See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283506921

Design and Implementation of AMR System

Using Arduino and Digital Energy Meter

Conference Paper March 2015

CITATIONS READS

0 1,743

4 authors, including:

Umer Khalid
University of Central Punjab
6 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Umer Khalid on 06 November 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Design and Implementation of AMR System Using
Arduino and Digital Energy Meter

Umer Khalid Saqib Ali M. Shahan Qadri Amin Azad

Faculty of Engineering,
University of Central Punjab
1-Khayaban-e- Jinnah
Road, Lahore
umrkhalid@hotmail.com
Faculty of Engineering,
University of Central Punjab
1-Khayaban-e- Jinnah
Road, Lahore
saqib_uet2000@yahoo.com
Sharif College of
Engineering & Technology
Jati Umra, Raiwind Road,
Lahore
m.shahan.qadri@gmail.com
Dept. of Electrical
Engineering, University of
South Asia. Lahore
5-km, Raiwind Road Lahore
engr.aminazad@gmail.com

Abstract Automatic meter reading (AMR) is the remote
assortment of consumption data from customer's utility meters
over telecommunications, radio, power cable and alternative links.
AMR provides water, electrical and gas utility service
corporations the opportunity to streamline metering data and
assortment activities, increase operational capability and
improved customer service. This technique will eliminate the
problems like workforce demand needed for billing and errors
throughout the calculation. The broad list of communication
technology is global system for mobile communication (GSM),
power line communication (PLC), radio frequency (RF) and
others. The one that is employed commonly in AMR is the GSM.
There are several methods to implement an AMR system. In most
of the cases it is implemented using new smart energy meter, which
certainly increase the cost to implement the AMR system. In this
paper, we suggest and successfully implement the AMR system by
exploiting universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART)
channel of metering chip with Arduino for retrieving data from
meter and transmit the data to central unit via GSM. The main
advantage of this method is that it is a low cost system that
produces very encouraging results and can be implemented upon
existing meters without the need of purchasing new meters. The
cost of implementation is low and benefits to utility are immense
Keywords Automatic meter reading (AMR), Global system for
mobile communication (GSM), Power line communication (PLC),
Radio frequency (RF), Universal asynchronous receiver transmitter
(UART), Digital Energy Meter (DEM).
I. INTRODUCTION
AMR system is implemented in various part of the world
[1]. It is designed to provide real time meter reading. AMR
system implemented by several ways[1-3]. AMR compatible
energy meters are available in the international market, but
smart energy meters are expensive. The cost will certainly
increase if we use those energy meters and try to implement an
AMR system.
Industries are willing to exploit the benefits of AMR system
to have optimum use of energy, as the system capable of
providing energy consumption reading on a real time basis.
Local small level industries cant invest huge amounts to
implement the AMR system, they are interested in economical
solution. Our motivation is to implement an economical AMR
system. In this paper, we suggest an AMR system using an
existing digital energy meter, Arduino board and GSM module.
GSM module is used to send data via WAN (Wide Area
Network). Sim900d is very common and easily available GSM
module, and we used it in our AMR system [4]. The suggested
AMR system is the ultimate solution for local small level
industries. It will help them to utilized electrical energy
efficiently. There are numbers of microcontroller available in
the marker that are used for different applications. We selected
Arduino 2560 board because we do need multiple UART
channels and Arduino 2560 fulfills our need and it can also send
serial data with parity as well [5].
In section II we explained the implemented system model
and its key elements i.e. Digital Energy Meter (DEM), Arduino
2560 control board and Sim900d GSM module. In this section
we explained the block diagram of the system as well. In section
III we discuss the communication/process algorithm in detail
using flow chart. Section IV contains the simulation and results
of the system.
II. SYSTEM MODEL
System model of the implemented AMR system is shown in
the Fig. 1. System model mainly consists of three blocks, i.e.
DEM, Arduino 2560 and GSM module. Arduino is the master
unit of the system, it received the text message with predefined
password, and communicates with DEM and gets meter reading
using wired channel. After than Arduino transfer the meter
reading to central unit using GSM module that is also connected
with via twisted pair cable [6]. It can be seen in the Fig. 1 that
there is a bidirectional communication occurs between DEM
and Arduino and GSM module.
Fig. 1. Block Diagram of Implemented AMR System
A. Digital Energy Meter
The meter we are using is electronic single phase energy
meter for the measure of kWh and MDI (maximum demand
interval) that is developed for domestic users. The meter has
high accuracy category one. Current sensors provided on
each phase and neutral wires to record/ measure energy just
in case of various tempering makes an attempt. It has
comprehensive opposing change of state options with
specific LEDs indications on name Plate. Meters for smaller
services (such as small residential clients) may be connected
directly in-line between supply and customer.
B. Arduino 2560 Board
The Arduino being used contains everything needed to
support the system. The main requirement for our project is
that we require multiple UARTS for communication and
also even parity for request packet for meter and hence the
Arduino Mega 2560 is used as it is user friendly too[5,6].
For cost effectiveness, we avoid use of GSM shield with it
to further simplify the process.
C. GSM Module
The GSM module we are using is SIM900D as it
conforms physical condition and required characteristics of
the project and it has dedicated voltage supply so we can
directly connect to constant dc supply such as adapter
without fluctuations in voltage levels to operate GSM.
III. PROCESS ALGORITHM
The flow char of implemented algorithm of AMR System is
shown in Fig.2.
Fig. 2. Flow Char of Implemented Algorithm
The process starts with a user sending request for meter
reading via text to GSM module. The Arduino Mega 2560 reads
and verifies the request is by matching the password in body of
message of the text. If the password does not match it will not
retrieve meter reading. When the user is authenticated, Arduino
sends request packet to digital meter and meter sent back the
data to Arduino, which contains the energy consumed in kWh.
Then that data is transferred to authenticated user via GSM and
user is able to keep track of its current consumption of
electricity.
IV. SIMULATION AND HARDWARE
Fig. 3 shows the waveform of data sent by Arduino to DEM
as the waveform is observed at oscilloscope. Similarly Fig.4
shows the meter data sent by DEM. DEM communicates with
Arduino with baudrate of 1200 with even parity and GSM
communicated with Arduino at 9600 of baud rate. There fore
we use Arduino as it has multiple UARTs and we configured
each serial channel with different baurd rate and parity as well.
Fig. 3. Data Sent to Digital Energy Meter by Arduino
Fig. 4. Data Sent by Digital Energy Meter to Arduino
 wireless ARM-based automatic meter reading and control system in
Power Engineering Society General Meeting, 2004. IEEE.
[10] Liting Cao, Jingwen Tian and Dahang Zhang, Networked Remote Meter-
Reading System Based on Wireless Communication Technology in
International Conference on Information Acquisition, 2006 IEEE.

