This document describes a GUI based remote power distribution system using GSM technology. The system allows for remote control of power distribution from a centralized location via a graphical user interface application. It consists of GSM modems at the control station and substation connected to a transformer. The control station modem can send SMS messages via the GSM network to turn transformer branches on/off. A microcontroller interprets the messages and controls relays to switch the branches. The GUI provides buttons to send on/off commands with a click. The system aims to replace manual power cutting with a more efficient and cost-effective centralized remote solution.

1. International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 –
6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online), Volume 5, Issue 5, May (2014), pp. 136-142 © IAEME
136
GUI BASED REMOTE POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM USING GSM
Tanvira Ismail1
, Dipesh Karki2
, Zohir Mollick3
, Sagar Das4
1
Assistant Professor, 2,3,4
B.Tech Student
1-4
Department of ECE, Don Bosco College of Engineering and Technology,
Guwahati, India
Assam Don Bosco University
ABSTRACT
‘GUI Based Remote power distribution system using GSM’ aims to design and implement
efficient and cost effective solution for replacing the manual process of power cut/load shedding
from a centralized location, where the control is accessed via the GUI application. It is developed
from event driven programming language where click of a mouse on command button of the
application sends a specific coded message via GSM modem. It consists of two GSM modems, one
at the control station and the other one connected to the transformer from where the electricity is
divided into certain branches in an area. Here the control station modem utilizes GSM network to
turn a branch line of a transformer either on/off. It also consists of a LCD display which displays the
state of the channel/branches of the transformer as either on/off. In case of network failure, a set of
manual switches have been provided to turn on/off the channels manually. Electromagnetic relays are
used as circuit breakers.
Keywords: GSM, GUI, LCD, Relay, Short Messaging Service (SMS), Transformer.
1. INTRODUCTION
Power cut or load shedding is a common process in countries where the production of
electricity is less than the total requirement. To balance the availability and the requirement of
electricity a concerned authority has to execute this process. This process is prone to human errors as
an operator has to manually switch the channel on/off. If we can design an efficient and economical
solution to perform this operation remotely from a centralized location, we will be able to replace the
manual system with a sophisticated centralized remote system."GUI Based Remote power
distribution system using GSM” implements the emerging applications of the GUI (Graphical User
Interface) & GSM technology, which has fully covered almost all areas of the world. This helps in
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2. International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering &
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reducing the implementation cost and makes it simpler and easier to install the GSM system both at
the controller and transformer side [1]
We have selected a GSM modem named quad band Fargo 900/1800Hz
proposed approach for designing this system is to implement microcontroller based control module
that receives its instructions and command from a cellular phone over the GSM n
microcontroller then will carry out the issued commands and transfer the control to electromagnetic
relays which acts as a circuit breaker. First, the sent SMS is stored and polled from the control station
modem. Then, the required control sign
microcontroller module interprets this signal
which perform the action of turning on/off of the substation channels
the system user friendly since it makes use of a combination of pointers and visual indicators such as
buttons, textbox and the command buttons. In
interfaced with the GUI application, which
turning on/off of channels is through the click of the specific command buttons of the GUI
application which is programmed in such a way that by a click the message is sent from control
station modem to respective base station.
2. OBJECTIVE
1. Designing an efficient and cost effective solution for replacing the manual proce
power cut by remotely controlling from a centralized location.
2. To efficiently control the on/off of transformer via SMS.
3. To minimize power and time wastage.
4. To design a user-friendly system
3. CIRCUIT SOLUTION
3.1 Block Diagram
International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976
6472(Online), Volume 5, Issue 5, May (2014), pp. 136-142 © IAEME
137
reducing the implementation cost and makes it simpler and easier to install the GSM system both at
[1].
We have selected a GSM modem named quad band Fargo 900/1800Hz
proposed approach for designing this system is to implement microcontroller based control module
that receives its instructions and command from a cellular phone over the GSM n
microcontroller then will carry out the issued commands and transfer the control to electromagnetic
relays which acts as a circuit breaker. First, the sent SMS is stored and polled from the control station
modem. Then, the required control signal is generated and sent to the modem of the base station.
microcontroller module interprets this signal and instruction is given to the hardware i.e.
perform the action of turning on/off of the substation channels [1]. The GUI interface
the system user friendly since it makes use of a combination of pointers and visual indicators such as
ommand buttons. In the proposed system, control station modem is
application, which was created using Visual Studio 6.0. The messages for
turning on/off of channels is through the click of the specific command buttons of the GUI
application which is programmed in such a way that by a click the message is sent from control
base station.
Designing an efficient and cost effective solution for replacing the manual proce
by remotely controlling from a centralized location.
To efficiently control the on/off of transformer via SMS.
inimize power and time wastage.
friendly system through Graphical User Interface application.
Fig 1: Block diagram
Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 –
© IAEME
reducing the implementation cost and makes it simpler and easier to install the GSM system both at
We have selected a GSM modem named quad band Fargo 900/1800Hz for our use. The
proposed approach for designing this system is to implement microcontroller based control module
that receives its instructions and command from a cellular phone over the GSM network. The
microcontroller then will carry out the issued commands and transfer the control to electromagnetic
relays which acts as a circuit breaker. First, the sent SMS is stored and polled from the control station
al is generated and sent to the modem of the base station. The
and instruction is given to the hardware i.e. relays,
The GUI interface makes
the system user friendly since it makes use of a combination of pointers and visual indicators such as
control station modem is
sing Visual Studio 6.0. The messages for
turning on/off of channels is through the click of the specific command buttons of the GUI
application which is programmed in such a way that by a click the message is sent from control
Designing an efficient and cost effective solution for replacing the manual process of
through Graphical User Interface application.

