IoT Enabled Real-time Energy Monitoring and Control System

Electric energy metering infrastructure in many developing countries is limited in terms of its connectivity to the central station and real-time monitoring. To address the problem, there is a need to investigate more advanced means of measuring and distributing electrical energy. In this paper, we propose a real-time load monitoring and control system based on LoRa, that can measure both the quantity (in terms of voltage, current, and power) and quality (in terms of power factor and harmonics) of electricity in real-time, and also provide remote ON/OFF control functionality via an online SCADA server. The solution comprised of a Data Acquisition (DAQ) system based around a microcontroller, a Data Communication Network (DCN) using LoRa Radios, an Online Gateway using a Raspberry Pi, and a Remote IoT SCADA Server to collect and display data. The system is powered by a power line (also being measured) and is back-up by a battery supply to avoid loss of data. The proposed system was validated through simulations on Proteus and MATLAB and was followed by hardware realization. Results are presented for both hardware and software implementations and compared with standard lab equipment. The results show that the system is energy efficient due to LoRa technology and can accurately measure the power consumption parameters for different loads in real-time.