Vishnu KP

SEETHI SAHIB MEMORIAL
POLYTECHNICCOLLEGE TIRUR
Department of Electronics engineering
AUTOMATIC METER
READING
SEMINAR REPORT
Guided by Submitted by
P I Basheer Vishnu.k.p
[Elecronics Dept] Reg no:17040567
Automatic Meter Reading Dept. Of Electronics
Seminar Report 2 S S M P T C Tirur

SEETHI SAHIB MEMORIAL POLYTECHNIC

COLLEGE TIRUR
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the seminar entitled “Automatic meter reading” is submitted by
VISHNU K P bearing Reg no.17040567 in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of
the diploma in Electronics Engineering of S.S.M POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE, TIRUR during
the academic year 2019-2020.
Staff in charge : Head of department :
Date :
Internal Examiner : External Examiner :

Acknowledgement
First of all, I am indebted to the GOD ALMIGHTY for giving me an opportunity to excel
in my efforts to complete this seminar on time.
I am extremely grateful to Mr. Abdulnasar Kaippanchery, Principal, SSM
POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE TIRUR and Mr .P H Subair, Head of the Department, Department
of Electronics, for providing all the required sources for the successful completion of my seminar.
Also I express my sincere thanks to Mr. V V Shajil Ameer & P I Basheer (Staff in charge)
in for providing valuable suggestions and guidance for the successful seminar presentation
And finally my benefit gratitude is to my “Parents and friends”, and all other teachers who
gave me moral support and encouragement to accomplish task.
VISHNU K P

Automatic Meter Reading Dept.Of.Electronics
ABSTRACT
Automated machine reading systems are a in valuable technological advancement that can
lead to a better standard of living, owing to the fact that metering has become a part and
parcel of our mundane lives. Solves many issues of the traditional meter reading system like
need for human resources, efficiency, accuracy, delayed work, unavailability of customer
during metering visit by employee,etc. Moreover it is more economical and helps to save
energy in a more efficient and effective way. Furthermore it has a very notable advantage of
having the ability to predict the energy demands of the future, starting from every
household to the entire planet. Automated meter reading systems have been implemented
using many different technologies like GSM, ZigBee, PLC, D-SCADA, WiMAX and Hybrid
Technologies that comprises of a mixture of the above. This survey paper describes the
working models, strengths and weaknesses of each technology by considering various factors
like feasibility, cost, reliability, efficiency, maintenance and user experience. This paper not
only surveys the existing Automated Metering systems but also provides an abstract view
of developing the most optimal automated meter reading system.
GENERAL TERMS
Automatic meter reader, Smart energy meter.
KEYWORDS
AMRS, Smart meters, Zigbee, GSM, Scada, PLC, WiMax.

1.INTRODUCTION
Electrical power has become indispensable to human survival and progress which leads to the
enhancement of the people’s standard of life by the introduction of automation in to energy
distribution and management. With the constant development in technology, the need of
automated meter reading system is also increasing. The technology of e-metering has gone
through rapid technological advancements and there is increased demand for a reliable and
efficient AMR system.
The traditional meter reading process involve using the analog meters to collect the data of the
energy consumed and display it either on a number dial or a digital display. The service
provider person comes to the place of the meter and notes down the reading at the end of
every billing cycle. But the traditional meter reading process not only wastes labor human
power, but also is error prone. The procedures of sending the bills to customer are very
laborious and cumbersome. The conventional process is time consuming as well. Another
major problem in this system is that the readings cannot be taken if no one is available at the
home or where the meter is located. The current system does not
provide any scope for the user to conserve energy or does it provide energy consumption
predictions for near future that enables the user to act in a more planned way. There are many
such problems that cause inconvenience to the power provider as well as the consumers. Even
though the conventional meters were replaced with more efficient electronic energy meters
these problems still persist.
Automatic meter reading system is a technology which is used to gather data from energy
metering devices and transfer it to a central station in order to process it for billing purposes.
Automatic meter reading system helps the customer and energy provider to access the accurate
and updated data from the meters. AMR system can fetch energy consumption in a hourly,
monthly, yearly basis on request or even in Real Time. This Real time energy usage can be
seen by the users to control the use of power and be more economical. With the help of the
collected data the service provider will be able to send energy saving ideas to the users.

