Pandemic and World Automation

Do you know how the pandemic has affected the automation of the world today? The inability to interact with people and work under standard conditions forced the creation of new solutions. A big problem during the pandemic became the reading of non-automated electricity meters, during the pandemic a lot of reading discrepancies began to appear. Students from the TKM College of Engineering came up with a cost-effective and promising solution in this area.

Students developed automatic meter reading (AMR)

Students in the final year of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and MCA faculty have developed an Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system that transforms digital electronic energy meters into smart meters, making them more reliable and efficient. The creators of this innovative idea point out that smart energy meters are popular in countries with smart grids. However, where there are fewer of them and the use of smart grids is not popularized, instead of replacing all digital electronic energy meters with smart meters, they can be converted, which is an inexpensive solution. Using this method, energy consumption records can be collected remotely and sent to a cloud server via Wi-Fi.

Increased automation of billing and data management

A group of young future engineers believe that with the ongoing Kerala Fiber Optic Network (K-FON) project, their idea can be positively received and enter widespread use. The proposed system includes an external circuit that can be connected to existing meters, and readings can be uploaded to a server. A responsive web interface will be linked to the energy meter for automatic billing and management of the collected data. With proper authentication, both service providers and consumers can access the website from anywhere in the world. The total energy consumption and bill can be read via the website. The system will enable consumers to regulate their energy consumption and also contribute to improving the efficiency of the grid. Consumers can use the Android app, an additional feature of the system, for easy monitoring, and can set limits to reduce energy consumption and thus reduce the bill amount.