Topic > The Problem with Conventional Energy Meters in Pakistan

Pakistan is currently facing an energy crisis as our generation lags behind demand. This is a problem that almost all developing countries face. In Pakistan mechanical energy meters were used in early distribution systems. These meters are susceptible to theft in many ways. Digital energy meter overcomes all the problems faced by conventional mechanical meters. Energy conservation is a big issue in Pakistan as electricity theft is very common. The energy sector is facing a huge problem in revenue collection due to the number of energy thefts and energy leaks. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay One of the main reasons is the conventional billing method which is mostly inaccurate, slow, labor dependent, expensive and above all unreliable. Most of the developed and developing countries choose this billing method to avoid customer non-payment. In Pakistan, meters installed per house or per area are quite expensive. Replacing them in the event of a fault takes time and involves high costs. Then there are several meter readers hired to take monthly readings of these meters which requires huge manpower. With the advancement of technology, machines are taking the place of much of man's manual labor. The most pressing demand in Pakistan is to introduce an automated electricity billing system that would save huge amounts of electricity and help strike the balance between energy consumption and energy production. To improve energy efficiency, consumers and suppliers need to be more aware of energy consumption. With the advent of microcontrollers and Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), the concept of smart energy meters was born, and conventional energy meters were replaced by smart energy meters, which provide the solution to most of the problems of measurement. The smart energy meter solves these problems as it communicates directly with the electricity company and alerts you in case of theft. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Conventional energy meters are error-prone, less efficient, time-consuming and also easy to tamper with. It requires huge manpower to read meters which adds to the costs and conventional meters can be tampered with. The remedy to all these problems is to fabricate a GSM-based smart energy meter with grid metering function. The main purpose of designing this smart energy meter is to enable energy management authorities to remotely access consumer's energy consumption and theft monitoring. The net metering feature allows home consumers who generate solar energy to resell excess solar energy to the utility.