Integrated Electricity Meter And Cost Calculator.
PROJECT TITLE
INTEGRATED ELECTRICITY METER AND COST CALCULATOR
MUHAMMAD THORIQ BIN MOHAMAD ZAID
This report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award
of Bachelor of Electronics Engineering (Industrial Electronics) With Honours.
Faculty of Electronic and Computer Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
June 2013
v
DEDICATION
Dedicated in thankful appreciation to my parents, siblings, colleagues and friends for
the support, encouragement and understanding
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Alhamdulillah, In the name of Allah Most Mighty annd Most Merciful Peace
and Blessing be upon His Prophet Muhammd S.A.W. Firstly, I would like to express
gratitude to Allah for His grace the consent and aid the project completed as planned
with great success.
In completing this project, I was met many people that help me a lot until this
thesis and project successfully complete. Thanks for all the efforts and kindness in
helping me. I also thankful to my parents who have been a giant strength and support
to me in my life and in my studies. Also not forget to the people close to me who
give fully support and give strenghnest throughout this education.
I would also like to acknowledge and thank to my supervisor, Mr. Imran
Hindustan for give me a lot of support, guidance, encourage and advice for me along
my way to complete this project. Lastly, thanks to all my friends and those who
involves directly or indirectly in the success of this project.
vii
ABSTRACT
This project report describes the development of an electric meter with
integrated circuit to display household monthly electricity usage. Unlike the
conventional meters, this project also tries to integrate an electricity cost
calculator into the same device. So the meter could display two information
on its screen; amount of electricity usage (kwh) and the amount of bill (RM).
The cost calculations are based on the pricing and electricity tariffs rates
provided by Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). It is built to educate people to a
better manage the usage of energy. By showing the amount of bill of current
use and appropriate indicator and monitoring element, the household will be
trained to use energy in economically. This project uses PIC18F4553
microcontroller as a processor to execute programming code and instruction
for the output and input peripheral. The main component of this energy meter
is ACS758 50A Current Sensor that detects the current flow in a circuit as a
compulsory element to calculate energy. This product can be considered as
green technology product and helps the environment in the long run.
viii
ABSTRAK
Laporan projek ini menerangkan tentang pembangunan meter elektrik
dengan litar bersepadu untuk memaparkan jumlah penggunaan elektrik
bulanan isi rumah. Tidak seperti meter konvensional yang lain, projek ini
menggabungkan pengiraan kos elektrik ke dalam peranti yang sama. Jadi,
meter ini boleh memaparkan dua maklumat pada skrin iaitu jumlah
penggunaan elektrik (kwh) dan jumlah bil (RM). Pengiraan kos adalah
berdasarkan harga dan tarif kadar elektrik mengikut yang ditentukan oleh
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). Ia dibangunkan untuk mendidik orang ramai
supaya menguruskan penggunaan elektrik dengan baik. Dengan menunjukkan
jumlah bil penggunaan semasa dan penunjuk yang sesuai serta elemen
pengawal, pengguna akan dilatih untuk menggunakan tenaga dengan
berhemah. Projek ini akan menggunakan PIC18F4553 mikropengawal
sebagai pemproses untuk melaksanakan kod pengaturcaraan dan arahan
kepada keluaran dan masukan. Komponen utama projek ini ialah ACS758
50A pengesan arus yang mengesan arus yang mengalir dalam litar sebagai
elemen utama pengiraan tenaga. Produk ini boleh dianggap sebagai produk
teknologi hijau dan membantu alam sekitar dalam jangka masa panjang.
