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2018 1 International Scientific Conference of Engineering Sciences - 3 Scientific Conference of Engineering Science (ISCES)

Design and Simulation of a Monitoring Electrical

Energy Consumption System based on PLC
Techniques
Hassaan Th. H. Thabet
Department of Electrical Technology, Technical Institute of Mosul
Northern Technical University
Mosul, Iraq
engineer.h.thabet@gmail.com

Abstract— This paper presents a simulation of a smart
monitoring system based on programmable logic controller
(PLC) techniques which monitor the power consumption of
industrial, residential or commercial sites. On the other hand,
users can watch their energy consumption locally (on site) by a
Human Machine Interface (HMI) or remotely by their mobiles
via the Short Message Service (SMS) if they request that. This
smart control system will shut down any increase in the electrical
load as soon as it reaches the set value that is decided by the
designer of the program by shutting down the least priority
loads. Also, they could be warned either on site by HMI or
remotely by SMS which is referred to as "text message" using
their mobile devices in real time via the mobile network; if their
power consumption reaches nearer to their predetermined set
values. This paper aims to meet the needs of consumers for
electric power, which are: reduce the cost of electrical power
consumption and maintain the continuity of processing and
handling of this vital energy.
Keywords— PLC, Power consumption, HMI, SMS
I. INTRODUCTION
In any industrial, residential or commercial plants, the most
important topic is to sustain the electrical power and save
energy and cost. When implementing industrial or building
automation, the aim is to plan an efficient energy system. The
electrical energy consumption of industrial sites, residential or
commercial buildings shall be measured and monitored. If the
energy consumption exceeds a certain limit as seen in Fig. 1,
the users shall be informed remotely via their mobiles and
locally on site. Also, reading the actual energy consumption
will be possible locally on site at any time by HMI.
KWh Warning Massage
Max.
TIME(t)
Fig. 1. Limits of the power consumption
Therefore, this paper aims to design and simulate a smart
control system that is simple, low cost, comfortable, and able to
analyse the pattern of the power consumed by the load by using
a PLC.
The PLC [1] that is the core of the system; is responsible of
the following tasks:
x Displaying the warning massages on site by an HMI
unit [1] when the load exceeds a predetermined setting
value.
x Sending warning SMS massages to the consumer's
mobile by a Communication Module Radio (CMR) [2]
via the mobile network when the load exceeds a
predetermined setting value.
x Shutting down the least priority loads when the main
load reaches or exceeds the predetermined setting
value.
x Displaying the current value of the electrical power
consumption of the load via the HMI (locally) on site
and by SMS on the mobile (remotely) if requested by
the user.
As the power consumption reaches nearer to the set value;
the PLC automatically shuts down the least priority loads
through contactors as seen in Fig. 2 and hence reduces the
electrical power consumption and slows down the rate of
consumption.
Many papers and engineering sources [6, 7, 8] have
discussed the consumption of the electrical energy at
residential, commercial and industrial sites which becomes an
important problem in the energy management of the previous
mentioned sites.
For example; Jose A. Afonso et al [9] designed and
implemented a wireless system that monitors the electrical
energy consumption of residential areas; Sunna Bjorg [10]
suggests the application of smart grid techniques to monitor the
electrical energy consumption.
The previous papers suggest different solutions to monitor
the electrical energy consumption and how to reduce it for both
the companies producing electricity and end users; but they
neither provide how to determine the level of the electrical

