Design of an economical and reliable net-metering device for residential consumption measurement using IoT

Abstract

With the proliferation of decentralised power generation technologies and smart grid infrastructures, residential renewable energy generation (REG) has burgeoned to become intrinsic to modern power grids and is expected to play a fundamental role for the realization of netzero energy buildings to cater to the ever-escalating energy demand. The integration of domestic REG into the utility grid necessitates a medium of intelligent devices to perform net metering operations. Henceforth, we propose one such cost effective smart net-metering device for household REG systems with in-built wireless bi-directional communication based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Net metering operations are implemented using a microcontroller to synchronously collect, analyze and transmit data from sensors installed at the utility to consumer and REG to utility sides to both an offline display and an online server via a WiFi module interfaced to the microcontroller. We successfully implemented a prototype device for real-time energy monitoring over a sustained period of time, yielding accurate power generation and energy transfer statistics with remote-control operations. These results demonstrate the considerable potential for the prototype to be a stimulant in catalysing our eventual shift to decentralised power generation.