A Novel Smart Metering Infrastructure using Virtual Instrument

Objective: This paper describes the use of virtual instrumentation tool - LabVIEW for web based demand side energy monitoring using GSM based wireless data acquisition. Method: The demand side energy monitoring is carried out by microcontroller based system on Time of Day basis. The demand side energy utilization tracked by the microcontroller based system is transmitted using GSM communication to remote metering infrastructure implemented on LabVIEW platform for real time monitoring. The demand side energy utilization information acquired by metering infrastructure can be accessed over the internet using server - client model based communication. The metering infrastructure is designed to provide SMS based customer service regarding monthly energy utilization. Findings: Demonstrates the use of virtual instrument for wireless and internet based automation of energy metering system for functions such as remote meter reading, meter data management, report generation and finally real time and historical trending are realized. Applications/Improvements: The LabVIEW based virtual instrument application can be improved to perform multipoint wireless communication.