2.METHODOLOGIES:
2.1GSM Based AMRS:

Among the various implementations of Automated Meter Reading System the main modules
that make difference are the Automated Meter Reading Module and the
Communication Module. The following systems consider the GSM Network

forCommunication purposes. GSM network provides a global coverage across countries
thus enabling communication to every nook and corner without the need to implement a new
communication infrastructure solely for this purpose. Apart from seamless coverage the GSM
technology also provides services like SMS (Short Message Service) and GPRS (General
Packet Radio Service) for requesting and retrieving reading from individual houses back to
the energy provider wirelessly. Moreover the GSM network is a more efficient, reliable and
secure communication standard that is being widely used for more than several years now
without any technical issues. The low cost, simple setup, wide operating distance, less human
intervention are some of the other salient features of this GSM based system. One of the
implementations of this system has a GSM modem andP2C interface card installed inside it
and is interfaced externally through RS232 from which the meter readings are obtained. This
method suggests the tampering of the existing energy meter and integrating a P2C interface
card to it, however the tampering of the energy meter is against the government law in most
countries and could be implemented widely if and only if the existing meters where replaced
by the government. The SMS system is used for requesting and retrieving energy meter
readings from every house at anytime and even for cutting off the electricity connection if
the bill remains unpaid.
The user is also intimated, given feedback and able to check the status of hismeter from
anywhere in the world by using the SMS system. Another implementation of the AMRS as
shown in Fig.1 is very much similar to our previous system but for it includes a RTC (Real
Time Clock) for round the clock time stamping even on power failure (powered by a 3V
CMOS Battery) and EEPROM to store readings history. It also has a PC with GSM Receiver
at the energy provider end that acts as the billing point. AT commands set which stands for
attention terminal are used by energy meter to communicate with the GSM Modem. Both of
these systems provide E-Commerce features like billing, printing, etc and an interface to view
and analyze the history of all billings.

[Fig. 1 Detailed Design Blocks]

2.2 Zigbee Based AMRS:

Zigbee is a collection of communication protocols used to build small personal networks
using low power digital radios. and is based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The range of
average Zig Bee based device is restricted to 10 - 100 meters and can be further extended using
a mesh network of Zig Bee devices. The low cost allows the technology to be widely
deployed in wireless control and monitoring applications. Zig Bee was designed to provide
high data throughput in applications where the duty cycle is low and low power
consumption is an important consideration. The rate of ZigBee is definite with 250 kbit/s, best
suited for intermittent data transmissions from a sensor or input device.The Structure of
WAMRS using ZigBee is shown in Figure 2.ZigBee digital power meter is installed in every
consumer unit and an electricity e-billing system at the energy provider side. The ZigBee digital
power meter is a single phase digital kWh power meter with embedded ZigBee is shown in
figure 2.
ZigBee digital power meter is installed in every consumer unit and an electricity e-billing
system at the energy provider side. The ZigBee digital power meter is a single phase digitalkWh
power meter with embedded ZigBee modem which sends the power usage reading using
information back to the energy provider wirelessly. At the power provider side an e-billing
system is used to manage all received meter reading, compute the billing cost, update the
data base and to be published billing notification to its respective consumer through wireless.
Another way of using ZigBee in automated meter reading system is a system that consists
of control terminal, GPRS module and user metering module. ZigBee network is for short
distance communication, and GPRS is networks for remotecommunication. Clustering
structure is used to reduce the redundancy in data transmission. The software is designed with
the aim of saving energy with every communication protocol. ZigBee devices are cheap,
easy to operate and consumes less energy but they are extremely limited in resources including
processing, memory, and power. They also have a short operating range.

[Fig. 2 Structure diagram of WAMRS.]

2.3AMRS Using SCADA System:

SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) is a system operating with coded signals
over communication channels so as to provide control of remote equipment. It is a
category of software application program for process control, the gathering of data in real
time from remote locations in order to control equipments. SCADA refers to the combination
of telemetry and data acquisition. SCADA includes the collecting of the information via a RTU
(remote terminal unit), PLCs (programmable logic controllers) and IEDs (intelligent electronic
devices), transferring it back to the central site, carrying out any necessary analysis and control
and then displaying that information on a number of operator screens or displays. The D-
SCADA control algorithm and distribution security
monitoring is demonstrated in Fig 3. A system using SCADA isolates and precisely locates
faults and optimize for energy saving. Centralized monitoring and control to manage
multiple facilities from a single location and remote software administration for better control
is possible. Systems using SCADA are prone to network attacks.
2.4 AMRS using Power Line

Communication:
Power Line Communication Systems use the existing power cables as a communication
medium. This ultimately allows us to both control the devices remotely and also retrieve
data from it in a half duplex manner. PLC is like any other communication technology
whereby a sender modulates the data to be sent, injects it onto medium, and the receiver de-
modulates the data to read it. The main advantage of PLC is that the existing wiring can be re-
used. Thus Power Line Communication can be used to transfer meter readings data to the
central servers along with the use of GSM/GPRS. The data from every meter is collected
using PLC. This data is then transferred to a central server using GPRS connectivity. The
server in turn feeds the data to service provider’s billing servers thus creating a totally
automated and reliable measurement and billing infrastructure. Value added services can be
used to send alerts for prepaid users, SMS facility to switch off gas supply, alerts on gas leak
detection and automatic switching off gas supply, credit card payment facility.
The communication between concentrator and collectors is done using Power Line
Carrier(PLC) as shown in Fig 4. A collector is used to store and process the data from
different electric meters with the supervision of the concentrator. A concentrator sends
commands to collector to receive meter readings periodically.

[Fig. 3 AMR based distribution security monitoring and D-SCADA

control algorithm.]
The two major factors causing PLC meter readings unstable are the electric network
signalattenuation and random interference. Because of the attenuation, wave carrier reading
system cannot read meters reliably if there isn’t any relay or anti-attenuation techniques. The
existence of random interference equals to increasing the attenuation of the electric network
and decreasing the receiving sensitivity, if the sensitivity of the meter reading device is
constant. This affects the meter reading system severely. A system using PLC can make use
of existing electrical wires and has a better communication range than wire communication.
PLC is easy to install and maintain. It cannot consistently read the data. The long term

interference on the electric network causes the household appliances to over-heat, motor
output decreasing etc.
2.5AMRS using Wi MAX Technology:

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a wireless communications
standard designed to provide30-40 megabyte-per-second data rates. WiMAX supports
mobile, nomadic and fixed wireless applications. WiMAX brings with it the ability to
transmit over far greater distances and to handle much more data. The reading unit identifies
the disk rotation of the energy meter and the data is stored in a microcontroller. So it is not
required to change the current analog energy meter. An external module is added with the
current energy meter. In the communication unit WiMAX transceiver is used for wireless
communication between meter end and the server end because of its wide coverage area. In the
data receiving and processing unit meter reading is collected from the transceiver which is
controlled by another microcontroller. There is a computer
application that will take the data from the microcontroller. This will also help to avoid any
tampering or break down of energy meter. The conceptual diagram of the proposed system
in shown in Fig 5.This system is cheap, flexible and supports high speed data transfer over
long distances. WiMAX has security vulnerabilities in both PHY and MAC layers,
exposing to various classes of wireless attack including interception, fabrication,
modification, and replay attacks. Weather conditions like rain could interrupt the signal. Other
wireless equipment could cause interference.

[Fig 4.Block Diagram of AMRS Using Power Line Communication.]

2.6Mixed Type
The following system automates the meter reading process by capturing images of the Energy
meter and transferring them to Customers using ZigBee technology. It generates the bill and
sends the current reading and previous meter reading as a SMS to the customer. Mat lab
is used to process the image and get the digits out.C328R serial VGA Camera is placed in front
of the energy meter to capture images which is transferred to The server where the characters
and numbers are recognized. This also avoids tampering of energy meter. For extraction of
digits from the whole image only the digits plate is cropped. It undergoes preprocessing such
as RGB to grey, B/W image & then each digits are segmented. After this, each digit undergoes
the process of grid technique to find the value of this digit with previously stored digits in
database & numbers are recognized easily. This reading gives the current meter reading.
Use of Mat lab renders the system costly. The system consumes less power but has a short
range and low data speed.
[Fig.5 Conceptual Diagram of proposed AMR.]