3. International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 –
6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online), Volume 5, Issue 5, May (2014), pp. 136-142 © IAEME
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As shown in Fig 1, the control station GSM modem is controlled by a control station, which
is incorporated with a GUI application, showing the channels’ status graphically. Whenever there is a
requirement of turning on/off a particular channel of an area, the operator and control station gives
command that is transmitted via control station modem through GSM network. The command is
received by the substation modem and fed to the microcontroller. Depending upon the command
received, the microcontroller gives command to switch on/off the particular relay. The power supply
section supplies +5V to the microcontroller and modems. The LCD is used to display the status of
channels i.e. on/off. A set of keypad switches are provided to manually switch on/off channels that
can be used in case of GSM network failure. Relays are used as a circuit breaker.
3.2 Circuit Diagram
Fig 2: Circuit diagram
Fig 2 shows the circuit diagram. The main part of our circuit is the microcontroller 89S52,
which is responsible for establishing the connection between GSM modem for both receiving and
transmitting information and also for displaying through LCD. The transmitter and the receiver pin
of the GSM modem is connected to the receiver and transmitter pin of the microcontroller that will
be used for transmission of control messages between the two [2]. The programming is done such
that a click on command buttons of the GUI application automatically sends message via control

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station GSM modem and is received by substation modem. The message is fed to the circuit which in
turn, reads and interprets the message and turns relay on /off. In addition to this, the LCD screen
displays which channel is on. The controlling commands such as AT+CMGF=1 and
AT+CMGL=”ALL” of the GSM is also sent from the controller. These two commands will enable
the GSM modem to start, allows the text mode to operate and allows reading of message from the
SIM memory of the modem. Based on the message received i.e. “CH1: ON/CH1: OFF” it transfers
its control to that particular relay and displays it on LCD about the status of channel. The
microcontroller sets a timer and allows the substation modem to easily respond to message
transmitted from control station modem.
4. SOFTWARE
Fig 3: Programming flow chart
Fig 3 depicts the flow chart of our microcontroller program. The program for our system has
been typed in embedded C and the software used for this is “KEIL”. Firstly, the input and the output
pins are specified in the program, relays are defined and it is connected to port 2. Port 1 and port 0 is
connected to LCD, port 3 is used for UART port i.e. for serial communication purpose. Pin number
10 is used as receiver and pin number 11 as transmitter. Keypad switches are connected to port 3

