Design and Operation of Smart Energy Meter for
Effective Energy Utilization in Smart Cities
Qasim Malik Aamir Zia
Student Member, IEEE Student Member, IEEE
Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Management University of Management &
& Technology Technology
Lahore, Pakistan Lahore, Pakistan
Qasimmalick2@gmail.com Aamirzia1995@gmail.com
Muhammad Asim Butt
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Management & Technology
Lahore, Pakistan
Asim.butt@umt.edu.pk
Abstract – The increasing demand of energy in the world is
increasing by every day as not only the population is increasing
but also the everyday tools and the appliances that make our lives
better. This increase in demand is a major issue in developing
countries, to solve this major problem every citizen needs to play
his part by efficiently using energy. Voltage Ampere Power Smart
Meter (VAPSM) also provides utility providers an efficient way
to collect data for billing and also save the costs of the trips to the
physical location of the meter. VAPSM production cost is low and
it also provides flexibility of design by using microcontroller
which can provide an additional option to perform other
controlled or automated tasks. VAPSM communicates with the
consumer and utility provider. Smart Energy Meter substitutes
outdated meters and enable the energy usage access to every
residential and industrial user in smart cities.
Keywords – Voltage Ampere Power Smart Meter (VAPSM),
Smart Energy Meter (SEM), Voltage Ampere Power (VAP), Power
Monitoring, GSM, Smart Cities.
I. INTRODUCTION
The demand for energy is increasing as a result of the
growth in both population and industrial development. To
improve the energy efficiency, consumers need to be more
aware of their energy consumption. In recent years, utilities
have started developing new electric energy meters which are
known as Smart Meters [3]. A smart meter is a digital energy
meter that measures the consumption of electrical energy and
provides other additional information as compared to the
traditional energy meter. The aim is to provide the consumer
and supplier an easy way to monitor the energy. Smart meters
are considered a key component of the smart grid as these will
allow more interactivity between the consumers and the
978-1-7281-3276-1/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 219
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Rehan Ahmad
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Management &
Technology
Lahore, Pakistan
Guardian00775@gmail.com
Zain Ahmad Javed
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering,
COMSATS University
Lahore, Pakistan
Zj5416311@gmail.com
provider. Smart meters will enable two-way and real-time
communication between the consumers and the provider.
We are living in an era of technical evolution. Everything
we use nowadays is becoming smart and is integrated with our
cellphones and computers, constantly giving us feedbacks. But
the metering systems used in our houses are still analog or
digital but not smart. The goal of VAP Smart Meter is to make
an accurate digital meter using advanced technology like
microcontroller and GSM modem. It will also make a user
friendly interface between the user and the electrical meter, so
the user can get information about its energy consumption.
Today’s microcontrollers includes all essential parts
integrated in one small board which not only makes the overall
meter smaller but also improved functionality and choice for
further modifications.
VAP Smart Meter can be used to send data to the utility
providers like Power Factor, Energy consumption, Billing
Criteria (Both Residential or Commercial), Peak Hour energy
Consumption and many other features. This meter also
includes a display that show all the important parameters like
Voltages Current Power Factor Units consumed Active Power
consumed by Load. This smart meter can also be used for
manual meter reading in case of any system fault or any other
error. This Smart Energy Meter is designed for effective
energy utilization in smart cities.
Today’s microcontrollers includes all essential parts
integrated in one small board which not only makes the overall
meter smaller but also improved functionality and choice for
further modifications.
VAP Smart Meter can be used to send data to the utility
providers like Power Factor, Energy consumption, Billing
Criteria (Both Residential or Commercial), Peak Hour energy
Consumption and many other features. This meter also
includes a display that show all the important parameters like
Voltages Current Power Factor Units consumed Active Power
consumed by Load. This smart meter can also be used for
manual meter reading in case of any system fault or any other
error.
Fig. 1 shows how data transmit and receive in smart
metering purposes.
Fig. 1. Smart Metering Data Sequence
II. ENERGY METRING CURRENT SYSTEMS
For this working model present meter reading methods in
the region are studied and accompanied a wide-ranging study
on altered energy determining devices available now. The
most important category of energy meter is the
electromechanical induction meter. In these type of meters, the
complete amount of rotation of the disc is directly proportional
to the power spent by the users. [3]
Few Drawbacks of traditional energy meters are mentioned
below:
• Strong chance of Energy Theft by anyone in mega
events especially.
• Chance of human error while collecting the data from
meter.
• Electricity user has not his daily update of usage of
electricity.
• It is exceedingly depend on meter reading person
who collect all the readings.
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• There is no option of cross checking for readings
taking from meters.
• There is some probability to modify the meter
readings while taking snap shot of meter by using
different software trappings.
• There is no privacy and security for metering data.
The existing system is not reliable and at error level, also
this is time consuming approach. So the authors presented a
well-defined solution of this problem stated in next sections.
III. ARCHITECTURE OF PROPOSED SYSTEM
The projected scheme is cost effective and squeezed, so
installation come to be far at ease. This paper is also proposed
to give an outline of energy meter, which can minimize the
electricity theft and control the usage of electricity on end user
side to escape waste of power. It generally decreases the
manpower as the billing procedure is done robotically in this
recommended system.
A. Problem Statement
Energy crisis is a major issue for developing countries and
to solve this problem we need to find a way to save energy and
efficiently use it. The First step in efficiently using energy is
that every consumer should know its consumption pattern and
his current usage, so the user can monitor his consumption and
try to reduce it and save energy. Another problem is a better
interface with the consumers so not only it helps the consumers
to estimate their bills but also provide a way for utility
providers for easy bill collection while also saving the costs of
the trips to the physical location of the meter, most importantly
to avoid electricity theft.
B. Smart Energy Meter Block Diagram
This proposed system has two parts first is Smart Meter and
the second one is User End. First task of the authors is to design
a circuit to calculate the Voltages and Current along with the
factors like Power Factor, Apparent Power and Actual Power
using the microcontroller. There are many types of voltages
like instantaneous voltage, peak voltage, peak to peak voltage
and RMS voltage and similar is the case for currents and
power. Authors will be using RMS value of voltage and
current and Average Power. Microcontrollers work at low
voltages like 5V while the voltages they need to measure are
very high, which is in this case 220V. For this purpose they
will use Current Transformers and Potential Transformers.
The proposed system is consists on a Microcontroller,
Current Transformer (CT), Potential Transformer (PT), GSM
Module and a respective load mainly.
 This local controller as demonstrated in Fig. 2.
e) Display Unit:
This smart meter has also a display unit for
performance parameters like Power, Current of
Voltages display etc.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF SMART ENERGY METER