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
II
TITLES
PAGE
PROJECT TITLE
i
DECLARATION
iii
DEDICATION
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
vi
ABSTRACT
vii
ABSTRAK
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ix
LIST OF FIGURE
xii
LIST OF TABLE
xiv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
xv
LIST OF APPANDICES
xvi
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Introduction
1
1.2
Backgrounds of Problem
2
1.3
Objectives
4
1.4
Scope of Work
4
1.5
Importance of Study
5
1.6
Thesis Outline
5
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Energy Meter
6
2.2
Recent Research Project
8
x
III
2.3
Energy Calculation
9
2.4
TNB as the Electrical Energy Provider
13
2.5
Component Selection
14
2.5.1
PIC 18F4553 Microcontroller
14
2.5.2
ACS 756 Current Sensor
18
METHODOLOGY
3.1
Project Planning
21
3.2
Software Development
23
3.2.1
Designing Programming Code
24
3.2.2
Designing Simulation Circuit
25
3.3
IV
Hardware Circuit
27
3.3.1
AC Circuit
28
3.3.2
DC Circuit
30
RESULT & DISCUSSION
4.1
Simulation Result
32
4.1.1
Timer Simulation
32
4.1.2
Simulating Analog Input
33
4.1.3
Simulation of Power, Energy and Cost
4.1.4
4.2
4.3
Calculation
34
Simulation of Indicators and Buttons
36
Hardware Result
39
4.2.1
Design Schematic Circuit
39
4.2.2
Design PCB Layout Circuit
40
4.2.3
PCB Fabrication & Component Assemble
42
4.2.4
Combining AC & DC Circuit
43
Result Analysis
46
xi
V
CONCLUSSION & RECOMMENDATION
5.1
Conclusion
49
5.2
Project Recommendation
50
5.2.1
Power Recovery
50
5.2.2
Use higher ADC bit Microprocessor
51
5.2.3
Using voltage sensor
51
5.2.4
Use higher capabilities of current sensor
51
5.2.5
Setup for 3-phase type supply voltage
52
REFERENCES
53
APPENDIX A
55
APPENDIX B
56
APPENDIX C
57
APPENDIX D
58
xii
LIST OF FIGURE
NO
TITLE
PAGE
1.1
Electricity Consumption per kapita in ASEAN
2
1.2
Portable electricity energy meter in market
3
2.1
Single phase Digital Energy Meter
7
2.2
Power Factor Triangle
11
2.3
PIC Microcontroller
15
2.4
PIC 18F4553 pin diagram
16
2.5
50A Current Sensor
19
2.6
ACS 756 Pin out Diagram
20
2.7
Current sensor Wire Assembly
20
3.1
Flowchart of project planning
22
3.2
Preprocessor directives example
24
3.3
Example of function declaration
25
3.4
Example of function definition
25
3.5
Example simulation circuit by Proteus Professional
26
3.6
Microprocessor setup to read programming code
27
3.7
Input/output System block diagram
28
3.8
Single phase AC Electric Flow
29
3.9
AC Schematic Circuit Diagram
29
3.10
Microcontroller block diagram process
31
4.1
Timer Simulation Result
33
4.2
Analog input simulation result
34
4.3
Programming code for analog input reading
34
4.4
Programming code for Power, Energy & Cost Calculation
35
xiii
4.5
Energy & Cost Simulation Result
36
4.6
Programming code of different LCD screen mode
37
4.7
Simulation result of different LCD screen mode
37
4.8
Simulation result of limit adjuster display
38
4.9
Overall simulation result of integrated Electricity meter Device
38
4.10
Full schematic circuit for integrated Electricity meter Device
39
4.11
PCB Layout Circuit
40
4.12
PCB Design Circuit in 3D View
41
4.13
Fabricated PCB Circuit
42
4.14
PCB Board Component Assembly
42
4.15
Complete Electricity Calculator Meter Device
43
4.16
Main View of Electricity Calculator Meter Device
44
4.17
Left side view
45
4.18
Right side view
45
4.19
Analysis analog reading
46
4.20
Sample of Current Test Result
48
xiv
LIST OF TABLE
NO
TITLE
PAGE
2.1
TNB tariff rates for residential consumer
13
2.2
Comparison PIC 16F877 and PIC 18F4553
17
4.1
Comparison Current Results
47
xv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
PIC
-
Programmable Integrated Circuit
LCD
-
Liquid Crystal Display
LED
-
Light Emitting Diode
PIC
-
Peripheral Interface Controller
ADC -
Analog to Digital Converter
DC
-
Direct Current
AC
-
Alternate Current
PCB
-
Printed Circuit Board
IC
-
Integrated Circuit
TNB
-
Tenaga Nasional Malaysia
kWh
-
Kilowatt Hour
RM
-
Ringgit Malaysia
xvi
LIST OF APPANDICES
NO
TITLE
PAGE
A
PIC18F4553 Datasheet
55
B
ACS756 Current Sensor Datasheet
56
C
Gantt Chart
57
D
Programming Code
58
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Introduction
Power or energy crisis has always been a critical agenda to the world.
Practicing good power management is needed to control massive usage of electrical
energy in industrial, commercial, public and everyday household uses. Since energy
has become the prime contributor to the rapid growth of the Malaysian economy [1],
the utility management emerge as an important thing in order to ensure that the
utility is not burden to the public especially to pay the rate of electricity bills. People
are trying to reduce the cost of electricity bills in several ways as they start to
concern about the uncontrollable electricity usages. A research in UK found that the
regular monitoring of energy patterns can indicate areas of unnecessary consumption
while the reporting of power usage can provide savings of up to 20 percent [2].
