Automatic energy meter reading

1. AUTOMATIC METER READING SYSTEMS
By
A.S.Chandrasekhar
15/EE/82

2. INTRODUCTION
• Automatic meter reading (AMR) is the collection of
data from consumption meters located at customers’
premises via telecommunication links at a remote
central location,
• These links could be Telephone lines, powerline
carrier communication (PLCC), GSM
Communicationetc.

3. With the use of AMR, the need of a person to visit the
consumer’s site and record the readings of the meters is
eliminated. This also prevents human errors in recording
the reading
Automation is the technology by which a process or
procedure is performed without human assistance.

4. TRADITIONAL ELECTRO MECHANICAL INDUCTIVE TYPE ENERGY METER
It is the popularly known and most common type of age old watt hour meter. It consists of rotating aluminum disc mounted on a
spindle between two electro magnets. Speed of rotation of disc is proportional to the power and this power is integrated by the
use of counter mechanism and gear trains. It comprises of two silicon steel laminated electromagnets i.e., series and shunt
magnets.
Series magnet carries a coil which is of few turns of thick wire connected in series with line whereas shunt magnet carries coil with
many turns of thin wire connected across the supply.
Breaking magnet is a permanent magnet which applies the force opposite to normal disc rotation to move that disc at balanced
position and to stop the disc while power is off.

5. Series magnet produces the flux which is proportional to the current flowing and shunt magnet produces the
flux proportional to the voltage. The current flux lags by some angle with voltage flux due to inductive nature.
The interaction of these two fields produces eddy current in the disk, exerting a force, which is proportional to
product of instantaneous voltage, current and phase angle between them.
Vertical spindle or shaft of the aluminum disc is connected to gear arrangement which records a number,
proportional to the number of revolutions of the disc. This gear arrangement sets the number in a series of
dials and indicates energy consumed over a time. This type of meter is simple in construction and accuracy
is somewhat less due to creeping and other external fields. A major problem with these types of meters is
their easy prone to tampering, leading to a requirement of an electrical energy monitoring system. These are
very commonly used in domestic and industrial applications.
MAIN DISADVANTAGES:
It is easily affected by any external magnetic fields which causes an irrelevant rotation in
the aluminium disc and the meter reading will goes wrong.
Highly exposed to electricity stealers: Yes, these meters are easy to manipulate
because meter reversing or disk blocking techniques are really easy to implement on
it.
Future up-gradation: There is no chance of future enhancement in these kinds of
Energy Meters. They are what they are, you cannot improve it or include anymore

6. • AUTOMATED DIGITAL ENERGY METERS:
· Accuracy: One of the most significant benefits of using Automated Digital meter is its
accuracy. In nonlinear loads, it’s metering is highly accurate and free from observational
errors
• ·Output Display: The readings of a digital meter is extremely easy to gauge as the
outputs are automatically displayed in numbers through a seven segment display. Unlike
the analogue type which takes time, resulting in huge chances of occurring mistakes
especially for those with poor eyesight.
• There is no moving part in these meters,So,its lifetime will be more.
• We can upgrade it if there are any implementations

7. HOW AMR WORKS ?
Remotely reads customer meters and then transfers the data into the billing
system
Reduce the need for meter readers to manually gather utility meter
readings each month.

8. HOW DOES THE SYSTEM WORKS?
The key to the system is a device called an
ERT( Encoder-Receiver-Transmitter).
This device is connected directly to a special electronic
register on the energy meter.
Normally, the ERT does nothing - it "sleeps," waiting for
the meter reader to approach.
The meter reading sends the device(ERT) a
continuous "wake up" signal.
When an ERT receives the signal, it checks the reading on
the meter register, encodes it into a digital signal, and
begins transmitting its identification number and the
current reading.

9. After sending the signal, the ERT stops transmitting and goes
back "to sleep," waiting for the next time meter reading.
The computer system located at the central station matches the ERT
identification number with the property and records the
reading. At the end of the day or a month, the meter reader unloads the
information to our billing system.
This whole system present in the meter is called Meter Interface Unit(MIU).

10. COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
Used for the transmission, or telemetry, of data and control send
signals between the meter interface units and the central office.
1. GSM Based Communication
Single stage communication between Meter and central
station through GSM Modem
2. PLCC Based Communication
Single stage communication between Meter and central
station through electricity network

11. GSM BASED COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
The GSM/GPRS network offers most coverage in developed and developing
countries.So in a country like India we need to focus more on this method as
it can be implemented very easily and effectively.
The proposed system for energy billing is automatic, do not require human effort
to read the meter, consumer can directly know the amount he has to pay at
the time of bill preparation itself and can even pay the amount online.
Different state electricity boards in INDIA started using GSM facility for fault
management and so there is increased demand for this method.
For this design, energy meter specifications and tariff structure followed by the
Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) are adopted. In this project the front
end is User friendly and any employee with minimum knowledge of
computers can work on this software. Employees can read the meter by
sitting in their office.

12. GSM BASED COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
It requires
1)GSM modem
2)Antenna

13. GSM MODEM
Dual Band or Tri band GSM GPRS
modem (EGSM 900/1800MHz) /
(EGSM 900/1800 / 1900 MHz )
Designed for GPRS, data, fax, SMS
and voice applications
Fully compliant with ETSI GSM
Phase 2+ specifications (Normal MS)
Interfaces
RS-232 through D-TYPE 9 pin
connector
Power supply through Molex 4 pin
connector
SMA antenna connector
Toggle spring SIM holder
Red LED Power on
Green LED status of GSM / GPRS
module

14. POWER LINE CARRIER COMMUNICATION
We have several communication systems like GSM based
communication.Generally, we use the PLCC communication system for the
Energy meters.
PLCC, Power Line Carrier Communication, is an approach to utilize the
existing power lines for the transmission of information. In today’s world every
house and building has properly installed electricity lines.
Automatic Meter reading applications use the PLCC technology to send the data
from home meters to Host Central Station.
By using the existing AC power lines as a medium to transfer the information, it
becomes easy to connect the houses with a high speed network access point
without installing new wirings.

15. PLCC COMMUNICATION
AMR ARCHITECTURE
RF/ PSTN / Modem RF/PSTN / Modem
Meter 1 Meter 1 Meter 1
Meter 2 Meter 2 Meter 2
Meter 3 Meter 3 Meter 3
Meter 4 Meter 4 Meter 4
Meter 5 Meter 5 Meter 5
Meter n Meter n Meter n
Central Office
Host Computer
Station.
Distribution
Transformer 2.
Distribution
Transformer 3.
Distribution
Transformer 1.
Data Cocentrator
Unit DCU 2
Data Cocentrator
Unit DCU 3
Data Cocentrator
Unit DCU 1
PLCC
PLCC
PLCC

16. DATA CONCENTRATOR UNIT (DCU)
The Data Concentrator sits on the loop of secondary of the distribution
transformer. Collects meter readings from all the meters using Power
Line Communication System at predefined intervals.
The DCU and all the meters connected to the PLM(POWER LINE MODEM).
it can be considered as a sub-system of the HCS.
To operate the AMR, Power Line Modem (PLM) is used,
which transmits and receives data over the power line.

17. SELECTION OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
PLCC Best Suited for LT 440 V network for detecting outages, tamper
events and performing remote disconnect
Uses same power lines as communication media, so ideally suited for rural/
agricultural connections,hilly areas where towers and wireless
communication system availabilities are low.
We can use GSM communication technology in major cities where towers
and signals are mostly available.

18. ADVANTAGES OF AUTOMATIC METERING SYSTEM
1)Smart machine-controlled processes rather than manual labour work.
2)It optimizes maintenance and investments as the machines send accurate info.
3)Theft controllable.
4)It stores the consumption data which is the best specification and consumer friendly.
5)The change in state of energy meters can be detected.
6)Accurate measure of transmission losses.
7) Provide detailed consumption information to customers
8)Enable more frequent readings with little incremental cost.

19. CONCLUSION:
Since automatic meter reading is all about “Reading a
utility meter without the requirement for visual inspection
of the meter”, it is indeed an easy and fail-safe method for
monitoring consumption details of a customer.
Automatic Meter Reading can detect meter tampering and
illegal drawing of power (hooking/power pilfering).
AMR as a way of improving customer service while
reducing the cost of reading meters.
The Automatic Meter Reading system enables us to save
millions of dollars every year in meter reading costs and
also provide our customers with better information about
, more accurate billings, and keep rates as low as
we can.

20. MY REFERENCES:
Wikipedia.
IEEE articles.
https://electrical-engineering-portal.com