To study the proposed smart energy meter system, the
system is practically implement in both software and
hardware.
The functioning flow chart of the Smart Energy Meter is
shown in Fig. 3. This flow chart gives a design of the procedure
for make a complete system.

Fig. 2. Scheme of the Smart Energy Meter

The key functional element of this scheme is debated

henceforth.
a) Current Transformer:
Since the current is some percentage of the
original load current and is given by the turns ratio.
In this project authors attached a burden resistance as
a load to the secondary side of transformer and when
the secondary current flows through this resistance, a
voltage drop is obtained across it.
b) Potential Transformer:
It works in a similar way to Current Transformer,
only difference is voltage is considered this time and
also the winding ratio is much higher than that of
current transformer. Potential Transformer is
connected in parallel to the main line, so the
secondary voltage is some percentage of the primary
voltage determined by the turns ratio.
c) GSM Module:
For this smart meter project authors are using
SIM900A GSM module which has a built in antenna
for better reception. This is a GSM/GPRS compatible
Dual band cell phone which works on frequency of
900/1800 MHz which can be used for communication
with cell phones via call or SMS. It operates on 5V
DC supply and communicates with Arduino via the
RX and TX communication pins. It is controlled by Fig. 3. Flow Chart for Smart Energy Meter
the Arduino using AT commands
The fine points about practically operations are described
d) Microcontroller: below:
Arduino is used as a microcontroller in this A. Software Implementation
design. There are many other controllers available Authors performed the simulation of the smart meter circuit
which can be used in this project but the authors on PROTEUS, before they implement it on hardware, to get
preferred Arduino due to use and flow scheme of this some idea of the expected results. Arduino is not available on
work.

