F O R M - 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 OF 1970)
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10)
TITLE OF INVENTION
"A system to remotely monitor energy meter/s"
Kishor Madhukarrao Bhurchandi residing at Shreemat Plot No 2, Patil Layout, .S_wawalambi Nagar.Bhamti,Nagpur- 440022 and
Shri Ramdeobaba Kamla Nehru Engineering College having administrative office at Ditti Khadan, Katol Road Nagpur - 440013
The following specification particularly describes the nature of the invention and the
manner in which it is performed
2221 |MUM|2008
1 5 OCT 2008

Title of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system to distantly / remotely monitor electrical energy meter/s.
Background of the Invention
It is imperative to monitor readings of electrical energy meters for the billing purpose. Conventional method for monitoring the remote energy meters, include, systems and methods for online monitoring and billing of power consumption, Computer Controlled Energy monitoring Systems; Intelligent Power Consumption Monitoring and Control Systems, Group metering System for power meters, Such are reported in the following literature
United States Patent no. US 7,054,770 discloses System and Method tor Online Monitoring and billing of Power Consumption comprising systems and methods related to monitoring of energy usage on a power line. In a preferred embodiment, this system comprises (a) an electronic microprocessor-controlled digital electricity metering device coupled to the power line and comprising a non volatile non-battery-powered data-storage device, wherein the metering device is capable of interval metering and of receiving a data request and transmitting data
in response to the request over the power line; and (b) a data collector
(preferably, a transponder) coupled to the metering device via the power line.
The data collector is preferably capable of (i) receiving data from and transmitting
data to the metering device over the power line, (ii) storing data received from the
metering device over the power line, and (iii) receiving data from and transmitting
data to a remotely located computer (preferably, a billing computer).
This is a huge system requiring big infrastructure and expensive to set up while ours is a very low cost solution. This requires power line communication unlike ours requires telephone line communication. The concept is very difficult to

implement specially in Indian circumstances because the power quality in Indian Power System is not as good as USA or UK and the system may not be reliable in India or other countries where the power quality is not that good. This interfaces only electronics meters,(as specified particularly Solid State meters) unlike ours can interface electronics as well as electromechanical meters. Our system is a better low cost solution in Indian like circumstances. This uses A/D Converter for measuring the energy consumption; our system does not have any A/D to measure the energy.
United States Patent no. 4,608,560 discloses Computer Controlled Energy monitoring System; a centralized data communications system incorporating a plurality of remote stations, each having a plurality of information channels associated therewith. A selected remote station and its associated information channels are tone addressed by a central station communicating with a group of remote stations over a respective communications channel. The remote stations may have a current sensor connected to one of the information channels for sending data corresponding to the amount of current sensed in an electrical path back to the central station upon being properly addressed. This data, together with data representative of the voltage on the monitored electrical path, is used by the central station to calculate energy consumption. The calculated energy consumption is retained at the central station and used for information and billing purposes. The central station may also send data to an addressed information channel at a remote station for controlling an operation thereat. The centra! station can also receive data from various parameter measuring sensors at a remote station, e.g. sensors measuring temperature, humidity, fluid flow, etc. which may be connected to other information channels and thus the system may be used as a general purpose data gathering or distributing communications system.
This is a very big, complex, as well an expensive hardware system as compared to ours. This uses A/D converter at the monitoring unit module while ours does

not. This is only suitable for electronics meters unlike ours. No concept of theft detection or meter tampering detection presented. The concept of back-end data analysis is not claimed or presented. This system calculates energy consumptions while our only monitors it. This is a general purpose system not designed for a specific communication channel like ours is for telephone lines. This requires many channels as claimed in the patent document.
United States Patent no. 5,664,202 discloses Intelligent Power Consumption Monitoring and Control System.; An intelligent power consumption monitoring and control system is provided. The system is composed of a computer with management software, a group of communication controllers consisting of transmitters, receivers, and modems and insulators. The communication controller connects to a data exchanger in the user's intelligent meter which is composed of a meter case, a data display, and a PCB board. A buzzer, a select button, and an alarm reset button are designed on the face of the meter case. On the PCB board, there is a single chip microcomputer, program storage, data memory, a transmitter and receiver module, an A/D and D/A conversion module, a theft control, a power line balance detection module, as well as a power supply module. The invention solves many problems in current power supply management and is an effective total automatic power supply management system with a computer network. However, this system is not suitable for electromechanical meters. This requires ADC as well as DAC unlike ours. No communication media is specified while ours is for telephone lines only
United States Patent no 7,236,897 discloses Group metering System for power meters (and system) for monitoring electrical energy consumption by a plurality of proximate users replaces multiple individual user-meters by a single electronic meter. A single computational engine computes consumed energy values by the users and deploys a single subsection set (display, real time clock, and non¬volatile memory) which can be located on a PCB. The system, usable for single or three phase, may be located out of reach from the users to make it tamper

