Design of smart energy meter with power theft detection and a novel of billing payment

Abstract

The advent in technology has made the necessity of electrical and electronics devices by human beings in order to live a comfortable and secured life. Electricity being the important element of human beings for powering electrical and electronics applications like domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes. Power theft being a major issue had become a threat to our grid systems, creating a loss to electricity boards. These situations are more frequently observed in countries like India. Resolving this issue can save a lot of power thereby creating an uninterruptable power supply to the costumer and there by strengthening the economic aspects of the electricity markets. Implementation of Smart energy meter can resolve this issue. Smart Energy Meter (SEM) is an electric device used for monitoring the energy consumption patterns and uses a wireless protocol for transferring data and communicating in a bidirectional way. This paper presents power theft detection and an automated billing process using smart energy meter. With smart meter the rate at which energy is consumed is monitored and their corresponding amount will be displayed thereby transferring the data to the base station. The data transferred between the consumer and the utility helps in controlling and detecting power theft. This smart energy meter can be configured as post-paid or prepaid meter. The proposed system interchanges conventional meter reading techniques and facilitates the energy provider to access the energy meter remotely.