Upgrading of Traditional Electric Meter into Wireless Electric Meter Using ZigBee Technology

In order to solve the problems of heavy workload, weak planning, and repetitive maintenance in the periodic rotation of smart energy meters, the author proposes a verification cycle optimization method based on the evaluation results of energy meter status. This method first obtains data on six indicators of smart energy meters: regional factors, reliability, full event, abnormal metering events, battery overload, and clock battery undervoltage; Subsequently, on the one hand, the coefficient of variation assignment method is used to obtain the status score of each electricity meter, and on the other hand, these six indicator data are used as input data, and the K means clustering algorithm is used to classify and obtain the corresponding categories. Finally, the two algorithms are combined to obtain a new method for evaluating the status of smart energy meters, and the final evaluation result is output. The experimental results indicate that: The number of electricity meters scored below 80 points obtained by this method accounts for 22.08% of the total number of electricity meters, while electricity meters scored above 80 points account for 77.93% of the total number of electricity meters. This indicates that this method is in line with the actual situation and objective laws. Constructing a state evaluation model for electric energy meters, using historical data and on-site calibration data as state variables, analyzing the annual operational quality of electric energy meters, and providing reference basis for adjusting the calibration cycle of electric energy meters.

KWH meter system of Automatic Meter Reading or hereafter will be referred to the kWH meter AMR is a recording system of electric energy meter is done automatically and remotely.Communication data sent by the kWH meter AMR of PT PLN (Persero) Jakarta and Tangerang Distribution using SMS modem which interfacing kWHmeterselectronic withwireless telecommunications networks. kWH meter AMR have features other than noting the energy used, also noting the voltage, electric current, power factor(cos ϕ), and as well as the use of electricity meters in record-keeping more quickly. Thus the PT PLN (Persero) Distribution can perform distribution network management (DNM) that makes it easier in terms of channeling energy into customers and monitoring the electric energy usage by customers. The results of the analysis of kWh meter AMR system can reduce losses caused by abnormalities in the distribution network system. SMS telemetry signal communication with the modem is unstable and often fail withdrawal data. To overcome the problem of the use of the old modem, the modem needs to be replaced with GPRS / LTE user ready. However, the use of power line communication (PLC) as a data transmission network to reduce reliance on mobile telecommunications networks.

Research on smart meters has shown that fine-grained energy usage data poses privacy risks since it allows inferences about activities inside the home. While smart meter deployments are very limited, more than 40 million meters in the United States have been equipped with Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) technology over the past decades. AMR utilizes wireless communication for remotely collecting usage data from electricity, gas, and water meters. Yet to the best of our knowledge, AMR has so far received no attention from the security research community. In this paper, we conduct a security and privacy analysis of this technology. Based on our reverse engineering and experimentation, we find that the technology lacks basic security measures to ensure privacy, integrity, and authenticity of the data. Moreover, the AMR meters we examined continuously broadcast their energy usage data over insecure wireless links every 30s, even though these broadcasts can only be received when a truck from the utility company passes by. We show how this design allows any individual to monitor energy usage from hundreds of homes in a neighborhood with modest technical effort and how this data allows identifying unoccupied residences or people's routines. To cope with the issues, we recommend security remedies, including a solution based on defensive jamming that may be easier to deploy than upgrading the meters themselves.

Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) as the power utility company have to deliver good services to their customers. Metering method is one of the problems that TNB have to overcome. Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) technology has proved effective in reading meter readings with TNB's large customers (LPC, Large Power Customers). Global System for Mobile communication-based (GSM) AMR technology is used. Here GSM module is attached to each LPC's meter, and data reading can be done automatically without visiting the customer's sites. The same way can be done with their domestic customers (OPC, Ordinary Power Customers), but the cost would be quite high since the numbers of OPC quite big. In this paper we described the AMR technology with least cost. The system is a combination of ZigBee and GSM technology. In this propose system, ZigBee module will be attached to the meter by using interface board and the data collector will be connected to the central computer by using GSM. The system is suitable with Malaysian environment which was already implemented GSM-based AMR in LPC. With this system TNB can save cost in doing meter reading and provide better services to their customers.

According to the market requirements of Electric Meter. Presenting the remote wireless Electric Meter Reading System, this aims at resolving the shortcomings of the technology of the traditional Electric Meter Reading, combining the characteristics of the ZigBee technology and IEEE802.15.4 standard. The hardware implementation was designed, and then analyzed the use cases for Electric Meter.

