Minimizing Electricity theft using IoT

Published on 18 May 2022. Written by Arihant Sethia

Introduction:

IoT has taken over the world by storm. The internet is everywhere nowadays, with IoT it becomes easier to establish a connection between things. This helps one to store and access data from anywhere in the world. Smart city plans are already on shelves and we can use this technology and incorporate them into our electric meters to make them smart, efficient, and less prone to theft. A smart meter measures the current across both the phase and neutral lines. The readings obtained from both are used to calculate the power consumption by a user. In this IoT project, you will learn to design a system that helps to minimize the electricity theft.

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Components

1. Raspberry Pi
2. Wi-Fi module
3. Energy meter
4. Jumpers
5. SD card

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Working

The hardware and software components are assembled based on the algorithm developed. The code is programmed into the Raspberry Pi and tested using the Wi-Fi module to calculate the energy consumed by the meter. This prevents the theft of electricity and since the project uses IoT, one can survey it from anywhere in the world. The Raspberry Pi communicates with the Energy meter via GPIO pins. These pins get the data from the Energy meter and then sends it to the Pi. The Wi-Fi module interacts with the Pi using IoT. The electric meter uses the technology and calculates the current across the phase and neutral line separately. The readings thus obtained are used to calculate the power that is consumed by the user. The project focuses on preventing the theft of electricity and also contributes to calculating the correct power consumption.

Conclusion

The system uses IoT and this not only helps the user but also helps the government to find any dishonest customer. This reduces the stealing of electricity by the agents impossible. The Raspberry Pi interacts with the Wi-Fi module and sends all the data to the authorized website using IoT. The authorized person can access the data and check if there is any theft of electricity from the government helping them to identify the person behind it.

Future scope

We can upgrade the system with the addition of various elements to the existing system. The supply of current stops when there is attempted theft of electricity by an individual. Since it uses IoT, one can monitor electricity consumption via Smartphones instead of using a system and a dedicated website. Also, if there is any fault in the system, the user is notified about the same using the application. It also allows us to create the bill by ourselves as the entire system can be monitored, one can generate the bill and pay the amount to the concerned authorities.

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Kit required to develop Minimizing Electricity theft using IoT:

• Raspberry Pi

Technologies you will learn by working on Minimizing Electricity theft using IoT:

• IoT

Any Questions?