The awareness of managing power consumption brings us to an idea to
develop a device that could can monitor the usage of the electricity and educate
people in using the energy. Calculating kilowatt-hour energy doesn‟t give a special
function to the energy meter as the current product did, unless the total cost of the
amount usage is shown as one of the parameter in managing the power consumption.
Expanding the idea, the product would also be installed with an appropriate indicator
and some controlling elements where users have the ability to set when the system
will warn them.
2
Basically, the development of this project includes hardware and software
elements in an integrated circuit in order to display monthly electricity usage. Unlike
the conventional meters, this project tries to integrate an electricity cost calculator
into the same device. The outputs being displayed will be electricity usage in
kilowatt-hour (kWh) and amount of current usage in Malaysia Ringgit (RM).
The system acquires the amount of current used and converts it into amount
cost using a microcontroller. The cost calculations are based on the pricing and
electricity tariffs rates provided by the national utility provider in Malaysia, which is
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). Both of the parameters will be used in a controlling
element where the user can set up a certain electricity usage amount and an indicator
will be activated once the usage exceeds it.
1.2
Backgrounds of Problem
As the electrical energy consumption is proportional to the usage of
electricity, the higher usage of electricity leads to the higher bill costing. The
uncontrolled daily electricity consumption causes the monthly electricity bill to hike
up without realizing that it exceeds the household budget. In addition, the household
cannot control the usage of electricity because there is no indicator or measurement
Electricity Consumption
per kapita (kWh)
that can tell them the amount cost of current usage.
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Philippines
Indonesia
1990
1995
2000
Year
2005
2010
Figure 1.3: Electricity Consumption per kapita in ASEAN [3]
3
Moreover, according to the data from World Bank Indicators [3] as shown in
Figure 1.1, the electricity consumption in Malaysia is becoming of an interest
nowadays given the fact that the Malaysia‟s electricity consumption per capita is the
second highest among the five ASEAN founding nation.
Other than that, the currently assembled electricity energy meter by electrical
energy providers will only shows the current electrical consumption in terms of kWh
rather than showing the cost of energy that has been spent. Psychologically, the
conventional system applied would not affect the trend of electrical consumption, but
it might function accordingly if the meter displays the pricing information. It is
because many households could not understand the readings in kWh instead of in
RM. Real-time pricing in energy meter gives a real cost-controlling opportunity to
the users in practicing a good power management.
Some products that already manufactured such as „Plug-in Electricity
Monitor‟ as in Figure 1.2 can measure the amount of usage, however the reading
taken directly using a specific plug and socket for electric tools installed on the plug.
It does not measure the overall of the electricity usage.
Figure 1.4: Portable electricity energy meter in market
4
Hence, this Integrated Electricity Cost Calculator Meter project is developed
to provide monitoring function to the user about the usage and spending of the
electricity.
1.3
Objectives
The objectives of this project are:
1. To develop and design a device that integrates a meter display cost
calculator in a single device.
2. To design a product with control settings and indicators and simple for
household to use.
1.4
Scope of Work
The scope of this project is basically producing a device that is detachable
from the single phase digital main electricity meter. The device should be able to
calculate the energy consumed by the household and convert it into cost in Malaysian
Ringgit. Both consumptions in kWh and RM will be shown in an LCD display. The
cost calculations are based on the pricing and electricity tariffs rates effective from
1st June 2011 for residential consumer provided by the national utility provider in
Malaysia, which is Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). According to the TNB tariff
booklet, there are four types of meter reading calculated for residential consumer [4].
This project is focused on the normal meter reading (N type) which is an actual
reading billing of the consumer.
The design and development of the project uses PIC microcontroller to
integrate the input from electricity supply and loads with the output of LCD display
and indicator.
5
1.5
Importance of Study
Continuous researches in this area have been conducted for many years since
the emerging technology leads the world of innovation. Since Malaysia is practicing
the Energy Efficient (EE) model under the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology
and Water [5] [6], the application and implementation towards the idea in this
Integrated Electricity Cost Calculator Meter has indirectly supports the efforts where
the energy savings being one of the element of the product. This project could be
considered as green technology and helps the environment in the long run besides
achieving its objective in educating people in practicing good power management
and solve the burden of electricity bill increment.
1.6
Thesis Outline
This report consist of 5 different chapters. The first chapter for this report is
introduction. In introduction, it will have a few of sub-topics, which are problem
statement, objectives, scope of project, and the importance of the study. Basically
this chapter is an overview of the project where the idea being generated from
problem statement followed by managing the entire basis scope of the project.