The urge to manage daily energy consumption has now become a worldwide priority. The Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart meter has been widely used to monitor energy consumption in many households. LoRaWAN connectivity is confirmed to be one of the most reliable connectivity to be used as a network system for IoT use cases. It can fulfill the needs of low power, long-range, efficient, and affordable IoT technology in utility energy monitoring. LoRaWAN-based smart electric meters are designed in rural areas for monitoring and managing electric energy consumption. The smart electric meter system consists of smart kWh meters, LoRa gateway, network system, and dashboard for energy usage monitoring. The system design process consists of feature design, architecture design, data flow design, LoRa gateway site planning, and platform setup. The implementation can be concluded that LoRa can be used for smart electric meters in rural areas. A gateway can reach a maximum distance of 1.58 km, with an RSSI of -99.40 dBm ±4.56 dBm. LoRa gateway availability can reach 100% by implementing gateway protection systems. The LoRaWAN-based smart electricity meter has also proven to be costoptimized, efficiently reducing monthly costs to 92.12%.

With the substantial increase in implementation of green technology across all sectors worldwide to overcome energy loss, attributes such as reliability, efficiency, productivity, and security become very crucial for a system. Especially with the integration of IoT and smart features into a system alongside the evolution of Internet, cybersecurity and privacy of an individual component should be taken into important consideration. A smart grid comprises wireless network components exposed to cyber-attacks, smart meters being one the most vulnerable part of an advanced metering infrastructure. An advanced metering infrastructure enables two-way communication for automatic meter readings (AMR) and transmits data through wireless network. To counter cyber-attacks afflicting the network of AMI and functioning of a smart meter, additional intrusion detection methods are implemented into the grid network. The review includes cybersecurity concerns associated with smart meters along with an in-depth insight to some major cyber-attacks and their aftermath.KeywordsCybersecurityCyber-attacks advanced metering infrastructure (AMI)Smart metersDenial-of-service (DoS)False data injection (FDI)Man-in-the-middle (MitM)

The energy policies and environmental issues require novel solutions to generate electricity in a challenging and efficient way. The sustainable and reliable grid operations are related to demand management as well as generation. One of the most important requirements to build smarter grids is including smart metering to the power system. The smart grid is not only considered to provide essential energy infrastructure but also a key concept to increase the energy efficiency owing to control and management opportunities brought by communication features. The prominent technologies of smart meters enable operational equipment on the distribution network in addition to conventional metering operations. The load management approach that is defined with several terms as demand side management, demand side response, or demand control is required for the systematic management of loads on distribution networks. There is a wide variety of smart meters and operation structures are available in industry. The automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) are the most widely known smart metering infrastructure. Although they are similar in many aspects, they differ in communication and metering processes. The network structures and gateway organisations used in smart metering will also be discussed in this presentation. Another outstanding device that is being widely integrated into the transmission and distribution networks is Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). Although the PMUs are operated in wide networks of transmission lines, it is considered that they will be required to be used in medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) in a short while. The contents of this presentation will cover the topics summarized above and their industrial and scientific application examples.

The trends and technologies in power systems are rapidly changing. As part of conversion to Smart Grid, there is an increased demand for an efficient and reliable Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system especially in domestic consumers. Smart energy meters are widely employed in developed countries where there are Smart grids. The immediate transition to smart meters generates huge financial investments for developing countries like India. In order to minimize this initial investment as well as the E-wastes, it is possible to upgrade the functionality of the existing digital meter by incorporating an additional circuitry. This paper presents the design of an energy meter suitable for our traditional power grids, and its associated web interface based on cloud storage, for automating billing and managing the collected data. Here the proposed design converts the conventional digital electronic energy meters into AMRs, capable of communicating with the utility and the consumers. A Long Range (LoRa) WiFi-based wireless communication module is integrated with an electronic energy meter through a gateway and Raspberry pi module. An optocoupler is used to fetch the meter readings from the pulses of LEDs of the energy meter. A LoRa receiver at the other end, with a cloud database, acts as the billing point. The cloud storage used is Firebase. A responsive, user-friendly graphical user interface has developed for monitoring the consumption. With proper authentication, users can access the developed web page from anywhere in the world. The total energy consumption and the due bill of the customers can be obtained from this webpage. The consumers can also set their consumption limits and thereby reduce their overall energy consumption for energy management. The proposed system neglects the regular digital metering system and allows remote access to the electronic meter.

