Design of an automatic meter reading system [electricity metering]

A microprocessor-based automatic electricity meter reading system is implemented, which provides cost-effective, reliable and interference free data transfer between remote meter reading units and the electric utility control center. The meter reading and management processes are free from human involvement. Based on the existing telephone networks, it is very flexible for utility companies to access, service and maintain this meter reading system. A user friendly and window-based user interface is designed which fully utilizes the personal computer's terminate and stay resident programming techniques to achieve communications between the remote meter reading units and the personal computers in the electric utility control center. This paper describes the hardware design of the remote reading unit and the software implementation of the communication module and user interface.