Automated Load Shedding and Notification to the Consumers using GSM

The development of the load shedding and notifying the customer about the load shedding using GSM, according to the timings which is set in the Python GUI running on the PC is discussed in this paper. And also for reading electrical energy consumed by the user in units and this data is also provided to the electrical department (Power Grid) using GSM technology for billing purposes. Power Grid can send the monthly bill amount over SMS to the User. Once the user get bill amount on his mobile, he has to pay the bill before due date, if he fails the power to the User is made cut off by sending an SMS to the Unit installed at the User side. The proposed system integrates a Global Service Mobile (GSM) Modem, withstand along PIC Microcontroller. A Python GUI will be running on the PC which is used to set the START Time and END Time for each area, this time is then used by the PIC microcontroller to turning ON/OFF the supply in specified time intervals to each area. The GSM alerts to concern Consumers of that area immediately about when the power supply will be provided again to that area. An Alpha numeric LCD is used to display the Current local time, Status of the System and the Units used. Another feature of this project is that it will give notification to the subscribed farmers about the Three Phase availability.

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The movement to reduce power usage and energy consumption among both consumers and businesses has never been stronger. A growing economy, rise in population, and increased investments all put a high demand on electricity consumption which cannot be met from the present capacity. One year of energy consumption can now beat the energy production rate of the previous half-century. Demand response instead relies on specific devices, to reduce power, ON or completely shut down high-energy-usage machines and components during peak demand times, or otherwise balance, usage between high- and low-demand cycles. This strategy is often referred to as load shedding. Load shedding is designed to distribute the available power to consumers by turning off one area and supplying another, in an attempt to serve all the customers. If it is used effectively, can help both the utility company and the customer to conserve energy and reduce costs. This helps to reduce brownouts, which can occur when energy usage exceeds the amount of energy that is available. Managing the power consumption and more evenly spacing it allows power companies to avoid scaling for additional power production. The energy provider is responsible for signaling that it’s time for customers to make the necessary adjustments to power-consuming devices. This is accomplished by directly notifying customers about load shedding time interval. Till now to generate the electricity bill man power is used and also to cut off the power, if the User fails to pay the bill on or before due date, again man power is required. Once user pays the bill, to get the power connection back he might required waiting a day. The proposed system is designed to address all these problems efficiently and avoids manual intervention in generating electricity bill and to automate the power cut off and power connection to the user.

The common practice for load shedding actions is executed when there is a distribution network disconnection from the main grid either by opening the primary circuit breaker at a transient event occurring in the grid (e.g. significant grid frequency variations). To design a load shedding scheme, the extent of system overloading has to be identified in the first instance. However as a matter of fact, such identification may be a challenging task that both the loads and generation in the distribution network are varying all the time. Besides, power production from various DGs, especially renewable, is less predictable and controllable compared to the conventional generators with spinning reserves. This may lead to imprecise load shedding actions. Therefore, a load shedding scheme should be well designed to perform the correct extent of load curtailment and to avoid the maloperations. The GSM/GPRS radio modem is capable to communicate using all standard frequencies: 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz respectively. Also, the modem allows automatic searching and selection of the desired frequency bands through common AT commands implemented is software routines. The AT commands are sent to the radio module as short text strings and represents a common method of control for modem applications. The transmission power used in our application is imposed by the radio modem which can operate in two modes: Class 4 with 2W in GSM 850 and 900MHz and Class 2 with 2W in DCS 1800 and 1900 MHz bands. It is used as a general packet radio service (GPRS) with multisport connectivity