Automatic power meter reading system using GSM network

The development of a GSM automatic power meter reading (GAPMR) system is presented in this paper. The GAPMR system is consists of GSM digital power meters installed in every consumer unit and an electricity ebilling system at the energy provider side. The GSM digital power meter (GPM) is a single phase IEC61036 standard compliance digital kWh power meter with embedded GSM modem which utilize the GSM network to send its power usage reading using short messaging system (SMS) back to the energy provider wirelessly. At the power provider side an ebilling system is used to manage all received SMS meter reading, compute the billing cost, update the database, and to publish billing notification to its respective consumer through SMS, email, Web portal and printed postage mailing. A working prototype of the GAPMR system was build to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of automatic meter reading, billing and notification through the use of GSM network.