Fig. 5. Hardware view of Implemented AMR System

V. CONCLUSION
The development of the smart energy meter from static
meter demonstrates the concept and implementation of the
new automatic metering system. Smart energy meters have
low infrastructure cost, low operating costs, more data
security and less manpower required. So it saves a lot amount
of time and energy. Furthermore this can, as whole contribute
towards a smart grid system.The proposed methodology is used
to monitor usage of electricity for all areas by the use of GSM
technology. This method generates the message to the
consumers by the request of consumer at a moment. Automated
meter reading is inevitable. Highly sophisticated and cost
effective changes must be brought into the system to improve
the situation. Our proposed changes in the currently installed
system will improve the system efficiency tremendously with
low modification cost and ultimately consumers can also enjoy
benefits of AMR system . The only negative side of the proposal
is that fewer employees will be needed for billing system thus
shrinking the work force.

REFERENCES

[1] A. R. AI-Ali & M. AL Rousan . M. Mohandas, GSM-Based Wireless

Home Appliances Monitoring & Control System,ieee paper.
[2] Ashna.k, GSM Based Automatic EnergyMeter Reading System with
Instant Billing, 978-1-4673-5090-7/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE
[3] Yujun Bao and Xiaoyan Jiang, Design of electric Energy Meter for long-
distance data information transfers which based upon GPRS, ISA 2009.
International Workshop on Intelligent Systems and Applications.
[4] H.G.Rodney Tan,C.H. Lee,V.H.Mok,Automatic power meter reading
using GSM network, The 8thInternational Power Engineering
Conference (IPEC 2007).
[5] Vivek Kumar Sehgal,Nitesh Panda, Nipun Rai Handa, Electronic Energy
Meter with instant billing,UKSim Fourth European Modelling
Symposium on Computer Modelling and Simulation.
[6] Abdollahi, A. Dehghani, M. Zamanzadeh, SMS-based Reconfigurable
Automatic Meter Reading System in Control Applications, 2007.
[7] Amin S. Mehmood, T. Choudhry, M.A. Hanif, A Reviewing the
Technical Issues for the Effective Construction of Automatic Meter
Reading System in International Conference on Microelectronics, 2005
IEEE.
[8] Bharath, P.; Ananth, N.; Vijetha, S.; Prakash, K.V.J.;Wireless
Automated Digital Energy Meter in Sustainable Energy Technologies,
ICSET 2008.
[9] Chih-Hung Wu; Shun-Chien Chang; Yu-Wei Huang;Design of a

View publication stats