Al-Saheer S. S. et al. Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Applications www.ijera.com ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 4, Issue 9( Version 4), September 2014, pp.59-66 www.ijera.com 59 | Page Design of a Smart Meter for the Indian Energy Scenario Al-Saheer S. S.*, Shimi S. L.** and Dr. S. Chatterji*** *PG Student, **Assistant Professor, ***Professor and Head Dept. of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research, Chandigarh, India ABSTRACT Accurate metering, detection of energy theft and implementation of proper tariff as well as billing system are vital in wise energy management. These objectives can be achieved by using Smart Meters. This article introduces a microcontroller based Smart Meter using wireless communication and LabVIEW suitable for the Indian Energy Scenario. The Smart Meter and Time Of Day (TOD) tariff pricing make the consumers an active part of energy management, thereby energy deficit during peak hours can be alleviated indirectly. Keywords - Energy Management, Energy Conservation, Demand Side Management, Smart Meters, Time Of Day Tariff, Zigbee, LabVIEW I. INTRODUCTION Due to rapid increase in human population and the human‟s dependency towards electrical energy, the demand of electricity has increased, causing deficit of electrical energy during peak hours. As per the report of CEA, India [1], the gap between the electrical energy supply and the energy demand in July-2014 is -3.9% (MW). Accurate metering, detection of illegal activities and implementation of proper tariff and billing system would manage the consumption of electrical energy. Collecting meter reading is one of the most difficult procedures in billing [2]. The traditional electrical energy meter data collection is such that a person from the utility provider visits the consumer sites periodically to note the meter reading. This procedure has lot of drawbacks such as, it is time consuming, tiresome and requires more human resource, human error and even corruption is probable [2-16]. The process may be interrupted due to bad weather conditions, also if the consumer is not available, the billing will be pending and human operator needs to revisit. India is facing energy deficit during peak hours. Low voltage during peak hours has been reported as a major power quality issue. Load shedding is a common power management practice followed by the utility providers [17]. Energy conservation has great significance in this scenario of increasing electrical energy demand. An Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system equipped with advanced features like two-way communication, Time-Of-Day (TOD) tariff, etc. will address the problems of manual collection of meter data, energy deficit during peak hours and opens a channel for the consumers to participate in energy conservation. With development in technologies in the fields of communication and information technology, a wide variety of AMR and smart meters has been developed. A smart meter is an AMR with two-way communication infrastructure. Smart meters has been designed for various features like remote monitoring of energy consumptions, remote turn ON/OFF power supply, remote detection of energy theft, with time varying pricing system, remote fault detection, capable of monitoring power quality etc. [17]. Developments in information management and remote monitoring technology can play a vital role in energy management [18-19]. Smart meter reading co- operate both utilities and consumers in power management, giving them detailed information about power consumption [7]. Although the implementation cost of Smart meters systems are high [20], their implementation will increase the revenue of the utility provider because of the following reasons, the working status of the consumer end meters can be identified remotely [3], eliminate the corruption by the human operator or the consumer [3], [12] and [21], labour of meter reading is eliminated [22], integration of an apt tariff system with the smart meter reading data reduces the consumption of electricity during peak hours [19] and [23], etc. Smart meters perceived to be a necessity rather than luxury in India [20]. This article proposes the design of a smart meter which can address issues in the power distribution. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section two discusses the architecture of demand based smart metering system. Software design of the system has been presented in section three. This includes mathematical formulation of billing, software incorporation of functionalities and GUI design. RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS