Design and development of RFID based Multi-User Smart Energy Distribution System at Sunyani Technical University, Ghana

Samuel Jonas Yeboah Et.Al

doi:10.17762/turcomat.v12i3.1852

Abstract

In Ghana families living in large and compound houses desire to have separate energy meters from other occupants. This is because individuals cannot monitor and control the energy consumption of other tenants and results in misunderstanding in energy bill sharing, overcrowding of energy meters on the wall of a building and likelihood of fire outbreak. It is therefore expedient to have a very accurate, efficient and peaceful means of delivering electrical energy to multiple users within a household with just a single energy meter and this has necessitated the introduction of Smart Multi-user Energy Distribution Meter (SEDS). In this paper microcontroller based smart electrical distribution switch that has the capability of allocating independent energy units to several users in a household is proposed. Experiment was done by assigning Energy units of 4kWh, 8kWh and 6kWh to three logging points on the SEDS device representing three different users. A load of 100W was connected representing the consumption of individual user. The results indicate that the rate of consumption is dependent on the total load connected. The SEDS device has different switches allocated to each user which monitor the consumption rate of the user and automatically isolate a user when power gets exhausted which serve the same purpose as several users having different energy meters. However, individual consumption can be monitored and controlled by the user.

Highlights

Ghanaian communities live in large family houses, there is the need for each family or individual to have a separate energy meter to measure and monitor the energy consumption
Utility service providers in Ghana over the years have challenges when it comes to efficient monitoring and controlling the consumption of electrical energy by individual consumers, which is usually achieved through metering
Various individual premises like homes, hostels and other institutions may have more than one user which may result in numerous problems in billing and monitoring of the energy consumption, difficulty in monitoring energy usage of other users, cost of providing extra energy meters and hazard/threat to environmental beauty

Summary

Introduction

Ghanaian communities live in large family houses, there is the need for each family or individual to have a separate energy meter to measure and monitor the energy consumption. Utility service providers in Ghana over the years have challenges when it comes to efficient monitoring and controlling the consumption of electrical energy by individual consumers, which is usually achieved through metering. Various individual premises like homes, hostels and other institutions may have more than one user which may result in numerous problems in billing and monitoring of the energy consumption, difficulty in monitoring energy usage of other users, cost of providing extra energy meters and hazard/threat to environmental beauty. The high demand for separate meters gives rise to an increasing burden on the electricity service providers i.e. The high demand for separate meters gives rise to an increasing burden on the electricity service providers i.e. (in the form of unplanned expenditure, labor, turnaround time stress etc.), the ever-growing demand of energy users and stakeholder expectations

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion