Four students from the Electrical and Electronic Department of the PDA College of Engineering have come up with an innovative multipurpose device to control the tampering of energy meters and power theft as well as reduce expenditure on manpower by providing automated delivery of electricity bills to consumers.
The final year students, Priyanka P. Kulkarni, Vidyashree M. Holagar, Poornima S. Aldi and Priyanka B. Kulkarni, under the guidance of their professor V.C. Tapali, configured a GSM-based energy meter, which has multiple applications such as a tamper alert. Individual meter readings too can be recorded for the purpose of billing by sitting in the control room at the administrative office.
Ms. Kulkarni said that the device worked on the principle of serial communication. “It is used to transfer data between two systems using single bit data line instead of 98 bit data line of parallel communication.”
She said that the device was much cheaper than that using parallel communication and also enabled two computers located in two different cities to communicate over the telephone. The GSM-based device would be fitted to all energy meters at the consumer point. If the main wire was removed from the energy meter or it was tampered with, a message would be automatically transmitted to the control room for follow-up action.
She said that the device could be used to bill individual connections. Power supply could also be disconnected if the bill was not paid in time, with a simple command while sitting in the control room. Reconnection could also be done in the same manner.
Another project
Another set of students in the same department have come out with a power transmission system whereby power is transmitted using microwaves.
The students, Rahul S. Chalake, Bishnu B. Chettri, Praghna B. Bhavi and Minakshi B. Kare, said that wireless transmission of power would cut down cost of power transmission and also drastically reduce power theft and transmission loss.