5. International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 –
6464(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6472(Online), Volume 5, Issue 5, May (2014), pp. 136-142 © IAEME
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along with crystal circuitry and reset switch. The program, first initializes the port for
communication with the modems i.e. control station and base station and then it initializes LCD and
USART initialization is done to work with serial communication. We have to initialize the USART
port i.e. pin no.10 (Rx) and pin no.11 (Tx) so that it works as serial receiver and transmitter,
respectively. After the initialization is done Relay 1 to 3 are defined and if message counter ‘i’ is
initialized to zero it means no message are present and is ready to receive new message. If ‘i’ does
not return zero then already message is being executed and so it stops. Now the message is received
from the GSM modem. The message is stored in serial buffer of the microcontroller and message
index “i” is incremented till end of message and checked whether it happens to be “CH1:ON”. If so
relay 1 will be on. Similarly for channel 2 it will be “CH2:ON” and so on. If message happens to be
“CH1:OFF”then channel 1 will be off, again if channel 1 is already off and message “CH1:OFF” is
given then no action will be taken .‘i’ will be initialized to 0 again and it is ready to receive message
again. After every execution of command i.e. on/off, ‘i’ is always initialized to 0. The modem from
where the message will be sent contains a particular SIM number which has already been stored in
the database so the relay will be on/off only if the message is from a particular number as stored in
database. This provides security and also the status of relay are displayed in LCD as well as in the
GUI interface, depending upon the message i.e. either on/off.
5. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Step 1: First, the GUI Interface is connected to the control station modem using the com port as
shown below:
Step 2: Second, the area/ transformer is chosen. For this, we have created a database which includes
area/transformer number and it is registered with a particular SIM number.

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Step 3: After the area selection is done, there is a controlling unit frame on GUI application that has a
list of channel and user can turn on and off the channel with the click of a mouse button. It is
programmed such that on the click of a button at controlling unit frame, the control station modem
automatically sends a message depending on channel button clicked to substation modem. An
example where a previous message was sent by number to switch on channel 1 i.e. “CH:1 ON” is
shown below.

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The second message is sent again from same number to off channel 2. On receiving the
message by the substation modem, it retrieves the message and feeds it to the microcontroller
through UART port. The microcontroller checks the message and takes action if there are no
previous pending actions. In other words if channel 1 is already on and message is given that channel
1 needs to be on then in this case no action is taken as relay is already in use.
6. CONCLUSION
‘GUI BASED REMOTE POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM’ is a very useful project since
with its help we can provide remote management of power distribution through easy to use Graphical
User Interface application. The device we have designed toggles on and off a transformer branch line
from the remote control center. We have tried to make our system easy to use and efficient by
implementing GUI application. The main motive behind our system is to reduce human effort, cost
and time involved in the process of load shedding.
7. Future Enhancement
We can further improve the system by implementing a system where the current and voltage
parameters’ information can also be retrieved from the transformer. We can further implement
prescheduled power cut process for small amount of time and reduce long power cuts.
REFERENCES
[1] Tanvira Ismail, DipeshKarki, ZohirMollick, Sagar Das, ManojDeka, "Remote Power
Distribution System Using GSM", International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer
and Communication Engineering (IJARCCE), 3(4), 2014, 6289-6292.
[2] M. Mazidi, J. G. Mazidi, and R. D. Mckinlay, The 8051 Microcontroller and Embedded
Systems Using Assembly and C (Prentice Hall).
[3] Seema vora, Prof.Mukesh Tiwari and Prof.Jaikaran Singh, “GSM Based Remote Monitoring
of Waste Gas at Locally Monitored GUI with the Implementation of Modbus Protocol and
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