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2018 1 International Scientific Conference of Engineering Sciences - 3 Scientific Conference of Engineering Science (ISCES)
energy to be consumed nor how to maintain this level; whereas
our system can provide both the monitoring and the controlling
of the electrical energy consumption level of the load.
Power Supply
From Energy Meter
INPUTS
PLC
Ethernet
HMI
OUTPUTS
Least Priority C1 C3
Loads C1,C2,C3,C4 (Contactors)
L1 L3
(For Example)
L1, L2, L3, L4 (Loads)
C1 C4
L2 L4
Fig. 2. General scheme of the system
Fig. 2 describes the general scheme of our system that
consists of The PLC, which is the core of the system. It
receives digital signals (as inputs) from the digital energy
meter; processing and calculating these inputs in order to
decide which contactors to be activated or deactivated (as
outputs) according to the designed set point of the electrical
power consumption; so by this way the electrical power
consumption of our load is monitored and controlled. The PLC
is connected to HMI by an Ethernet cable for displaying
information, warning messages and activating the alarm system
for users in the site. Also, the PLC is connected to the CMR via
an Ethernet cable in order to contact the mobile of the remote
user by sending a warning SMS when the electrical power
consumption exceeds a predetermined value.
II. SYSTEM DESIGN
As presented in Fig. 3; our system consists of the following
hardware components [1, 2]:
x Programmable Logic Controller (PLC): 8 Digital
Inputs; 4 Analog Inputs; 4 Relay Outputs; 12/24 DCV
power supply; Ethernet port.
x Digital energy meter: Meter Constant = 500 Pulses /
KWh.
x Communication Module Radio (CMR): 1 Ethernet port;
SIM card for the local mobile network connection.
x Human Machine Interface (HMI): Type LOGO! TDE
text display (6 lines; 3 background colors; 2 Ethernet
ports).
x Mobile device.
x Actuators: Power contactors (coil voltage 24 volts;
power voltage 220 volts) for different types of loads.
rd
CMR
Fig. 3. System Description
The basic working principle of this system depends on one
of the features of the digital energy meter used [3]. This energy
meter has a property of producing pulses that are analogous to
the disc which revolves specific number of times for a given
energy consumption in analog energy meters, the speed of its
revolutions is directly proportional to the electrical energy
consumption at a given instant. In the same way in a digital
energy meter, the rate of pulses of the digital energy meter is
also directly proportional to the electrical energy consumption.
The energy meter constant of this type of digital energy meter
is 500pulses/KWh [3]. By counting those pulses, it will be easy
to calculate the power consumed by the load. To count these
pulses [4], a PLC is used to do this job automatically by
connecting one of its high speed digital input ports to the pulse
output port of the digital energy meter in order to receive these
pulses, calculate the power consumption; control and monitor
this consumption with warning massages. The PLC's outputs
are connected to four actuators (contactors) to supply the load
and connect or disconnect the least priority loads depending on
the electrical power consumption limit decided by the designer.
The PLC is connected to a CMR via Ethernet cable; this
device can send SMS massages (via a SIM Card) to a mobile
device by creating a trigger to insert the count value of the
counter in the memory mapping table of the PLC as a
parameter in the program [1, 2]. Also, a variable of the same
memory address can be created in the configuration of the
CMR to receive the requests from the consumers' mobiles [2].
III. SOFTWARE DESIGN AND SIMULATION
As mentioned in [4],
Number of pulses Energy consumption made (1)
The energy meter forwards the energy consumption to PLC
in form of pulse signals; the PLC will evaluate these pulse
signals. If the number of the measured pulse signals exceeds a
definite set value, this will be interpreted as an error. As soon
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2018 1 International Scientific Conference of Engineering Sciences - 3 Scientific Conference of Engineering Science (ISCES)

as an error occurs, a warning massage is sent from CMR to the 3 1500 3

user via SMS (remote monitoring). The warning massage is
output also on the HMI (local monitoring). This warning
massage can be acknowledged locally by the user via the HMI.
The energy-based pulse count of the energy meter (meter
constant) is 500 pulses/KWh [3], that is, if this number of
pulses (500 pulses) is measured in one hour, the electrical
energy consumed by the user is 1 KWh as shown by equation
(2).
From the previous information; we can get the following
fact:
"In our program, the electrical energy consumed by a user
as pulses can be evaluated by means of counters within an
evaluation time of 7.2 seconds" [4].
Fig. 4 explains this fact; when one pulse is presented within
the previous mentioned time (7.2 seconds); this means that
energy consumption is 1 KWh; when two pulses are presented
within this time; it means that energy consumption is 2 KWh
and so on.
4 2000 4
The current electrical energy consumption of the load can
be read at any time via SMS and HMI. To read the current
electrical energy consumption of the load via SMS, a trigger
must be created, the count value of the counter must be inserted
in the memory mapping table of the PLC by an analog
multiplexer function block shown in Fig. 6 which has the same
memory address as the network analog input in our PLC
program [1].
The flowchart in Fig. 5 demonstrates the whole situation.
START
period =7.2 seconds
Set Reference Value (X)
X=No. of Pulses / 7.2 seconds

