Advanced smart prepaid meter

Periyathambi, Ezhilarasi, Ramesh, L., Jagannathan, Balamurugan and Holm-Nielsen, Jens Bo (2025) Advanced smart prepaid meter. In, G, Senbagavalli, T, Kavitha, N, Amuthan and F.J.J, Joseph (eds.) Cloud Computing in Smart Energy Meter Management. USA. John Wiley & Sons Inc., pp. 371-418. (doi:10.1002/9781394193769.ch13).

Abstract

The conventional power grid faces challenges in the distribution sector, leading to power losses and increased electricity costs per unit. To address these issues, the development of smart grids and automation has become essential. A key component of this shift is played by smart meters, which are advanced meters utilized for remote energy consumption measurement. They provide several advantages, such as effective billing, supply–demand balancing, remote metering, and monitoring. Smart meter deployment benefits energy suppliers, consumers, and society as a whole and helps to accomplish various UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). The development of many types of smart meters with functions beyond the core functionality of smart metering is evidence of the ongoing evolution of this technology. In that transition, prepaid meters have emerged as a variant of smart meters, drawing more attention due to their effective energy management functionalities in addition to conventional smart meter functionalities. Although these additional functionalities offer significant advantages to both energy suppliers and consumers, it is imperative to consider the costs associated with designing and implementing such sophisticated prepaid meters. The design of the prepaid meter becomes more complex as it incorporates more features and capabilities which drive up production and development costs. The combination of these factors may increase the overall cost of advanced prepaid meters, which may sometimes outweigh the direct benefits associated with their deployment. So, there is a need to develop a cost‐effective strategy to address the aforementioned challenges. Consequently, in this work, a cost‐effective prepaid meter design approach with advanced metering functionalities is proposed, developed, and tested in real‐time scenarios to mitigate the aforementioned challenges.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Download statistics