Second chapter for this report is literature review. In this chapter it also divided into
a few of sub chapters that will explain the study of electrical energy meter,
calculation involve and suitable component for the project. The third chapter is
methodology part. This part will explain about some of the guidelines for this project
and also clearly mentioned steps that should be taken for this project. It show the step
to achieve the main objective in this thesis. The fourth chapter is the result and
discussion. This part will describe about the results and findings obtained and also
discussing the matter related for this project. The last chapter is conclusion and
recommendation. In this part, it will conclude whether this project achieve the
objective and some recommendation for future improvement.
6
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Energy Meter
Electricity energy meter is a device that measures the amount of electrical
energy consumed by a residence, business, or an electrically powered device where it
is typically calibrated in billing units of kilowatt-hours (kWh). It is operate by
continuously measuring the instantaneous voltage and current and finding the
product of these to get the instantaneous electrical power (watts) which is then
integrated against time to get the energy used [7]. There are two types of supply
voltage from electrical energy provider, single-phase and three-phase supply. A
single-phase meter measures usage from a 240 volt supply through two wires, and a
3-phase meter is supplied with 415 volts through four wires. Since this Integrated
Electricity Cost Calculator Meter designed for residential consumer, the single phase
input with the lower current rate is being used rather than three phase input.
The electricity energy meters fall into two basic categories, electromechanical
and electronic meter. Electromechanical meter is an analog type meter that operates
by counting the revolutions of a non-magnetic metal disc which is made to rotate at a
speed proportional to the power passing through the meter, while the electronic meter
is a digital type meter that operates the input of loads, voltage, current and
instantaneous time to a digital signal processing system and convert the energy to the
pulse signal form [8]. Since the digital meter is more accurate and efficient than the
7
analog meter, this type of meter is being considered to be used in this project.
Moreover, the way to process the input is more easier using digital approach were it
can be read directly to microcontroller unit and absolutely easy to analyze data.
Figure 2.2: Single phase Digital Energy Meter
Single phase digital energy meter as shown in Figure 2.1 is example of
common digital energy meter that being used by household user in Malaysia. In
Malaysia, there are four companies that was assigned by electrical energy provider to
provide energy meter for household use. There are Smart Meter Technologies Sdn
Bhd (SMT), Malaysian Intellligence Meters Sdn Bhd (MIM), Krizik Malaysia Sdn
Bhd (KMSB) and MISA Sdn Bhd (MISA). These four companies are responsible to
produce a digital meter with energy calculation that based on the TNB tariff rates.
As the research area of this project involve the calculation of energy, this
project needs to get advises and guidelines from one of the energy meter provider to
get a clear way and method on how to measure input and calculate energy with
higher accuracy as what they are doing.
8
2.2
Recent Research Project
There are several research project conducted related to this system where the
electricity energy meter was developed digitally using several types of digital signal
processor or microcontroller. The development of these products in research market
shows the variety of system with different way of integrating digital energy meter
based on the function and application involve.
Sudin et. al [9] presented the Digital Household Energy Meter where this
product consist of a digital electrical pricing system which composed of a
communication system that upload usage data from the meter to a central computer
for data processing. The display panel is using computer interfaces developed using
Visual Basic software that connected via RS-232 communication cable to MK-6
Genius, a type of digital energy meter. The idea implement seem to be similar with
the development of this Electricity Cost Calculator Meter device, but it is no
hardware produce because the simulation of the amount cost are calculate internally
using software interfaces.
Eng, (2011) produced a device called Cost Monitoring Digital Power Meter
[10] which is calculating the electrical energy and convert into cost. It is uses the PIC
16F877A microcontroller as the main component used to interface the input and
output. Input of the system is voltage from the supply, current from the load, and
instantaneous time, while the output is LCD display and LED indicator. The 240
volts AC Voltage is being reduced using step down transformer. The measurement of
this device is using Energy Meter Chip that integrates the voltage and current
together before the outputs of the integrated circuit goes to the PIC microcontroller
and produce the output in the form of pulses. The PIC Microcontroller was
programmed using appropriate programming language to give the instruction of
calculating the energy and cost and also controlling the output display and indicator.
However, this system has a problem where the calculating value is not accurate as
the real energy meter did. Observing the problem founds that the transformer used in
this system resulting the high percentage of loss voltage while the input is being
stepped down. Thus, the linearity of actual input and the reference voltage would not
be as accurate as what should it be.
