AN AUTOMATED ENERGY METER READING SYSTEM USING GSM TECHNOLOGY

The measurement of the energy consumed by residential and commercial buildings by utility provider is important in billing, control and monitoring of the usage of energy. Traditional metering techniques used for the measurement of energy are not convenient and is prone to different forms of irregularities. These irregularities include inaccuracies in billing due to human error, energy theft, loss of revenue due to corruption and so on. This research study proposed the design and construction of a microcontroller based electric energy metering system using the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) network. This system provides solution to the irregularities posed by the traditional metering technique by allowing the utility provider have access to remote monitoring capabilities, full control over consumer load, and remote power disconnection in the case of energy theft. Proteus simulation software was used to model the system hardware and the software was obtained by using embedded C programming and visual basic. It was observed that the system could remotely take accurate energy readings, provided full control over consumer loads and execute remote disconnection in case of energy theft. The system provides high performance and high accuracy in power monitoring and power management. Keywords: GSM, Automatic