proof. Individual ADCs obtain electrical current values (through current transformers,) of power consumed by individual users and cooperate with a single DSP to compute energy consumption by individual users, readable on a common display in round robin fashion. Differences between the sum of energy values consumed by the users and a consolidated energy reading beyond a known threshold are reported as possible user-tampering. Asynchronous communication ports communicate with display units and AMR modules. However, this is only an advanced metering system and this is not a monitoring system.
United States Patent 20080143554 discloses a remote energy meter system and method is provided having a meter server and a client module located remotely from the meter server. The meter server communicates with the client via a wireless communications link to recover energy production parameter values. The remote energy meter system preferably provides real-time and automated monitoring of at least, energy production and system failure parameters. The major drawback in above invention is that in communicates only via wireless channel
United States Patent 4348730 discloses a system for monitoring electrical energy consumption in a circuit in which signals from the current sensor are correlated with a time signal received from a remote location
The above system suffers from the limitation of not facilitating back end data analysis.
WIPO Patent WO/2007/146053 discloses wireless electrical power metering system is provided A processor having a multichannel power line transceiver, a wireless transceiver, and a power meter attached thereto measures power consumption information on a power line inductively coupled with the power meter The processor converts the power consumption information into IF-based

data, and transmits same over the wireless transceiver The information can be wirelessly received by a remote monitoring station or transmitted across the Internet for storage, analysis, and billing The processor generates appliance control signals and generates same across the multichannel power line transceiver to remotely control appliances in response to power consumption trends The processor provides firewall capabilities, and relays information between a wired or wireless network and a power line network, thereby expanding the size of existing household networks The system may include Global Positioning System (GPS), biometric scanning, emergency alert reception, and environmental monitoring capabilities
WIPO Patent WO/2005/096000 discloses a power meter reader system for automatically reading an indication on a power meter unit having a cyclical property that varies at a rate indicative of power consumption. The system comprises a detection unit that includes a sensor unit for monitoring the cyclical property of the indication and generating a consumption detection signal, a processing unit for generating an information signal based on data related to the consumption detection signal, and a transmitter for transmitting a transmission signal based on the information signal. The processing unit also generates a sensor enable signal to enable the sensor unit for only a portion of the cyclical property of the indication. The system further includes a display unit located remotely with respect to the detection unit for receiving the transmission signal and displaying the power consumption. The detection unit may also employ a prediction model for reducing power consumption in the detection unit.
The above invention does not specify remote monitoring of meters United States Patent 6177884 discloses a quick connect power line metering and communication apparatus and method for measuring energy consumption or other electrical characteristics on a power line and for communicating the measured information to a remote location. The apparatus includes a housing, and a coupling mechanism attached to the housing to physically connect the

housing to a suspended portion of the power line, and to provide an electrical connection to at least one conductor of the power line. A metering apparatus is provided within the housing, and is electrically coupled to the power line conductors via the coupling mechanism to measure energy consumption. The metering apparatus includes a current monitor and a voltage monitor to measure the energy consumption on the power line. A communications apparatus is provided within the housing, and is electrically coupled to the metering apparatus. The communications apparatus communicates information corresponding to the measured energy consumption to a remote location. The necessary usage of power line in above invention leads to power consumption. The above invention again suffers from limitation of having or facilitating only wireless commnication.
United States Patent 5631636 discloses a remote meter reading system includes a remotely accessible meter interface unit. The meter interface unit is operable in an activated mode and in an inactivated mode. The meter interface unit is periodically activated to monitor a communication channel to detect whether there is communication activity. When communication activity is detected, the meter interface unit is operated in a message monitoring mode to monitor the communication channel. When a message addressed to the meter interface unit is detected during the monitoring period, the meter interface unit is placed in an activated mode for an extended time period to process communication signals. If no communication activity is detected when periodically activated, or if no message addressed to meter interface is detected during the monitoring period, the meter interface unit is placed in an inactivated mode. The above invention does not facilitate the back end data analysis
WIPO Patent WO/1995/024027 discloses a remote meter reading system includes a remotely accessible meter interface unit The meter interface unit is operable in an activated mode and in an inactivated mode. The meter interface unit is periodically activated to monitor a communication channel to detect