The following provides two variants of the automatic meter reading system using ZigBee and
GSM: 1.PIC Microcontroller to count the pulses generated by the metering
IC.2.Wireless Sensor Networks(WSN) to detect, process and store sensor output.
In the first system, the metering IC creates the output in the form of pulses which are counted
using the default timer of PIC microcontroller unit. A TTL inverter circuit is used to reverse
the produced pulse before applying to the counter. The PIC microcontroller is programmed
using software interfacing for reading the data from the metering IC. The technology used
to send data to the Base station is ZigBee which in turn uses GSM modem to communicate
with Main EB Station. In the second system, the sensor network consists of multiple detection
stations called sensor nodes (contains transducer, microcomputer, transceiver), each of
which is small, lightweight and portable. The transducer generates electrical signals based on
sensed physical effects and phenomena. The microcomputer processes and stores the sensor
output. The transceiver receives commands from a central computer and transmits data to that
computer. Finally all the data is sent to the main station that broadcast messages of bills of
individual houses, due dates for payments, confirmation of bill payments. WSN eliminate a lot
of wiring which is not in the case of PIC microcontroller which requires a lot of wires. Wireless
Sensor Networks are very expensive compared to PIC’s. WSN is not secure. On the other hand,
there is no major security concern in PIC.PIC have more complex architecture compared to
WSN. The automation of meter reading is achieved using GSM and ARM Controller. The
system uses ARM processor to process the input data, compare the bill and UART for data
exchange with GSM modem. It consists of energy measuring unit for tamper detection, relay
control unit for remote switching of the system, wireless communication module for data
transmission and utility control center at the server side to collect data, process and send
SMS to customer. The system reads the input pulses and after counting specific number of
pulses it increments the internal counter by one which indicates the number of units
consumed. ARM controller sends the no of units to the UART, which is then sent to the GSM
Modem. The GSM modem sends this data to the service provider using SMS. User’s supply
can be disconnected remotely in case of unpaid bills. Data collection and manipulation task is
made fast and easier. The final system under mixed type consists of a remote control terminal,
a GPRS module and a user metering module. .User meter reading module consists of three
parts namely intelligent instrument data acquisition module, data storage and data transfer
module. The data collected is buffered and sent to the remote terminal through wireless
network.

The network structure of remote AMRS in shown in Fig 6.The function of communication
of GPRS module in short distance uses the CC2430 chip and remote communications uses
SIM300 chip. To reduce the redundancy in data transmission, clustering structure is used.
ZigBee network is used for short distance communication, and GPRS is used for remote
communication. They can combine with each other, through the network’s gateway to
achieve a user meter copying to control and transfer in distance. This software is
designed with the aim of saving energy with every communication protocol. This system
is inexpensive, works with water, electricity and gas meters and is greatly secure. The capacity
of the buffer area of data, affect the quality of sending and receiving. It does not support
remote termination of the supply.
[Fig. 6 Network Structure.]

3.COMPARISON
Table 1. Consolidated Comparison of all the Systems

4.FUTURE SCOPE
Though many have tried implementing a country wide AMRS, it is still an unreachable goal,
many factors like cost, feasibility and mainly the need to replace the existing system have
hindered its development. At least in near future, the cost involved in the building of this
system could be minimized by using more efficient technology and commercializing it by
production in a large scale thus reducing the production costs tremendously and hence making
it more feasible to be implemented worldwide. The system could be made more Smart by
allowing the user to check for the power consumption and alert him on his power consumption
and also allows him to turn off the various devices from his mobile application itself hence
conserving energy and saving money. Moreover if real time data feeds of the energy usage
were tracked and stored in a centralized data center it will enable the government or the energy
provider to predict the energy demand trends consequently ensuring uninterrupted supply of
electricity and reducing the unexpected load on the electricity grid making it more tolerant to
failures.

5.CONCLUSION
Based on all the systems surveyed, their advantages and drawbacks, this paper presents the
features that make up an ideal AMR system and provides a overall insight of the various
methodologies applied for AMR so far thus providing a base for further research in this area.
Based on the performance criteria considered, several systems where compared and now we
come to a conclusion that, when it comes to Reliability and Feasibility GSM topped the
charts but when Coverage and Communication protocol used comes in to picture PLC steals t
he stage. Other suggestion would be to include a web/mobile interface that gives a real-time
feedback of the energy consumption, maybe even give the amount of energy consumed by
every device in every room and also give energy conservation tips too, based on the data
obtained. The real-time data thus obtained can also be used to build a prediction model over
it, for predicting the energy demand strends of the future, over any given time period.

6.REFERENCES
[1]H.G. Rodney Tan, IEEE, C.H. Lee and V.H. Mok, IEEE ,
”Automatic Power Meter Reading System Using GSM Network”, The 8th international power
engineering conference, pp.465, IPEC 2007.
[2] Ashna. K, Sudhish N George, ”GSM Based Automatic Energy Meter Reading System with
Instant Billing”, 978-1-4673-5090-7/13©2013 IEEE, pp 65-71.
[3]H. M. Zahid Iqbal ,M.Waseem, Dr. Tahir Mahmood, ”Automatic Energy Meter Reading
using Smart Energy Meter”.
[4] Abhinandan Jain, Dilip Kumar, Jyoti Kedia, ”Design and Development of GSM based
Energy Meter”, International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 888),Volume 47–
No.12, pp. 41-45,June 2012.
[5] S. Arun,Dr. Sidappa Naidu, ”Design and Implementation of Automatic Meter Reading
System Using GSM,ZIGBEE through GPRS”,ISSN: 2277 128X
,International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering,
Volume 2, Issue 5, pp. 321-325,May 2012.
[6] T. Ananthapadmanabha, A.D. Kulkarni, Madhvaraja, and A. P. Suma, ”Automatic meter
reading (AMR) based distribution security monitoring and distribution-supervisory control
and data acquisition (D-SCADA) control”,Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Research Vol. 3(6), pp. 108-120, August 2011.
[7]Poonam Borle, Ankita Saswadkar, Deepali Hiwarkar, Rupali S. Kad, ”Automatic Meter
Reading For Electricity Using Power Line Communication, International Journal of Advanced
Research in Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering,Vol. 2, Issue 3,pp. 982-
987,March 2013.
[8]Tanvir Ahmed, MD Suzan Miah, MD. Manirul Islam, MD. Rakib Uddin, ”Automatic
Electric Meter Reading System: A Cost Feasible Alternative Approach In Meter
Reading For Bangladesh Perspective Using Low-Cost Digital Watt Meter And WIMAX
Technology”.
[9]Manisha V Shinde, Pradip W Kulkarni, ”New Development in Energy Meter Reading
System”,ISSN: 2349-3371,International Journal of Scientific Research and Management
Studies (IJSRMS),Volume 1 Issue 4, pp. 124-129.

[10]S.Arun,Dr.Sidappa Naidu, “Hybrid Automatic Meter Reading System”, ISSN: 2277 128X,
International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering,
Volume 2, Issue 7, pp.361-365, July 2012.
[11]Amrutha Kotasthane,Hate S.G, ”Implementation of Automatic Meter Reading System
Using Wireless Sensor Network”,ISSN: 2278–1323,International Journal of
Advanced Research in Computer Engineering & Technology (IJARCET),Volume 2, Issue
12, pp. 3030-3032,December 2013.
[12]Bharat Kulkarni,”GSM Based Automatic Meter Reading System Using ARM
Controller”,International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering,
ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 5, pp.446-448,May 2012.
[13]Li Quan-Xi, Li Gang, ”Design of remote automatic meter reading system based on ZigBee
and GPRS”, ISBN 978-952-5726-10-7,Proceedings of the Third International
Symposium on Computer Science and Computational Technology (ISCSCT’10),
Jiaozuo,P.R.C.
[14] ZigBee Introduction, Wikipedia article on ZigBee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigBee.
[15]PLC (Power Line Communication) Introduction,
www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=127901

Vishnu KP

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SEETHI SAHIB MEMORIAL

Department of Electronics engineering

Seminar Report 2 S S M P T C Tirur

SEETHI SAHIB MEMORIAL POLYTECHNIC

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

Staff in charge : Head of department :

Internal Examiner : External Examiner :

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2.1GSM Based AMRS:

Communication Module. The following systems consider the GSM Network

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[Fig. 1 Detailed Design Blocks]

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2.2 Zigbee Based AMRS:

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[Fig. 2 Structure diagram of WAMRS.]

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2.3AMRS Using SCADA System:

2.4 AMRS using Power Line

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[Fig. 3 AMR based distribution security monitoring and D-SCADA

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2.5AMRS using Wi MAX Technology:

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[Fig 4.Block Diagram of AMRS Using Power Line Communication.]

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[Fig.5 Conceptual Diagram of proposed AMR.]

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[Fig. 6 Network Structure.]

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Table 1. Consolidated Comparison of all the Systems

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