INTEGRATED ELECTRICITY METER AND COST CALCULATOR
MUHAMMAD THORIQ BIN MOHAMAD ZAID
This report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award
of Bachelor of Electronics Engineering (Industrial Electronics) With Honours.
Faculty of Electronic and Computer Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
June 2013
v
DEDICATION
Dedicated in thankful appreciation to my parents, siblings, colleagues and friends for
the support, encouragement and understanding
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Alhamdulillah, In the name of Allah Most Mighty annd Most Merciful Peace
and Blessing be upon His Prophet Muhammd S.A.W. Firstly, I would like to express
gratitude to Allah for His grace the consent and aid the project completed as planned
with great success.
In completing this project, I was met many people that help me a lot until this
thesis and project successfully complete. Thanks for all the efforts and kindness in
helping me. I also thankful to my parents who have been a giant strength and support
to me in my life and in my studies. Also not forget to the people close to me who
give fully support and give strenghnest throughout this education.
I would also like to acknowledge and thank to my supervisor, Mr. Imran
Hindustan for give me a lot of support, guidance, encourage and advice for me along
my way to complete this project. Lastly, thanks to all my friends and those who
involves directly or indirectly in the success of this project.
vii
ABSTRACT
This project report describes the development of an electric meter with
integrated circuit to display household monthly electricity usage. Unlike the
conventional meters, this project also tries to integrate an electricity cost
calculator into the same device. So the meter could display two information
on its screen; amount of electricity usage (kwh) and the amount of bill (RM).
The cost calculations are based on the pricing and electricity tariffs rates
provided by Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). It is built to educate people to a
better manage the usage of energy. By showing the amount of bill of current
use and appropriate indicator and monitoring element, the household will be
trained to use energy in economically. This project uses PIC18F4553
microcontroller as a processor to execute programming code and instruction
for the output and input peripheral. The main component of this energy meter
is ACS758 50A Current Sensor that detects the current flow in a circuit as a
compulsory element to calculate energy. This product can be considered as
green technology product and helps the environment in the long run.
viii
ABSTRAK
Laporan projek ini menerangkan tentang pembangunan meter elektrik
dengan litar bersepadu untuk memaparkan jumlah penggunaan elektrik
bulanan isi rumah. Tidak seperti meter konvensional yang lain, projek ini
menggabungkan pengiraan kos elektrik ke dalam peranti yang sama. Jadi,
meter ini boleh memaparkan dua maklumat pada skrin iaitu jumlah
penggunaan elektrik (kwh) dan jumlah bil (RM). Pengiraan kos adalah
berdasarkan harga dan tarif kadar elektrik mengikut yang ditentukan oleh
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). Ia dibangunkan untuk mendidik orang ramai
supaya menguruskan penggunaan elektrik dengan baik. Dengan menunjukkan
jumlah bil penggunaan semasa dan penunjuk yang sesuai serta elemen
pengawal, pengguna akan dilatih untuk menggunakan tenaga dengan
berhemah. Projek ini akan menggunakan PIC18F4553 mikropengawal
sebagai pemproses untuk melaksanakan kod pengaturcaraan dan arahan
kepada keluaran dan masukan. Komponen utama projek ini ialah ACS758
50A pengesan arus yang mengesan arus yang mengalir dalam litar sebagai
elemen utama pengiraan tenaga. Produk ini boleh dianggap sebagai produk
teknologi hijau dan membantu alam sekitar dalam jangka masa panjang.
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
II
TITLES
PAGE
PROJECT TITLE
i
DECLARATION
iii
DEDICATION
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
vi
ABSTRACT
vii
ABSTRAK
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ix
LIST OF FIGURE
xii
LIST OF TABLE
xiv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
xv
LIST OF APPANDICES
xvi
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Introduction
1
1.2
Backgrounds of Problem
2
1.3
Objectives
4
1.4
Scope of Work
4
1.5
Importance of Study
5
1.6
Thesis Outline
5
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Energy Meter
6
2.2
Recent Research Project
8
x
III
2.3
Energy Calculation
9
2.4
TNB as the Electrical Energy Provider
13
2.5
Component Selection
14
2.5.1
PIC 18F4553 Microcontroller
14
2.5.2
ACS 756 Current Sensor
18
METHODOLOGY
3.1
Project Planning
21
3.2
Software Development
23
3.2.1
Designing Programming Code
24
3.2.2
Designing Simulation Circuit
25
3.3
IV
Hardware Circuit
27
3.3.1
AC Circuit
28
3.3.2
DC Circuit
30
RESULT & DISCUSSION
4.1
Simulation Result
32
4.1.1
Timer Simulation
32
4.1.2
Simulating Analog Input
33
4.1.3
Simulation of Power, Energy and Cost
4.1.4
4.2
4.3
Calculation
34
Simulation of Indicators and Buttons
36
Hardware Result
39
4.2.1
Design Schematic Circuit
39
4.2.2
Design PCB Layout Circuit
40
4.2.3
PCB Fabrication & Component Assemble
42
4.2.4
Combining AC & DC Circuit
43
Result Analysis
46
xi
V
CONCLUSSION & RECOMMENDATION
5.1
Conclusion
49
5.2
Project Recommendation
50
5.2.1
Power Recovery
50
5.2.2
Use higher ADC bit Microprocessor
51
5.2.3
Using voltage sensor
51
5.2.4
Use higher capabilities of current sensor
51
5.2.5
Setup for 3-phase type supply voltage
52
REFERENCES
53
APPENDIX A
55
APPENDIX B
56
APPENDIX C
57
APPENDIX D
58
xii
LIST OF FIGURE
NO
TITLE
PAGE
1.1
Electricity Consumption per kapita in ASEAN
2
1.2
Portable electricity energy meter in market
3
2.1
Single phase Digital Energy Meter
7
2.2
Power Factor Triangle
11
2.3
PIC Microcontroller
15
2.4
PIC 18F4553 pin diagram
16
2.5
50A Current Sensor
19
2.6
ACS 756 Pin out Diagram
20
2.7
Current sensor Wire Assembly
20
3.1
Flowchart of project planning
22
3.2
Preprocessor directives example
24
3.3
Example of function declaration
25
3.4
Example of function definition
25
3.5
Example simulation circuit by Proteus Professional
26
3.6
Microprocessor setup to read programming code
27
3.7
Input/output System block diagram
28
3.8
Single phase AC Electric Flow
29
3.9
AC Schematic Circuit Diagram
29
3.10
Microcontroller block diagram process
31
4.1
Timer Simulation Result
33
4.2
Analog input simulation result
34
4.3
Programming code for analog input reading
34
4.4
Programming code for Power, Energy & Cost Calculation
35
xiii
4.5
Energy & Cost Simulation Result
36
4.6
Programming code of different LCD screen mode
37
4.7
Simulation result of different LCD screen mode
37
4.8
Simulation result of limit adjuster display
38
4.9
Overall simulation result of integrated Electricity meter Device
38
4.10
Full schematic circuit for integrated Electricity meter Device
39
4.11
PCB Layout Circuit
40
4.12
PCB Design Circuit in 3D View
41
4.13
Fabricated PCB Circuit
42
4.14
PCB Board Component Assembly
42
4.15
Complete Electricity Calculator Meter Device
43
4.16
Main View of Electricity Calculator Meter Device
44
4.17
Left side view
45
4.18
Right side view
45
4.19
Analysis analog reading
46
4.20
Sample of Current Test Result
48
xiv
LIST OF TABLE
NO
TITLE
PAGE
2.1
TNB tariff rates for residential consumer
13
2.2
Comparison PIC 16F877 and PIC 18F4553
17
4.1
Comparison Current Results
47
xv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
PIC
-
Programmable Integrated Circuit
LCD
-
Liquid Crystal Display
LED
-
Light Emitting Diode
PIC
-
Peripheral Interface Controller
ADC -
Analog to Digital Converter
DC
-
Direct Current
AC
-
Alternate Current
PCB
-
Printed Circuit Board
IC
-
Integrated Circuit
TNB
-
Tenaga Nasional Malaysia
kWh
-
Kilowatt Hour
RM
-
Ringgit Malaysia
xvi
LIST OF APPANDICES
NO
TITLE
PAGE
A
PIC18F4553 Datasheet
55
B
ACS756 Current Sensor Datasheet
56
C
Gantt Chart
57
D
Programming Code
58
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Introduction
Power or energy crisis has always been a critical agenda to the world.
Practicing good power management is needed to control massive usage of electrical
energy in industrial, commercial, public and everyday household uses. Since energy
has become the prime contributor to the rapid growth of the Malaysian economy [1],
the utility management emerge as an important thing in order to ensure that the
utility is not burden to the public especially to pay the rate of electricity bills. People
are trying to reduce the cost of electricity bills in several ways as they start to
concern about the uncontrollable electricity usages. A research in UK found that the
regular monitoring of energy patterns can indicate areas of unnecessary consumption
while the reporting of power usage can provide savings of up to 20 percent [2].
