Smart Centralized Metering System for Commercial Building

Background

First paragraph: project ko title introduction

Second paragraph: project overall view

Smart Centralized Metering System for commercial building can send its data and meter readings through
Wi-Fi to a server in which monitoring and analysis of the data will be made easily. The project will acquire
the data from each and every shop’s and then it saves the data in SD card and constantly updates through
wireless communication in server.

The project entitled as Smart Centralized Metering system for commercial building is a step closer to
automation. It aims to help in billing process in a commercial building where large number of shops and
people are using electricity. The project challenges the old billing system where the house owner or
building owner goes to every room and shops to take meter reading and give bill slips manually. Manual
reading system is time consuming and human error is possible and does not provide reliable meter
reading. A possible solution is a Smart Metering system which can send the data to owner’s PC/Computer
where monitoring and analysis of the data will be easily made. Smart metering system is centralized meter
reading, that’s why meter readers don’t have need to visit each consumer for readings.

Personal Engineering Activity

1.1 Literature Review

Normally a commercial building have many floors and shops. If there are 20 rooms in each floor then for
6 floor building there will be around 120 shops in the building. In traditional way of metering system,
traditional meters are installed in each shops and the meter reader has to go shop to shop to collect the
readings and give bill slips to consumers. This way of billing is very tedious job. My project helps in smart
metering of the buildings.

For the smart solution of the problem a smart way of metering was introduced. For this Arduino was used
as a microprocessor which acquires the current and voltage readings and then find out energy. Similarly,
Current transformer can be used to get the current signal which is step down and then the dc signal is fed
to Arduino to get actual current. Also to get the voltage readings potential transformer can be used. The
necessary code will be written in Arduino.

Personal Engineering Activities: (minimum 5 paragraph)

1) literature review or research.

2) Components selection and block diagram

3) circuit diagram or simulation

4) programming or flowchart
5) hardware assembly or fabrication and testing results

1.2 Component Selection

For this project, I worked in the proteus simulation of the project. The components used were Arduino,
current transformer, potential transformer, relays, RTC, SD card, ICs, ESP 8266. In this simulation I
designed load for two shops using capacitive, inductive and resistive loads. Also the voltage measurement
and current measurement part were also designed. I connected the potential transformer in parallel with the
source and current transformer in series with the load.Relay unit consisted of 3 relays for the
disconnection of the whole system and other two for cutting power of the two shops. LCD Display unit
was used to display meter readings and other necessary parameters while keypad is used as input device
to give commands. Arduino used, is the significant component that controls our whole system, measure
the signals, calculate them and display.

Here we can see the schematic diagram of the overall simulation

Fig; Schematic diagram of the simulation

1.3 Circuit diagram or Simulation

To measure the voltage signal, I found out that Arduino works only with dc signal so to make the signal
DC here I designed to add 2.5V to the output of the potential transformer with the help of voltage divider
circuit. I used two resistors of 470kΩ and a capacitor of 10uF. I made a voltage divider to add 2.5V DC
to the input and also added capacitor which helped to provide low impedance for high frequency
components.

For the current measurement unit, I used current transformer (CT) in series with the load. CT helps to
find out the current drawn by the system by sensing. Because I have used burden resistor which help
to current used being sensed. Here same process is applied to make the signal dc and then it is fed to
Arduino.

After the current and voltage signals are fed to Arduino, I wrote a program in Arduino so that it can
get real time energy consumption of the consumers.
 Start

Read all ADC inputs of

Arduino

Take analog samples

from signals

Calculate RMS values of

current and voltage

Calculate the energy

consumed

Display in the LCD screen

End
1.5 Hardware Assembly

In the hardware part of the project first I tested the prototype software on breadboard and then the circuit
was designed in Ki Cad which is a PCB designing software. I printed the circuit on PCB board and then
etching was done and finally all the components were soldered and the circuit was tested.

1.3 While performing the project the following technical difficulties were encountered:

Two problems minimum: problem, effect, cause, solutions, improvement: (minimum 150 words for each)

i. Overheating of voltage regulators

The first problem I witnessed when testing the circuit was overheating of the voltage regulators. I found
that the overheating of the regulators cause negative effects on circuit board, deviated the output readings
from the actual values. I also found the short circuit were results from excessive overheating. The system
became more inaccurate because of the losses in heat form. So I investigated the system and I found out
that the overcurrent was the main reason for this problem. To absorb the excessive heat developed chosed
to use heat sink attached with the regulators. After the use of heat sink I found that the heat was dissipated
in the sink and circuit was safe from damage.

ii. Missing library in Arduino

The next problem I witnessed in project is that Arduino doesn’t have inbuilt libraries for differnet
components. This is why after debugging the code written in Arduino , there was a problem. Because of
this problem it took lot of project time and also there was running error. For this problem necessary libraries
I downloaded from the site and then the proper installation was done.After this I observed that the
debugging error were reduced and the code was runned.

1.5

In this project, I constantly worked with my team members whose helps were crucial for completing this
project. Also necessary advice, suggestions and helps were gained from our respected professor.