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PROTEUS but third party libraries can be downloaded and Fig.5. demonstrate the hardware of Smart Energy Meter.
installed which will give them somewhat similar Board to
Arduino in PROTEUS. Also a CT is not available on
PROTEUS, so they designed the burden resistor which can
alter the current being sensed.
Results for the simulation are shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 5. Hardware Implementation of the Smart Energy Meter

V. OUTCOMES AND DISCUSSIONS

The proposed system is comprised of Microcontroller and
GSM Module. To validate the system, experimental result is
acquired for numerous load connection of the scheme at a
certain time. Table I shows the test results of different loads
observe at Smart Energy Meter:
TABLE I
TEST RESULTS
Fig. 4. Software Implementation of the Smart Energy Meter
Real Voltage Voltage
Power
Different Load Conditions Power (Actual) (Observe)
Factor
W V V
This simulation result is very useful for calculate
percentage error of practical and software results. After 100W Resistive Load 95 1.00 220 220
analyze these results now time to implement it on hardware for
15W Resistive Load 14 0.98 218 217
the betterment of smart cities.
40W Inductive Load 71 0.58 213.5 213
B. Hardware Implementation
100W Resistive Load and 40
After successfully implementation of simulation, authors 154 0.92 207 207
W Inductive Load
moved forward and implement it on hardware. They used
Arduino as a microcontroller and GSM Module for 100W Resistive Load and
112 1.00 225 225
communication. Moreover Current and Potential Transformers 15W Resistive Load
are also used to measure and calculate Voltages and Currents.
These are combined and make a complete sketch of Smart 100W Resistive Load, 15W
Energy Meter. This smart energy meter system is act as a Resistive Load and 40 W 167 0.94 215 215
Inductive Load
closed loop system as well as open system because when it
shows an error message system will be open otherwise it will
be a closed system. Bill calculation is also the major part of the smart energy
When the system is operated, Arduino receives data from meter which is done by utility providers. Authors are
Current and Potential Transformers after receiving that considering one unit price default local rates, so the billing will
microcontroller initialize command and calculate required be done accordingly.
performance parameters e.g. Voltage, Power or Current etc. There are different options for billing.
Moreover GSM connects to network and receive live • A constant single rate per unit
information and at the end shown on display. If it detects some • Billing according to peak and off-peak load times
theft or any other behavior it will show a message error on • Exponential billing in which as more units are used,
mobile and display. more expensive single unit becomes.

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 Using Microcontrollers, this is very easy to calculate and
can be modified or adjusted according to the utility providers.
Fig. 6. shows the readings for Performance Parameters and
Fig. 7. presents overview of VAP Smart Meter
Fig. 6. Performance Parameters Calculations
Fig. 7. General Overview of VAP Smart Meter
VI. CONCLUSION
This research work provide the development of the growth
in technology about electrical supply grid which is an endless
procedure. In the current work wireless system of meter
reading is planned to constantly observe & monitor the meter
reading values and to shut down the power supply the slightest
bit each and every time the end user fails to pay the bill or it
find any energy theft. It also escapes the human interference,
which delivers well-organized meter reading, it evades the any
billing error and also decreases the cost of maintenance. It
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shows the consistent statistics on LCD display for end user
notice. The benefits of Smart Energy Meter are it needs a
smaller amount of manpower, there is no need to pursuit
payments and most importantly power theft detection is also
possible. All in all, design and operation of VAP Smart Energy
Meter for Effective Energy Utilization in Smart Cities is
presented in this research work which can replaced old
fashioned meters in our surroundings.
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