Design and Implementation of LoRaWAN-Based Smart Meter System for Rural Electrification

Abstract

The urge to manage daily energy consumption has now become a worldwide priority. The Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart meter has been widely used to monitor energy consumption in many households. LoRaWAN connectivity is confirmed to be one of the most reliable connectivity to be used as a network system for IoT use cases. It can fulfill the needs of low power, long-range, efficient, and affordable IoT technology in utility energy monitoring. LoRaWAN-based smart electric meters are designed in rural areas for monitoring and managing electric energy consumption. The smart electric meter system consists of smart kWh meters, LoRa gateway, network system, and dashboard for energy usage monitoring. The system design process consists of feature design, architecture design, data flow design, LoRa gateway site planning, and platform setup. The implementation can be concluded that LoRa can be used for smart electric meters in rural areas. A gateway can reach a maximum distance of 1.58 km, with an RSSI of -99.40 dBm ±4.56 dBm. LoRa gateway availability can reach 100% by implementing gateway protection systems. The LoRaWAN-based smart electricity meter has also proven to be costoptimized, efficiently reducing monthly costs to 92.12%.