Ensuring power quality and demand-side management through IoT-based smart meters in a developing country

Abstract

Population increase and the adoption of new power appliances have significantly increased electrical demands. As a result, the utility (electricity supplier) faces difficulties in maintaining the balance between supply and demand. Further, such supply and demand imbalance leads to frequent load-shedding and a drop in power quality (PQ), predominantly in the developing world. Increasing consumer awareness of energy consumption and implementing efficient demand-side management (DSM) algorithms in a metering instrument can be utilized to avoid such issues. Nowadays, access to the internet in developing nations is increasing rapidly. Hence to solve the existing limitations, the internet of things (IoT)-based smart meter (SM) is proposed and its practical application demonstrated in households in Bangladesh as a case study. The proposed SM primarily serves local and online monitoring, bidirectional data transmission, and DSM at the consumer side by maintaining PQ and peak-clipping. The MySql cloud database is used here for data storage and bidirectional data transmission between consumers and the utility. Web applications are developed for real-time data visualization, enabling consumers to track their hourly, daily, and monthly energy consumption by accessing the web page. The SM data shows that the over-voltage varied (from a nominal 220 V) within 15.45–16.36%, and the under-voltage varied between 10.45% and 11.82% from 220 V. The frequency fluctuations are found to be 2.2% under and 2.4% over the nominal value of 50 Hz (standard is nominal value ± 1%). The experimental result showed that the proposed IoT-based SM could ensure the smooth operation of electrical home appliances by maintaining PQ-related parameters (voltage and frequency) within a standard limit. Additionally, the proposed SM also helps to maintain the maximum pre-defined demand of a household during peak times through an appropriate load-clipping algorithm. The utility company can remotely define peak time hours and maximum peak demands when necessary. The real-life demonstration of the SM's operation advocated that this type of IoT-based SM could be easily adapted to maintain the balance between supply and demand through DSM application, and increase consumers' awareness of energy consumption in developing countries.