. The use of remote monitoring system to overcome the problem using powerline communication has been identified as a solution. This needs tampering detection and transceiver capable of communicating data through powerline channel. In this paper we have identify different kinds of tampering and present simulated results of tampering detection and BPSK (DSSS) transceiver design for energy metering as a solution to the problem. The choice of spread spectrum BPSK modulation scheme is based on its robustness and its ability to spread signal into wide band to protect jamming and interference. The performance of the designed tampering detection, transceiver and selection of suitable parameter is verified using matlab simulation.