The awareness of managing power consumption brings us to an idea to
develop a device that could can monitor the usage of the electricity and educate
people in using the energy. Calculating kilowatt-hour energy doesn‟t give a special
function to the energy meter as the current product did, unless the total cost of the
amount usage is shown as one of the parameter in managing the power consumption.
Expanding the idea, the product would also be installed with an appropriate indicator
and some controlling elements where users have the ability to set when the system
will warn them.
2
Basically, the development of this project includes hardware and software
elements in an integrated circuit in order to display monthly electricity usage. Unlike
the conventional meters, this project tries to integrate an electricity cost calculator
into the same device. The outputs being displayed will be electricity usage in
kilowatt-hour (kWh) and amount of current usage in Malaysia Ringgit (RM).
The system acquires the amount of current used and converts it into amount
cost using a microcontroller. The cost calculations are based on the pricing and
electricity tariffs rates provided by the national utility provider in Malaysia, which is
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). Both of the parameters will be used in a controlling
element where the user can set up a certain electricity usage amount and an indicator
will be activated once the usage exceeds it.
1.2
Backgrounds of Problem
As the electrical energy consumption is proportional to the usage of
electricity, the higher usage of electricity leads to the higher bill costing. The
uncontrolled daily electricity consumption causes the monthly electricity bill to hike
up without realizing that it exceeds the household budget. In addition, the household
cannot control the usage of electricity because there is no indicator or measurement
Electricity Consumption
per kapita (kWh)
that can tell them the amount cost of current usage.
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Philippines
Indonesia
1990
1995
2000
Year
2005
2010
Figure 1.3: Electricity Consumption per kapita in ASEAN [3]
3
Moreover, according to the data from World Bank Indicators [3] as shown in
Figure 1.1, the electricity consumption in Malaysia is becoming of an interest
nowadays given the fact that the Malaysia‟s electricity consumption per capita is the
second highest among the five ASEAN founding nation.
Other than that, the currently assembled electricity energy meter by electrical
energy providers will only shows the current electrical consumption in terms of kWh
rather than showing the cost of energy that has been spent. Psychologically, the
conventional system applied would not affect the trend of electrical consumption, but
it might function accordingly if the meter displays the pricing information. It is
because many households could not understand the readings in kWh instead of in
RM. Real-time pricing in energy meter gives a real cost-controlling opportunity to
the users in practicing a good power management.
Some products that already manufactured such as „Plug-in Electricity
Monitor‟ as in Figure 1.2 can measure the amount of usage, however the reading
taken directly using a specific plug and socket for electric tools installed on the plug.
It does not measure the overall of the electricity usage.
Figure 1.4: Portable electricity energy meter in market
4
Hence, this Integrated Electricity Cost Calculator Meter project is developed
to provide monitoring function to the user about the usage and spending of the
electricity.
1.3
Objectives
The objectives of this project are:
1. To develop and design a device that integrates a meter display cost
calculator in a single device.
2. To design a product with control settings and indicators and simple for
household to use.
1.4
Scope of Work
The scope of this project is basically producing a device that is detachable
from the single phase digital main electricity meter. The device should be able to
calculate the energy consumed by the household and convert it into cost in Malaysian
Ringgit. Both consumptions in kWh and RM will be shown in an LCD display. The
cost calculations are based on the pricing and electricity tariffs rates effective from
1st June 2011 for residential consumer provided by the national utility provider in
Malaysia, which is Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). According to the TNB tariff
booklet, there are four types of meter reading calculated for residential consumer [4].
This project is focused on the normal meter reading (N type) which is an actual
reading billing of the consumer.
The design and development of the project uses PIC microcontroller to
integrate the input from electricity supply and loads with the output of LCD display
and indicator.
5
1.5
Importance of Study
Continuous researches in this area have been conducted for many years since
the emerging technology leads the world of innovation. Since Malaysia is practicing
the Energy Efficient (EE) model under the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology
and Water [5] [6], the application and implementation towards the idea in this
Integrated Electricity Cost Calculator Meter has indirectly supports the efforts where
the energy savings being one of the element of the product. This project could be
considered as green technology and helps the environment in the long run besides
achieving its objective in educating people in practicing good power management
and solve the burden of electricity bill increment.
1.6
Thesis Outline
This report consist of 5 different chapters. The first chapter for this report is
introduction. In introduction, it will have a few of sub-topics, which are problem
statement, objectives, scope of project, and the importance of the study. Basically
this chapter is an overview of the project where the idea being generated from
problem statement followed by managing the entire basis scope of the project.