4KWh
PLC recieves pulses from
3KWh Energy Meter & evaluates them

Warning Massage locally on site

Pulses 2KWh No
IS
No. of pulses =< X Acknowledgment
1KWh ?
Yes PLC shuts down
1 2 3 4 the least priority loads

Actual value of load

consumption
Displayed on HMI Waring SMS by CMR
User's Mobile
via Ethernet
t
7.2 sec. No Yes SMS by CMR via Sim card
Is there to the consumer's mobile
any requests from indicating the actaul value
consumer's mbile? of the the electrical power
Fig. 4. Time evaluation of pulses consumption

Let Y is the number of pulses/hour and P is the number of

pulses, then
Y= 3600 * P/7.2 (2) Fig. 5. Main flowchart of the simulated system

From equation (2); the following table is constructed: The design of the simulation model, in this paper, mainly
adopted the technology of the controller type (PLC LOGO!
TABLE I. THE RELATION BETWEEN PULSES AND KWH v8.0) and the software (Soft Comfort v8.0) from Siemens [1]
as they are inexpensive, simple and containing high
P Y KWh specifications as compared with other conventional systems.
1 500 1 Fig. 6 shows the program which receives the pulses from the
digital energy meter and how it evaluates them.
2 1000 2

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2018 1 International Scientific Conference of Engineering Sciences - 3 Scientific Conference of Engineering Science (ISCES)
Fig. 6. The program which receives the pulses from the digital energy meter
The actual energy consumption of the load is displayed on
site by an HMI as presented in Fig. 7, it shows the real time
and date with the value of the actual energy consumption in
KWh. This value is displayed graphically by a bar curve.
Fig. 7. The display of the HMI onsite
When the load exceeds the predetermined setting value, a
red warning message is displayed on the HMI as seen in Fig. 8.
This massage can be acknowledged by the user via the HMI
itself as described in Fig. 6.
Fig. 8. The onsite warning massage
To send a warning SMS massage to the consumer's mobile,
a trigger must be created by configuring the CMR in the
following way [5]:
"In case of any value change of the analogue output of the
analogue multiplexer, an SMS is sent"
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Analog Threshold Trigger
OFF Delay Timer
The Multiplexer
The description of the above statement is shown in the
program; Fig. 6. An analogue network input (NAI1) was
projected in the PLC program for any value change of the
analogue output of the analogue multiplexer; as soon as an
analogue value (at least the value "1") is written in the
analogue network input (NAI1); a specified input of the
analogue multiplexer is set and the analogue multiplexer will
output that value; which will create the trigger for sending an
SMS.
The output of the analogue multiplexer is set back to its
initial value "0" by an OFF Delay timer after 2 seconds. As
long as both the output of the analogue multiplexer and the
analogue network input (NAI1) have the same memory address
such as, VW10; as shown in the program in Fig. 6; so NAI1 is
also set to "0". A new trigger can be created any time for
sending SMS by inserting an analogue value in the analogue
network input (NAI1).
The Ethernet connection is shown in Fig. 9; each device has
its own IP address; for LOGO! 8, LOGO! TDE and LOGO!
CMR, an IP address and a subnet mask must be assigned to
each of them so they are located in the same subnet [5].
Fig. 9. Ethernet connection
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2018 1 International Scientific Conference of Engineering Sciences - 3 Scientific Conference of Engineering Science (ISCES)
IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE STUDY
This work describes an idea for the design of an electrical
power consumption smart system (controlling and monitoring)
which is simulated by a personal computer (PC). The system
design and simulation illustrates an inexpensive way to
measure, monitor and control the electrical energy
consumption through user's interaction remotely via the mobile
network and locally via HMI. By a successful implementation
of this system at any load; it can be expected to reduce the
electricity bill of the consumer as well as reducing the load
fluctuations on the main network system. The maximum
demand can be brought into tolerable limits. This system offers
the following advantages if implemented in real life:
x Saves energy and costs by means of early warnings
(locally or remotely) and controlling the consumed
load.
x Reads the current energy consumption locally or
remotely; if requested by the user.
x Maintains the sustainability of the electrical power
supply and reduces frequent electrical power
interruptions.
In case of future works:
x This system could be connected to the maximum
demand controller in order to control both the
maximum demand and the consumer's electricity bill.
x Making the system able to change the level of the
electrical power consumption manually (locally or
remotely) by the consumer.
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