The losses in distribution networks have always been key elements in predicting investment, planning work, evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of a network. This paper elaborates on the use of fuzzy logic systems in analyzing the data from a particular substation area predicting losses in the low voltage network. The data collected from the field were obtained from the Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) and Automatic Meter Management (AMM) systems. The AMR system is fully implemented in EPHZHB and integrated within the network infrastructure at secondary level substations 35/10kV and 10(20)/0.4 kV. The AMM system is partially implemented in the areas of electrical energy consumers; precisely, in accounting meters. Daily information gathered from these systems is of great value for the calculation of technical and non-technical losses. Fuzzy logic in combination with the Artificial Neural Networks implemented via the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) is used. Finally, FIS Sugeno, FIS Mamdani and ANFIS are compared with the measured data from smart meters and presented with their errors and graphs.

Smart electric meters collect data on electricity use to potentially improve efficiency for utilities, shape power consumption, and ultimately reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Consumer groups and experts have raised concerns about privacy, as smart meters can provide detailed information about activity within the home. This study examines privacy beliefs of U.S. consumers using qualitative data from focus groups together with experimental data from a national online survey of utility customers. Exploratory analysis of focus group findings suggested that consumers who felt in control of their data perceived fewer risks and more benefits from having access to the data. Participants in the online experiment saw greater risk and less benefit when advised that smart meters could be used to raise prices under time‐of‐use pricing. Participants also saw greater risk when the utility shared customer data with a third party. Risks and benefits influenced perceptions of control. These findings accord with several information privacy frameworks adding new insights about consumers' perceived control over their energy data. The findings can inform utility companies and policymakers with respect to giving consumers more control over their data, reducing consumers' privacy concerns, communicating benefits of smart meter data, and providing accurate information about the risks.

Aimed at the limitation of meter reading system in rural areas, this article presents Zigbee wireless communication technology. Meter reading system with wireless micro-computer CC2430 as the core is designed based on the analysis of CC2430'structure and character. This system realizes remote meter reading in any position. This article describes the network structure of the system, designs the hardware circuit and analyzes Zigbee advantages in automatic meter reading system.

According to the United Nations’ (UN) estimation, the global population living in urban areas at present is 55%, which, at this pace, will reach 68% in 2050. The urban population is critically dependent on electricity because electricity is primarily an essential ingredient of the manufacturing systems and a necessity for an average urban household. The population will be severely affected by any sort of electricity brownout or blackout. The dependence of human life on electricity in today’s world has evolved electrical infrastructures to new technology infrastructures called smart grid. Smart grid infrastructure has become inevitable in prediction, generation, distribution, and billing of electricity. The integration of smart network systems in electricity generation, distribution, and measuring systems has become a priority for all the developed and developing countries. The use of smart energy meters, a vital part in the smart grid systems, is replacing the conventional metering systems. As per the IEI latest report in 2020, 98 million smart meters have been installed in the USA until 2019, which is 70% of the total US households. In other countries such as the UK, the smart metering infrastructure is a part of a governmental initiative. The use of smart technology in electrical infrastructures has brought multiple cost benefits to both the service providers and consumers, besides making it more secure, efficient, and safe. Its use is gaining popularity in combating environmental issues that the world is facing today. Security is one of the major challenges in the present-day smart grid systems because of the long-range communication on open networks. Cybercriminals, hackers, and terrorists are trying to attack this national infrastructure. This chapter offers a comprehensive survey of understanding of smart grid securities, the attacks, mainly cyberattacks, and the solutions being offered by various researchers, methodologies used, and the communication protocols used. This chapter also focuses on the cyberattacks, energy thefts on smart meters, and solutions recommended on the smart meters. This chapter finally discusses the various challenges in cybersecurity and the current proposed solutions with future research gap.

The role of the Smart meters in the energy management systems

With the development of intelligent power grid, the automatic meter reading system has replaced the manual meter reading system, but in some places with special environment and difficult wiring, it is particularly difficult to use the wired way to read meters. Therefore, based on this, this paper introduces ZigBee wireless network communication technology into the design of remote meter reading system, which can effectively solve the problem of wiring difficulties in special occasions and improve The problems of data transmission in the original meter reading system make the system more applicable. In this paper, a data acquisition system based on ZigBee wireless technology is designed. Starting from hardware and software, the networking and data transmission of ZigBee are introduced. Finally, the data is sent to PC for data processing and storage.