Second chapter for this report is literature review. In this chapter it also divided into
a few of sub chapters that will explain the study of electrical energy meter,
calculation involve and suitable component for the project. The third chapter is
methodology part. This part will explain about some of the guidelines for this project
and also clearly mentioned steps that should be taken for this project. It show the step
to achieve the main objective in this thesis. The fourth chapter is the result and
discussion. This part will describe about the results and findings obtained and also
discussing the matter related for this project. The last chapter is conclusion and
recommendation. In this part, it will conclude whether this project achieve the
objective and some recommendation for future improvement.
6
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Energy Meter
Electricity energy meter is a device that measures the amount of electrical
energy consumed by a residence, business, or an electrically powered device where it
is typically calibrated in billing units of kilowatt-hours (kWh). It is operate by
continuously measuring the instantaneous voltage and current and finding the
product of these to get the instantaneous electrical power (watts) which is then
integrated against time to get the energy used [7]. There are two types of supply
voltage from electrical energy provider, single-phase and three-phase supply. A
single-phase meter measures usage from a 240 volt supply through two wires, and a
3-phase meter is supplied with 415 volts through four wires. Since this Integrated
Electricity Cost Calculator Meter designed for residential consumer, the single phase
input with the lower current rate is being used rather than three phase input.
The electricity energy meters fall into two basic categories, electromechanical
and electronic meter. Electromechanical meter is an analog type meter that operates
by counting the revolutions of a non-magnetic metal disc which is made to rotate at a
speed proportional to the power passing through the meter, while the electronic meter
is a digital type meter that operates the input of loads, voltage, current and
instantaneous time to a digital signal processing system and convert the energy to the
pulse signal form [8]. Since the digital meter is more accurate and efficient than the
7
analog meter, this type of meter is being considered to be used in this project.
Moreover, the way to process the input is more easier using digital approach were it
can be read directly to microcontroller unit and absolutely easy to analyze data.
Figure 2.2: Single phase Digital Energy Meter
Single phase digital energy meter as shown in Figure 2.1 is example of
common digital energy meter that being used by household user in Malaysia. In
Malaysia, there are four companies that was assigned by electrical energy provider to
provide energy meter for household use. There are Smart Meter Technologies Sdn
Bhd (SMT), Malaysian Intellligence Meters Sdn Bhd (MIM), Krizik Malaysia Sdn
Bhd (KMSB) and MISA Sdn Bhd (MISA). These four companies are responsible to
produce a digital meter with energy calculation that based on the TNB tariff rates.
As the research area of this project involve the calculation of energy, this
project needs to get advises and guidelines from one of the energy meter provider to
get a clear way and method on how to measure input and calculate energy with
higher accuracy as what they are doing.
8
2.2
Recent Research Project
There are several research project conducted related to this system where the
electricity energy meter was developed digitally using several types of digital signal
processor or microcontroller. The development of these products in research market
shows the variety of system with different way of integrating digital energy meter
based on the function and application involve.
Sudin et. al [9] presented the Digital Household Energy Meter where this
product consist of a digital electrical pricing system which composed of a
communication system that upload usage data from the meter to a central computer
for data processing. The display panel is using computer interfaces developed using
Visual Basic software that connected via RS-232 communication cable to MK-6
Genius, a type of digital energy meter. The idea implement seem to be similar with
the development of this Electricity Cost Calculator Meter device, but it is no
hardware produce because the simulation of the amount cost are calculate internally
using software interfaces.
Eng, (2011) produced a device called Cost Monitoring Digital Power Meter
[10] which is calculating the electrical energy and convert into cost. It is uses the PIC
16F877A microcontroller as the main component used to interface the input and
output. Input of the system is voltage from the supply, current from the load, and
instantaneous time, while the output is LCD display and LED indicator. The 240
volts AC Voltage is being reduced using step down transformer. The measurement of
this device is using Energy Meter Chip that integrates the voltage and current
together before the outputs of the integrated circuit goes to the PIC microcontroller
and produce the output in the form of pulses. The PIC Microcontroller was
programmed using appropriate programming language to give the instruction of
calculating the energy and cost and also controlling the output display and indicator.
However, this system has a problem where the calculating value is not accurate as
the real energy meter did. Observing the problem founds that the transformer used in
this system resulting the high percentage of loss voltage while the input is being
stepped down. Thus, the linearity of actual input and the reference voltage would not
be as accurate as what should it be.