whether there is communication activity. When communication activity is detected, the meter interface unit is operated in a message monitoring mode to monitor the communication channel. When a message addressed to the meter interface unit is detected during the monitoring period, the meter interface unit is placed in an activated mode for an extended time period to process communication signals. If no communication activity is detected when periodically activated, or if no message addressed to meter interface is detected during the monitoring period, the meter interface unit is placed in an inactivated mode . This system does not facilitate the back end data analysis
Necessity to develop a system which is simple to operate, easy to install and cost effective is constantly felt
Summary of the Invention
The main objective of the invention is to provide a system to moniter
more than one energy meters simultaneously, which are located remotely, and in
the near vicinity
Another objective of the invention is to provide system monitering remotely both, the electronic and electromechanical energy meters, but is not limited to it
Another objective of the invention is to facilitate the back-end analysis of the data monitored and thus detect theft or any other irregularities in respect of energy meters
Yet another objective of the invention is to provide telephone line communication chanel, but not limited to it for the monitoring the energy meters
Thus in accordance with the invention, the present system to monitor one or plurality of energy meters simultaneously comprising a central processing unit

configured with a microcontroller based circuitry comprising peripherals, timers, registers that is operably connected to energy meter/s to- be monitored; communication means interfaced with the said microcontroller
wherein the said central processing unit operates via said microcontroller based circuitry so as to communicably linked with the said energy meter/s at a specified time interval to collect real time data from the said energy meter/s so as to prohibit irregularities with respect to energy usage and related accounting of the
same.
Description of the Invention

The nature and working of the system would clearly be understood with reference to the following description and schematic diagram
The system mainly contains a microcontroller unit that is to be attached with every energy meter 1 that is to be monitored. A communication channel 2 may be in the form of a telephone landline or wireless link to the area power distribution authority office. A central processing unit preferably computer located at the area office 3 will monitor every meter 1 periodically as per the provided program and list of the telephone numbers sequentially and stores the data into a database, that can be analyzed using any data base software
Each Area billing office 4 is supposed to have one computer to scan all its subscribers. The billing office 4 is also supposed to have a dedicated telephone line for monitoring the subscriber's energy meters 1. Each subscriber is also supposed to have a telephone number so that the area billing office 4 computer will call the number for Automatically getting the meter reading and other related data for the subscriber. The subscriber unit Sn contains the energy meter and a microcontroller unit that reads the meter reading converts it into a suitable format. The microcontroller unit also identifies the caller number and on receiving a call

from the area billing office 4 computer, it will send the information to the Area office 3 computer. The general telephone line used for this purpose can also be used for normal communication as usual. If a telephone line is not available mobile communication channels may also be used for this purpose. A single telephone line or mobile channel can also be multiplexed between more number of subscribers. The data thus obtained can be analyzed for detecting the thefts or other irregularities in the power consumption. The system operates in steps of: recording previous instance reading from the flash memory of the central
processing unit; initializing registers timers and interrupts; authenticating the caller identification; acquiring data, in particular energy consumption reading from the energy
meter that is communicably linked with the central processing unit via
controller; processing the said energy consumption readings
In one of the embodiments the said energy meter/s are located at remote locations.
In another embodiment the said energy meters are of electronic and/ or electromechanical type.
In yet another embodiment the said central processing unit is communicably linked via wired and/or wireless means.
In yet another embodiment the said central processing unit is further configured with the processing units that are distantly located in various areas /zones.
The system design requires, microcontroller based subscriber unit design and computer software for communication between the Area billing center and the

subscribers' units. At the back end it will also require a database analysts support. Thus the work involves Microcontroller hardware and software design, Computer communication software in a programming language like JAVA but not limited to it and database analysis software either in JAVA or ORACLE but not limited to it.
Thus it is evident that the synergistic combination of Microcontroller hardware and software design results in selectively and simultaneously monitoring of the energy meters the user end and also back - end analyzing of the data so monitored.

We claim
1. A system to monitor one or plurality of energy meters simultaneously
comprising a central processing unit configured with a microcontroller
based circuitry comprising peripherals, timers, registers that is operably
connected to energy meter/s to be monitored; communication means
interfaced with the said microcontroller
wherein the said central processing unit operates via said microcontroller based circuitry so as to communicably linked with the said energy meter/s at a specified time interval to collect real time data from the said energy meter/s so as to prohibit irregularities with respect to energy usage and related accounting of the same.
2. A system to monitor one or plurality of energy meters simultaneously wherein the said energy meter/s are located at remote locations.
3. A system to monitor one or plurality of energy meters simultaneously wherein the said energy meters are of electronic and/ or electromechanical type.
4. A system to monitor one or plurality of energy meters simultaneously wherein the said central processing unit is communicably linked via wired and/or wireless means.
5. A system to monitor one or plurality of energy meters simultaneously wherein the said central processing unit is further configured with the processing units that are distantly located in various areas / zones.
6. A system to monitor one or plurality of energy meters simultaneously operating in steps of:

ecording previous instance reading from the flash memory of the
central processing unit; initializing registers timers and interrupts; authenticating the caller identification; acquiring data, in particular energy consumption reading from the
energy meter that is communicably linked with the central
processing unit via controller; processing the said energy consumption readings